My Kitchen Floor

Well, folks — all is right in my little world again. After months of wrestling with some flooring issues in my kitchen, the project has come to an end. And it feels good!

If you have been following me on Facebook or Instagram, then you are in the loop. You probably have encouraged me and helped me make flooring decisions. YAY for you!

Many have asked “Why replace?? I love the brick??”. We loved it too – it was my original vision to have a splash of rustic in the heart of our modern lodge style home. However, shortly after install, I began noticing hollow spots & cracked grout lines. That issue continued to expand in spite of our best efforts to repair the problem areas.

After 12 months of battling problems, I threw in the towel — or, in this case the brick. I began the hunt for a product that met several rigid constraints:

It had to stay within our original ((pre-construction)) kitchen floor budget ((roughly $3 per foot)).
It had to compliment the tones AND colors already in the kitchen.
It had to fit in with our ((who am I kidding, there is no OUR theme. It is MINE, ALL MINE!!)) “modern lodge” theme.
It had to be readily available IN Oklahoma. No waiting for imported overseas cargo.
It had to look awesomely good.

Wrestling is a good way to describe what it felt like to work within these constraints. I would find a product that would work amazingly, it would need to be imported ((okay, I can wait)). Then, the cost per sf was finally spoken aloud. UM… choice A: $9.68, choice B $11, choice C: $25!!! I would have to wait a REALLY, REALLY long time for those prices to work in our budget.

I called my dear friend and voiced my repetitious concerns and somehow amid my rambling, a light bulb came on.

Gracie’s bathroom tile! The guy’s bathroom tile! I have samples of both in the attic AND they were definitely in our budget.

I snapped dozens of pictures and asked Facebook & Instagram fans to share their thoughts. Silver strand was the clear winner. I had already secretly picked it after viewing all of the choices in person, but the volume of agreeing opinions on social media helped sway David into accepting change was coming ((he loved the brick look)).

This product stayed within my limited budget, complemented the existing gray tones and the greens in the kitchen and did a great job of blending in with the entire house! Success!

As demo began, I had to mentally prepare for the gigantic mess.

The mess was by far the hardest part of this entire process!

Dust was everywhere, the kitchen was unusable, the fridge was in the hallway and most of our furniture and pantry items were stored in the garage.

But, with each tile that was laid, I could see the end coming closer into sight ((even through the cloud of construction dust)). Isn’t it beautiful — I just love it.