Your home’s décor and design are a reflection of your taste and style. While the minimalist approach can be quite attractive, you can also do very well by mixing different décor and designs. For instance, when flooring, you can combine wood and tile for an exciting flooring design that’s both creative and unique. If you go down this route, think continuity and flow.
How you execute the flow of a space is critical. Your floor will look broken up or disjointed if the flow is haphazardly done using various flooring materials. As a rule, aim to achieve an effortless flow that does not look mismatched or overly bland.
You can combine tile and wood flooring by experimenting with colours and transitions. Moods and neutral colours are considered ideal while transitioning from one space to the next. You can go for the bold décor by accentuating some of your floor spaces with bold colours. With the right creative vision, your hardwood flooring can look beautiful with the tiles.
Here are six tips on how to combine tile and wood flooring:
1. Stick to One Colour Palette
Sticking to one colour palette is a good tip on how to combine tile and wood flooring. To avoid dramatic changes in your flooring, keep to one colour palette. Using a variety of colours on your wood and tiles is almost instantly noticeable. You don’t want your floor to scream out from a motley of colours. This can be quite distracting and, honestly, off-putting. For instance, if the living room features an exotic, dark hardwood, use mottled, gray tiles in the dining area, kitchen and bathrooms.
In the bedroom, go for off-whites and peppered charcoal berber to pull off a blend of tones that is consistent throughout. This way, your eye will be uninterrupted by colour changes from one area to another. You achieve this without interfering with the functionality of your floor in every room.
2. Use Neutrals and Moods
Would you like the kitchen, entryway or other hubs in your home to feel airier? Or perhaps you prefer a master bedroom to have that mysterious aura that seamlessly transitions into the adjoining room and the living room? To complete this décor and design masterpiece, how about having bathrooms featuring a spa-like setting? Well, you can by working creatively with colours. To evoke or influence moods, you need colours, and the best place to start is to go for neutral tones when working towards a mixed floor.
In the entrance and kitchen, you could go for light oak or pine. This will give this section a cheery, bright, spacious feel. For the bedrooms, the living room and the dining area, go for rich, chocolate-coloured tiles. If you have a bubbly tub to soak yourself in as you enjoy lavender-scented candles, go for a spa-setting with white, crisp ceramic tiles.
3. Use Flush Tile Transitions
This design is quite a challenge to pull off. However, it’s more functional and attractive. Unlike other transitions such as flush-mount and surface strips, flush tile transitions come in a variety of forms, making them the perfect tiles to improvise with. The downside? You can only install flush transitions on floors with parallel, straight edges. In contrast, surface tile transitions do not mind floors with ragged, irregular edges.
The most popular flush tile transitions are the stone-to-hardwood trim and hardwood transition strips. The former features a strip that works as a “ramp” between the higher tile floor and the lower hardwood floor. You can have the transition strip join directly to the tile floor or choose the lip-over design. The stone-to-hardwood trim strips feature a granite or marble strip abutting to the tiled floor before joining the lower floor using a hardwood trim piece.
4. Use Floor Transition Strips
Height differences are a common issue when combining tile and wood flooring, especially if the installation is done by a novice. The answer to this is using floor transition strips, which ramp up or down from wood flooring to tile flooring. Transition strips are typically made of lightweight aluminum or wood. They are easy to cut to the required length using a regular hacksaw or mitre saw. Surface transition strips are usually inexpensive.
During installation, beware of striking any other part of the strip accidentally other than the nail. Aluminum strips dent easily. Dents distort the strips and prevent them from laying consistently on the floor. A distorted transition strip can only be corrected by replacing it entirely.
5. Full and Half Saddle
We use a full saddle to bridge between two similar levels. On the other hand, a half-saddle strip transitions a flooring where one level has a higher elevation than the adjacent one.
Where the levels do not match, you can pull off a flooring change without using a transition strip by butting the tile up against the wood. Nonetheless, you won’t manage to seal off the gap completely. To avoid dust collecting in the gaps, overlay it with a strip.
6. Bright Colours
To complement the bold décor found in today’s urban homes, go for vibrant, bright colours. However, be careful not to overdo it. For a visual pop that won’t disappoint, select a floor in a common or main area. This could be the kitchen and the adjoining dining area, or the entryway. For Mediterranean or Asian homes, the energizing red tiles provide the expected brilliance.
