There are several topics concerning this exact conundrum on Houzz right now. We need to create a section on Houzz just for Wood floors in the kitchen. :-D

I have a pool. The chemicals tracked in on our feet would destroy the finish on our hardwood. We went for tile in the kitchen, much more practical decision.

Hardwood floors look great! Most people just don't like the maintenance that comes along with it, and honestly its not heavy maintenance, its just more than what they are willing to do. With hardwood you can't just use any and everything on the floors, they can get damage. It takes a certain person to keep them up correctly, someone who actually cares about the quality of their home.

I replaced my tile with hardwood. Never regretted it. Would never have tile ever again. The wood cleans so much nicer than grout and doesn't kill my legs.

When I moved into my 1900 house two years ago, there was filthy, ratty carpet and chipped tile. Underneath we found lovely wood (we hoped). It’s refinished now and the first comment anyone makes is how wonderful the wood floors look.

I simply don't like wood floors - usually too dark and diminishing. I'm a white kitchen lover - white everything.

Got rid of the almond 1980's tile floor and put down white oak, same as the rest of my house. LOVE it! Now putting oak down in my Fla. kitchen redo, along with glossy white IKEA Akrum cabinets. The tile stores kept telling me "nobody does wood floors in Florida" but then I found one that sells both tile and real wood (not manufactured or laminate). Same price as tile and I can't wait to do it. Wood is warm, easy on your feet, and if you drop something it sometimes bounces instead of breaks:-). Plus, no tile to crack.

I have it. It's original to my 1916 kitchen ...... just need it sanded & sealed. One of these days....

@dawnstrazzeri
"Wood is too much work and gets worn"
Mine is nearly 100 yo & is still beautiful. Cheap wood gets worn.

@Molly! You are my HERO! I choose them carefully :0)

Yes, and no. Depends on the room layout. If the kitchen bleeds into another room (ie family room) keeping the wood maintains the flow. If you want to divide a space and the configurations of the kitchen (assuming open plan) is a perfect rectangle, adding tiles will look good.

It looks beautiful and is great if you love to polish wood floors, but ever practical, I would be so worried about always spilling something on it or scratching it. For myself, I would always choose sheet vinyl. I prefer hardwood in a formal living room and dining room or in a bedroom...just not a kitchen. I would never try to discourage someone else from getting that if that is really what they want, though.

Hardwood in the kitchen and in any room provides warmth and richness to the space. If you are looking for flooring to flow throughout your home and you already have hardwood, adding to the kitchen would enhance the overall look. The character of the space changes dependent on the color of the finish and size of the boards.

Molly I love the picture of your 2 dogs. That is so CUTE !

I was renovating about 1 year ago and it was a dilemma for me as well, after a lot of consideration, I installed the hardwood and it looks wonderful. Makes the entire kitchen looks so elegant and I love it!

Woodjay, no it's not true. I have found that when a husband doesn't want to do the work, he becomes very good at finding practical reasons for not doing it. :) Most people in the North do have double hung windows, but infloor heating is not common. I personally hate it (we staying in a place that had it, and our feet were always sweaty, the dogs were always too hot. and the downstairs was always compensating for the cooler temps in the upstairs bedrooms. Saying all that, the best way to get something done is to simply do it yourself. They either shrug and pitch in, or they grumble and walk away. Either way, you get your hardwood floors.

Tile is SO hard to maintain on a floor. It chips and the grout is a bear to keep clean. I used to paint my old cement tile in the bathroom once a year. The trick was to wipe off the surface so only the grout and pores were affected. A messy process, but so much easier than trying to scrub grout lines.

My porcelain tile floor that looks like wood, barely any grout. Porcelain doesn't chip.

I would never tell anyone that wanted wood in the kitchen not to do it -- I've had both stone and wood in my kitchens, and they both have pros and cons, but I do love the look of real wood. We had our hickory floor quarter sawn, so it has built-in character: I never have to worry about who's going to put the first big ding in the floor. Life's too short to be anxious about what I walk on!

First kitchen renovation DH insisted on linoleum rather than attempting to go back to the original floor in our 1870 Victorian.
Twenty years later when said linoleum was in sad shape, we found someone willing to restore the old floor. There were seven layers of old flooring, subfloors cheap tiles and even WWII newspapers used as levelers under the tiles. The last layer was a slightly rustic wood floor complete with indents from the legs of the old cast iron stove and an occasional burn mark as well as a few pipe holes that we filled in. We had the floor lightly refinished and polyurethaned. It looked perfect to me. It wore it's scars well and looked fine with a few new ones. No water stains thank heavens.
I dislike our tile floors in our newer warm climate home, but they go with the house which I otherwise love. I'd have wood floors in my kitchen any day.

Love, love, love hardwood floors in the kitchen! First of all, they are much easier on legs and joints when standing cooking for long periods of time! I had experience in a vacation condo with ceramic tile kitchen floors and could tell a big difference in my own comfort in comparison! Even with dogs and lots of wear (that only add character, in my opinion!) they stand up to everything and add so much warmth! Our current house is 110 years old and we had the old floors restored (much damage in spots) and refinished and they are beautiful! Wouldn't want to change!

We just got a couple shots of a new kitchen with our wide plank Hickory :-) I love how it turned out! Wood in the kitchen is a no brainer.

Hardwood floors look great for any design style. In the past few years, there have been new advances to the type and color of hardwood floors which are not only less expensive but also require less maintenance. #BeSeenBeSafe

I love hardwood floors but you hardly see them in kitchens in Europe. I don't know exactly why. The only think I can think of is maintenance.
Kitchens here are pretty small and in this area with a small floor surface you make a lot of movements- from dishwasher to sink, from sink to stove etc. It gives scratches, gets spills and dents. It wears more than tiles and harder to clean with hot water.
Most homes have tiles in kitchens, ceramic or porcelain. And few houses have underfloor heating but we all have double glaze windows.
Rugs in the kitchen are out of the question for safety reasons.
Now I have a slate floor in my kitchen but it's also vulnerable.

Laminate or tile that looks like wood is both durable and lovely. Just don't buy the cheap crap, don't buy anything not textured or shiny unless you want to spend your life either polishing or not caring that it looks like crap.

Yes! I have always loved the look of hardwood floors in the kitchen. While I agree it may not be as practical as tile...who cares! It's gorgeous!

Hardwood in the kitchen maintains the continuity in the space! I love it. As long as its maintained properly there shouldn't be a problem!

White berber carpet in the kitchen--warm in the winter, soft on the feet and legs! Totally joking, though this is a reality in my father-in-law's home....except for the white part--it isn't white anymore!

I have always had tile and love its durability, but as I get older, it is hard and very cold in the winter, unless radiant heat is installed beneath.

We bought a home we are renovating with a large vaulted great room with pine ceilings, with the kitchen tucked under the bedrooms with 8' ceilings. We are opening up the kitchen wall to the great room and most of the wall between foyer and great room and we've been planning wood throughout the entire first floor, (except the mudroom/laundry room and bathrooms).

I'm second guessing wood in the kitchen as much as I love the warmth, ease on the legs and continuity from the great room into the nook/kitchen, even though I'm pretty meticulous about cleaning--I'm worried about how easily it may scratch from chairs--and the puppy my daughter is begging me for!

We lived in a house with wood floors for a short while, but the finish seemed to wear quickly, though the floors were not cared for as I would. (I don't wear street shoes in the house and I at least get crumbs, etc. off the floor right away and don't splash much water around.) If I choose tile, I'll try to have radiant heat installed beneath. I'm fine with wearing wool and cork clogs while working in the kitchen.

Just wondering if with the lower ceiling height in the kitchen anyway, it will really matter if we break the wood with tile, or if carrying the wood into the kitchen from the great room will tie the areas together better......or if we should consider tile and throughout the kitchen and foyer with wood only in the great room.

Great Room.jpg

Here is another photo....

Transition from Great Room to Nook.jpg

Transition from Great Room to Nook.jpg

Fourth time is a charm!

Where's the either/or option? They both have pros and cons and can look equally stunning.

- Janis, GKB

I love the look of both and while it's true hardwoods shelf life can't stand up to tile. The fact is unless you opt for radiant heat tile is cold

Sleek new hardwood no but i may put in a reclaimed wood floor that doesn't mind taking a few more bashes and stains. Or heavy duty painted maybe.

I have white oak hardwood floors in every room in our house except for that bathroom and the bedrooms and I absolutely love it. We recently refinished it for the first time since it was installed when the house was built and it does have a few dings and nicks because it's seen alot of years of hard use before we bought the house (we bought it from relatives so we know it's history) but I love it's little imperfections. I think it gives it character and I really don't mind at all. It's been in the house over fifty years and its still in great shape. I think it's easy to care for but it does require some special care and a little maintenance. I use Bona hardwood floor cleaner on it because it doesn't leave a build up on your floors. You should screen and re-coat natural wood floors with a fresh coat of polyurethane every three to five years, depending on use and wear, to keep your floors protected and in good shape. I think as long as you take care of it properly it should stay beautiful for a long time.

Definite yes!

Wood floors are awesome !!

I'm dealing with this dilemma right now myself. I love the look of wood for it's warm look, but I cook a lot & make a mess with water etc. when I 'm cooking/baking. I'm worried if I chose wood I might have to baby it too much & be annoyed with it. Tile can take more abuse but it looks very cold to me though, especially with the white shaker cabinets which I want.

Tile is super hard on the chef not to mention anything that hits it, shatters. I find after cooking/baking for long periods of time my body is sore from standing on our slate tiles. I think if was going to change the floors in my kitchen I would go with wood for sure as it is very easy to live on, but with a distressed look because I tend to get the floor super dirty while cooking too and perfect wood floors wouldn't work for me in the kitchen either.

I designed my kitchen so that there is a sink on every run of counter – that way I am not tripping across the floor. Area rugs can also help.

If the hardness of tile is not hard on your legs, there are many tiles today that look like wood and are becoming very popular.

When we bought our brand new home it was already built so we got what came in it. This means carpet in the four bedrooms, tile in the family and master bathrooms and the laundry room. Hardwood floors are everywhere else including the kitchen and the hallway guest half bath. I do not care for the hardwood floor in either the kitchen or the guest bath and have been considering replacing both with tile. This is the first time we have ever had hardwood floors and I like it but not in my kitchen. Every little drop and spec of water has to be cleaned up "now." There is no "I'll do it in a minute." We have a small rug in front of the stove to catch any grease spattering so it does not land on the floor. There is another one in front of the sink that I check for dampness after dishes have been done. After the dishwasher is loaded the floor is checked for water drops and dried. Wood does not like water point, blank, period and kitchens are known for spills.

Hardwood flooring is comfortable to stand on and will make your kitchen beautiful and warm.

There is no doubt that wood is beautiful. We have two houses. One has hardwoods throughout and the other has hardwoods with the exception of the kitchen which had tile. We recently remodeled and thought about replacing the tile with wood, but decided against it. Cooking is my hobby. Hardwood floors just don't stand up to constant use in a kitchen as evidenced by the hardwoods in the kitchen of our second house. So I replaced the tile with travertine. Is it harder than wood. Yes, but I will do what I've always done and wear my Crocs when cooking. I would rather do that then put in the maintenance necessary for hardwoods. Also, two large dogs are not good for hardwoods. As far as grout goes, I just had the tile professionally cleaned once a year which I will do with the travertine. Takes about an hour and looks brand new after.

Have hardwood and love hardwood! I'm itching to have the rest of the house in hardwood, but the hubster is still stuck on w to w. Sigh. Someday...

Someone said (about a mile ago in this thread) that one must only use engineered hardwood with radiant. That is not true. We used solid hardwood (red oak) with our radiant floors and they were wonderful. I'm no flooring expert, but I know we had solid wood floors and radiant heat under every floor. The radiant was there when we bought the (very dated) house and it WAS much more difficult and expensive to tear out the old tile and wood flooring and replace it, as they had to be very careful not to damage the radiant system.

I love the look of hardwood in the kitchen, but have an old dog and am not so great about finding all the drool and water dish spills and snow and rain coming in on him and more than once, he vomited in the middle of the night and I found it when I woke up. Sheet vinyl, which looks like hard wood is my choice, but I did go to the hardwood section first. I love my dog.

If you love the look of hardwood but don't want to worry about spills and mishaps, think about using the tile that looks like wood. I did this in our home office and I love it! People come in and assume it's wood and they are amazed when we say no, it's tile. And it's super easy to keep clean.

Yes - I have hardwood floors in my kitchen and I love it!

1200 square feet of 8x48 wood-look porcelain tiles, everywhere except the bedrooms. LOVE IT! Neighbors, tradesman etc. cannot resist touching it. The usual exclamation is "Wow...I really thought it was wood". With a HUGE dog, and me being not a fussy housekeeper, a quick vac and steam once a week and I'm good to go.

Love hardwood in the kitchen!

Yes, all my client love hardwood floors in their kitchen. Hardwood Floors never goes out of style. This classic floor lends natural beauty and warmth to your kitchen a lovely transition to the living room.

http://www.saritasimpsondesign.com/

I absolutely despise wood... board house board floors yuk # poor people. Yes hardwood does have its place and it does look good in hallways and bedrooms but if it was up to me, i would have marble all across my house. I tiled my entire basement except the bedroom and its a show stopper, my basement leads out to the pool and i have a walk out basement. My landscaping and driveway is done with travertine tiles, My foyer is done in polished travertine but livingroom and unfortunatley the Kitchen is done in hardwood, it Iooks nice but very poor looking its wood for crying out loud yuk yuk yuk. I am a natural stone girl Marble, Granite, slate and my baby Travertine is all i desire anything wood is for poor people yuk yuk even the sound when u walk on it yuk yuk yuk