The first flaw in your plan is vinegar and water, and a DIY hone. You will need a pro, at about 10.00 per square foot to hone a new marble.

Marble has been on floors for CENTURIES. Only you can decide if the natural patina is for you.

Nobody can advise as to your selection., or the attempt at a match in your space. Buy a box of tile, have it professionally honed, and lay it out as a test.

I agree with all of that but why not do wood to amtch the other floor. I do not like a big mix of flooring in a home and as much as I love real marble I like a bit softer flooring underfoot to save my knees and back.

Even if you get it honed, you're still going to have etches and stains from splatters and spills. If you won't be bothered by that and the rustic look works with the kitchen and the adjoining spaces, go for it.

Martha Stewart has reclaimed marble flooring in one of her kitchens. You can see photos of it in this post about her regrouting it: https://www.themarthablog.com/2024/02/grouting-my-marble-kitchen-floor.html

My opinion? Normally love Martha, but it looks pretty awful.

All I know is that my parents remodeled a bathroom and added marble floors in the 1980's. She regretted the patina and maintenance as soon as it was installed!

Best bet is to find a marble tile that already comes honed from the quarry/manufacturer. These two higher end suppliers will definitely have them.

www.countryfloors.com

www. artistictile.com

You remind me of me. I get an idea, think it might be great except for A. I’ll do something to fix A. Oh, and B. Maybe I can source something without B. OK, I forgot about C. By the time I get a chance to reflect there are so many alterations and drawbacks to the plan it bears no resemblance to the original idea. I've learned that if I have to tie myself in knots to make something work, it's not the right solution, it’s not going to look like I had hoped, and the juice is really not worth the squeeze.

Don’t get me wrong, necessity is the mother of invention, but you’re not stuck with this tile, you are thinking about choosing it (and altering every piece). You are choosing it because it matches tile in your entryway. That’s not a great reason, and like the houzzers above, I think you can make a better choice.

I would choose hardwood over tile any day of the week. Tile is hard to stand on, as I realize every year when I cook Thanksgiving dinner in my sister’s kitchen. If it is possible to stretch the budget, I’d run the same hardwood where you have the parquet, but if you can’t do that, choose a finish that matches it as Patricia recommends. If it must be tile, consider wood look porcelain tile. It comes in squares as well as planks and you can evoke the look of the parquet by alternating your grain direction. Good luck with your floors!

I love the idea of honed marble floors, in certain spaces. To me, the fact that it’s in squares and not a slab like countertops, it shows fewer problems. My son and DIL did a carrera white/grey checkered honed marble in their foyer. It’s been over 2 years, and it gets a fair amount of use. I noticed a couple small chips, and no stains. A couple minor etches from…who knows. It’s gorgeous. I noticed today that it was wonderful to walk on with bare feet. And I may be wrong, but I think the lighting and it being a floor surface, these minor problems show less than on a countertop. I have polished marble (previous owners) in my other house and it’s quite etched and chipped. It shows a lot. That said, I’m considering honed marble countertops and will accept these possible problems.

Even if you hone it, it's probably going to be slippery. I'd pass for that reason.

"the juice is really not worth the squeeze."

I'm stealing that one: )

xoxoxoxoxoxox

I was just about to type that ! ^^^ LOL What a great line.

Not sure what size squares you are doing, but the marble place I deal with has 12 x 12 botticino honed so you don't have to have someone do it. Maybe look into that.

There are also really nice porcelain tiles that look good too in case you don't want the maintenance of marble.

Good luck!

I 2nd what Debbi said. I also wanted a marble floor for my bathroom and realized it just couldn’t work for my space. I went with what looks exactly like the 2nd photo Debbi shared, except mine is 12x24.
Here’s a direct link to the tile I selected. Mine hasn’t been installed yet, but hopefully soon.

https://www.daltile.com/products/Stone-Look/Calgary/Legacy

Thank you all, it gives me things to think about. I cant do wood in the kitchen except floating which we hate (its way the house is built and my other half hates wood in kitchen so theres that compromise, in addition the 5 finger parket has a yellow tint so installing fake wood tiles would look totally out of whack) we will be talking to a professional marble guy in the coming days. I am aware of the staining/scratching issue but assuming its honed it can be less visible, id dint realize it would chip . We are also looking at the rustic ciment tiles with the different patterns, or just a cream or offwhite format but then it shows to much dirt with pets and dust where we live). It really needs to be something with a warmer look that can work with the existing parquet and marble (as much as I hate the parquet it needs to stay)

Three floors? All different? No. Not a good look.

The professional marble guy isn't going to lie. It might make a lot more sense to bite a bullet, look for a porcelain tile and unify ALL the flooring.

You might post pictures of exactly what you have as of this moment. Perhaps explain why ONE of the two existing floors could not be removed, unless budget, meaning wait until you can do it right.

Someone here has a black-and-white, or maybe it’s grey-and-white checkerboard marble floor in the kitchen. Gorgeous. Does anyone recall who that is? (I’d do a search but my search skills on Houzz are abysmal.)

If you go with natural stone you need to know if your floor joists can handle natural stone. There is a measurement for deflection. It bit me in the @ss during my remodel and required some reinforcing of floor joists.

@ Cookie Montgomery yes that can be a problem but the house is concrete so it doesnt have floor joists as such. Its concrete slab so the weight works but to get thick materials the slab has to be shaved. Most tiles are fine for thickness (under 9mm) but real wood flooring for example cant just be glued down because the way wood expands and such, thats why they used parquet (seriously if there is ever a 3rd war I can live in the basement as the floor is about 30cm of armed concrete (i guess thats what you call it) :D

@ JAN MOYER yes I agree but 3 floors different is hardly the issue, we are dealing with 8 textures on 2 levels and the house uses concrete slab so its not a matter of laying hardwood and some of the existing tile cant be removed easily which means we cant tile on top of it without having to redo the slab. Being its a character house, we are trying to retain some of the original features and remove others that we cant live with (for example the se. xy 70s backsplash has been removed and we will be removing the lino that was installed at the time (sadly thats 100% mode now but it doesnt go). We also love the staircase (personal taste of course ) and its covered with marble so it is staying. The parsuet of course willl be refinished. I think in america you have no problems with choice of materials but in france where I am, its not the same and costs are nowhere near what you can get in the states (the house has over 180m2.

I don't have any suggestions but I wanted to say that the exterior of your house is fabulous.