Adding natural stone floors to your home creates a sophisticated, luxurious look that impresses your guests. It is an investment that will add value to your property.
Will the wood-look flooring trend last into 2022 and beyond? Probably, but it will be surpassed by the natural looks offered by tile.
Hexagon Transition
While unique shapes like pickets, arabesques, and fish scales/fan tiles are stealing the show regarding layouts, the herringbone pattern is still one of the most popular styles around. You may know this design as the zig-zag or honeycomb style, and it’s a perfect way to add a classic yet contemporary feel to any space.
This pattern also looks great with contrasting grout colors and offers an opportunity to play with shape. For example, you can create a more modern and sleeker layout with a herringbone pattern bordered by rectangular tiles in an offset pattern.
Another variation on herringbone is the corridor tile pattern, which can also be laid with mixed widths for a modern effect. It works well with larger format tiles if you randomly stagger them in each row. Adding small “helper” tiles at each grid corner can elongate the look even more. This simple yet stylish design is perfect for separating rooms in an open floor plan or highlighting different areas of your home.
Trickling Floors
Natural stone tile flooring brings the color and texture of the outdoors inside to add warmth, quality, and luxury to a room. It’s also a durable option for high-traffic areas in the home, especially when sealed.
However, stone tiles require a little extra maintenance to keep them looking their best, as the amount and size of pores in a particular type of rock will impact its durability and stain resistance. Generally speaking, nonporous stones like slate and granite are the most durable options for floors; white marble, limestone, and travertine should be reserved for areas that don’t experience a lot of foot traffic.
Mixing and matching tile sizes in a pattern creates an interesting visual effect that draws subtle attention to the floor while de-emphasizing linear aspects of rooms or spaces. The Versailles layout is a popular flooring pattern that looks stunning with mingled shades of stone. This unique pattern features smaller square tiles at each corner of a larger tile to mimic the look of a pinwheel. The design creates a picture frame accent around an entryway, kitchen island, or bathroom vanity.
Diamonds
The geometric trend is a great way to create a room that exudes style and personality. One way to incorporate geometry into your home is using diamond pattern flooring. The diamond pattern flooring is available in various monochromatic colors and uses natural stone combinations.
The diamond pattern works well with various tile types and sizes. You can use the design on walls and floors, in bathrooms, kitchens, and living rooms. It’s also great for creating a backsplash.
Natural stone floor tiles come with various finishes, such as polished, honed, and tumbled. The finish of your stone tiles will determine how easy they are to maintain and clean. For example, polished stone is shiny and reflective, showing dust and smudges more quickly than other finishes.
To ensure your natural stone tiles look their best, they must be resealed every four to five years. This can be done at home by following a simple cleaning procedure. It would be best to use a non-treated dry dust mop and neutral cleaners that don’t contain acidic ingredients.
Arabesque Mosaics
Arabesque pattern tiles and mosaics are a great way to add an elegant old-world feel to your home. The curved lines create an appearance of movement that will surely get your guests talking. Arabesque tile looks best when installed as a feature wall or backsplash in kitchens or bathrooms.
The shapely arabesque design offers a sense of femininity to balance modern home trends, whether in spicy, bright hues to energize a kitchen or soft-gray, almond, icy-blue, or sandy neutral tones to expand a bathroom’s relaxing atmosphere.
Mosaic combines different sizes, shapes, and colors of ceramic, porcelain, glass, natural stone, and other materials set in a matrix or on a mesh for easy installation. This versatile tile can be used on walls and floors in residential and heavy commercial applications.
Pair it with a matching grout for an enhanced effect.
Decorative Tile
Decorative tile patterns offer limitless design possibilities, whether you want to add an artistic flair to your home or create a bold accent piece that grabs guests’ attention. You can use geometric patterned tiles to complement contemporary-style homes, floral motifs to enhance heritage homes, or abstract patterns to add a touch of drama.
The basket weave tile pattern is a classic, timeless layout that introduces subtle intricacy to your floors. Mixing different widths of planks (like the corridor tile layout) can also add dimension to your space.
Tumbled travertine tiles, which feature a soft, lived-in look thanks to a process that mechanically chips the edges of the stone, can also be used in a flooring application. This style works exceptionally well in bathrooms and kitchens, where the nuanced appearance can warm up these spaces.
