Your inspiration photo is super cute! I love the yellow and white combo.

Have you considered extending your hardwoods into the kitchen instead of tile? That’s what your inspiration photo shows and it’s a great look.

Definitely something to consider! I don't love the existing hardwood ( I don't hate it either) because it is a high gloss finish but it runs through my entire house upstairs and downstairs so I thought switching out the tile would be easier. Also just because we are a sloppy house (4 kids, 2 adults and slobbery pets) I worry about water durability of the hardwood in the kitchen. Something to ponder though! Thanks again.

personally if its just tile for tile switch..I wouldn't.....find an island color that works w your tile floor...there are many colors. why pick a strong yellow color that doesnt work w a surface that technically is what you will end up with ......except for a new shade???? blue island/green island and just keep the floor. maybe do the yellow paint anyway and just leave the floor . its not a great blend w the floor but so what if you are dead set on the yellow. TILE from FRONT ENTRY into KITCHEN [ if its going to be replaced] due to yellow/white cabinetry paint and gray veined counters...I'd go w a SLATE look.

I do not agree the tile IMO does not work with the other choices you are making. I do however agree that bringing the hardwood into the kitchen would be my choice . Wood floor finishes are pretty tough and if you wipe up spaills and slobber it stands up well. I think it would also look awesome with the white and yellow. The only comment I will make is please do not install fake plastic stone , there are so many nice real stones for counters . I also always suggest all the lighting to be LED 4000K in kitchens .

Thank you! i agree the wood looks bettter with the inspo design. And yes, will definitley be going real stone, I was not considering anything plastic at all

your plan sounds fun, especially with kids & pets in the house!

How about a large format patterned tile?

Hmm i hadnt thought of a large format pattern tile, could you attach a pic of what you mean? thanks!!

This may expand the scope of the project more than you want, but since you don't love the current wood floor finish, what about doing hardwood in the kitchen, similar width and species to what you have, then refinish the current floors at the same time. You could get it to all look fine together. Then switch out tile in just the entryway, but you'll be much less restricted if you're not trying to coordinate with everything in the kitchen. It is nice to have a tile surface at least inside the front door. (Love the suggestion of slate-look)

I have had tile in one kitchen and wood in two, and I vastly prefer the wood. Modern finishes are durable, no issue with kids or pet food. It's nice to not have everything that's dropped immediately shatter.

@krdpm im attaching pics of the entry to dining/living area on right and kitchen on left. Would you have the hardwood start at the entry to kitchen from from front door/hallway? Thanks!

I don't know who decided wood floors in a kitchen is a good idea they obviously never cook, have kids or pets. If I were you I would go for a tile looks like wood so you can mop up spills. Wood flooring in a kitchen is like carpet in a bathroom.

“I don't know who decided wood floors in a kitchen is a good idea they obviously never cook, have kids or pets.”

Thousands of people on this site, have wood floors in the kitchen. That includes people who cook a lot and have hard working kitchens, children of all ages, and those who have dogs of all sizes, and cats. Do a search. There are many threads extolling the ease of care, and continued good looks of their wood floors.

Wood floors are also much easier on the legs and back, than tiled floors. There’s less breakage of falling plates and glasses, on wood. A good quality wood floor can be refinished, if needed. And, as far as young children go, wood is far safer to fall on, than hard, tile floors.

I’d never had wood floors, until we renovated the house we moved into, 7 years ago...and, I’m of Medicare age. I was under the same impression you are, about wood in kitchens.

In reality, nothing could be farther from the truth. Wood floors are soooo easy to care for. My husband is the main cook here, and messy as they come. Chopped food particles and liquid spills wind up all over the floor. He wipes up nothing…because the mess doesn’t enter his consciousness. It could be hours later, that cleanup occurs. And yet, the floors…site finished white oak, still look great. A vacuum, a modern cleaning pad on a broom-like handle, and Bona for wood floors…and the floors are brought back to their pristine state.

@Katherine Canon, you sound like someone with no actual experience with wood floors in a kitchen. Making broad statements as you did, is not a good look.

My kitchen, which has housed multiple kids throughout the last 100 years, has the original wood floors that look far newer and less marred than the home’s original tile floors. These floors have not been refinished in all the time I have lived here with many kids and pets. I moved in over 18 years ago.

I too have hardwood throughout including the kitchen and entryways. No problem at all, including the entryways in a Canadian winter and spring with lots of snow and slush, you just need a good winter entry mat.

I absolutely love having hardwood floors in a kitchen. I've always had them with dogs, messy kids, messy husband. We moved into a home that has tile floors in the kitchen. And it just made more sense to leave them since they are attractive and were newly installed. But I'll say, I don't like having to clean grout and have found hardwood floor much easier to maintain. I've never had them stain despite all the messes. They are just easy to wipe up. And, I think they would look great with your sunny inspiratin pic.

The current tile goes well with existing cabinets and flooring and would be quite the mess and expense to change out. Then you'd have to change out the backsplash, which is currently in sync with the tile. To me, what doesn't work is your proposed yellow island, bright white paint in that photo, and current blue wall paint everywhere else. If keeping tile, best wall paint and paint for some of the cabinets and island would be palest shade from the tile background, which looks warm on my screen. (I just took a look at your dining room paint. That seems to be a lovely warm wall paint that could tie all the spaces together. Right now, the blue wall paint breaks up everything. Then add great indoor outdoor rugs over the tile in warm colors that can take some canine and human foot traffic and add color and pattern to the space. The palette of this runner would coordinate floor tile, cabinets, backsplash.

Surya Wanderer Wrr-2003 2'6"x8' Rug · More Info

To get away from the hardwood in kitchens wars and back to the OP's original question:

The kitchen you're using as inspiration has ultraclassic bones (cabinetry and appliance style, counters, floors, hardware, and lighting) with an injection of fun (yellow!). So to get what you're looking for, your floors should be ultra classic too. With that in mind:

Tile/stone options: checkerboard (maybe a bit zany with the yellow, but can look fabulous in the right house); random-width bluestone; limewashed thin brick herringbone; slate; encaustic tile (some of this depends on the rest of your house/geography; encaustic tile would make sense in CA or FL but not MA)

Wood: I do think the best and cleanest look would be to put in wood and refinish the rest of your floors to something you like. That is hugely inconvenient (you have to remove all furniture and can't have carpets etc. on the floors for a while) but not hugely expensive. In fact, it could be not much more than some of the more expensive tile/stone options for just your kitchen.

@HU-918119203 thank you! I am leaning towards extending the wood into the kitchen. I want to avoid having to refinish my stairs and upstairs which are the same wood pictured and are visible from the front door. I have 2 questions

1) would it look strange to have a different looking refinished wood in kitchen/dining/living area when you can see the previous wood at entry that goes up/downstairs? (i think I could still get this same hardwood that is in my living space, so i could theoretically go that route also and avoid the refinishing step)

2) Would you switch to the wood at the entry to the kitchen and keep the front hall and entry tile?

thanks so much the guidance here!

If you can afford to replace the entry way tile with would I think it would look nicer. Sorry I can't answer where to transition from old to new but I'm sure others have the answers.

Sam P - I would agree that having wood in the entry would be good. As for the interface with the stairs - what I would do is have the banister and stair string painted (probably white). I think that would eliminate the most visible area you'd have different wood stains. If you got a runner on the stairs, that also would minimize the visible difference between floors. Sometimes people will only refinish the visible sides of the stairs if they are going to install a runner, which would allow you to continue to use the stairs during the refinishing process, if that's a concern. You could always go in and have the stairs refinished after this project is done if you don't like it - that's something you can schedule while you're on vacation to avoid disruption.