I'm in Seattle too and was just at a showroom in Redmond (northwest stone fabricators). They had a tile floor that had all the grains and look of a gorgeous wood floor. Multiple colors (including lighter colors). It's stunning. Call Marcie and make an appointment. :). Good luck.

Are these real tiles? We apparently would have to get a new subfloor to put in real tile, which would greatly add to our cost of flooring. We are trying to stick with resilient since we want something soft and we have two doorways that this floor leads to. One of them is the garage where my husband works on his two classic Mustangs. Just out of curiousity, if you don't mind my asking, can you give me the approximate cost of your floor that you got there? At least, I am assuming you bought a floor there. If you don't want to say, that's fine, too.

I would go with the larger square tile.

I'm in Upstate NY, which is second only to the Northwest in number of dreary, cloudy days. I put in a dark gray tile floor with dark gray grout because of all the wet and dirt that gets tracked in from the door to the garage. Will the cream floor you're considering show dirt? I'd try to go for a color or pattern that hides dirt, especially if it's off the garage.

Okay, maybe neither of these work. I think I will get some Alterna tiles and see if those will work for me. I will have to do some research and find out if they are sturdy. I think I have heard good things about them. Otherwise, yeah, I think the large tile is a sturdier floor since it is in the Armstrong Duality series. The diagonal one seems to me to be kind of dreary and not as sturdy since it is Flexsteel and I have heard some people talk about how they have had their floors rip when they move chairs, etc. I am just so confused!! It is so hard to find a floor. There is almost too must to choose from. But, thank you everyone for your opinions.

Yes, large tiles with small grout lines are the look. Ease of cleaning is paramount now because we've all lived with tiled countertops and floors and never again!

I think Alterna is a good alternative for spaces where you can't use ceramic tile or hardwood. We put 18 x 18 Alterna tile in our guest bath last week. We had it grouted with an 1/8 " line. The grout is acrylic, so it's not hard to clean like sanded grout. Once down, it looks like the porcelain tile in our kitchen. It does have a rougher texture than sheet vinyl or ceramic tile, which I think is good for a bathroom and possibly a kitchen. I don't know how easy it is to mop yet since we're still painting.

Okay, does anybody like these 16" Alterna tiles in my kitchen? I don't know if I should have them laid diagonally, too, since they will go into a smallish bathroom and laundry room? I would appreciate anybody's opinion since I am totally confused about this. Thanks! Oh, May_Flowers, I sure would love to see a pic of your bathroom with the Alterna since I will have to do the same thing. Do you get to choose how much grout to use? I will be paying someone to lay these for me. Did you do it yourself?

Here is a link that might be useful: 2 New Alterna Tiles to Choose From

This post was edited by pam533 on Wed, May 8, 13 at 19:59

Is that second one Multistone? We used the lightest one--white and gray tones. I think the grout choice is between 1/16 and 1/4". The information is on their website in the DIY instructions.

We had a local flooring store install it. It's pretty straight-forward to install, but we didn't want to mess around with DIY for something as important as flooring and wanted a flooring company to back us up if there are problems.

I think diagonal might be nice to create interest if you're considering a quiet tile like Multistone. We laid ours straight since we wanted a calm feeling and didn't want the floor to be the focus in our small bath. I'll see if my DH will take a photo, but he said it's hard to photograph white.