How to choose the best wood flooring for your kitchen
Your kitchen is the heart of your home. From your morning coffee to your evening meal, it’s where you start and end your day and so your flooring needs to withstand a lot of activity. And as well as being hard-wearing and functional, it needs to look great too. A warm, welcoming environment that you love to spend time in. So, let’s delve into what’s suitable and what types of flooring would be most suitable for you…
What types of wood flooring are there?
Heat and moisture are common features of kitchens and both cause wood to swell, warp and shrink. But this mainly applies to solid wood floors – engineered and multiply wood flooring types are constructed differently to solid wood flooring and are therefore more resistant to water and fluctuations in temperature, making them better suited to a kitchen environment.
Engineered wood flooring is made using three layers, while multiply flooring (as its name might suggest) is made of several layers arranged at right angles to each other. Both these types of wood flooring have a solid wood top layer, giving you the look of a solid wood floor but with enhanced strength and durability.
Installing engineered or multiply wood flooring in your kitchen will give you a sturdy surface that’s pleasant to walk on and easy to keep clean – spillages can be mopped or swept up quickly. And if you love to host and regularly have friends and family round for dinner, a well-chosen wood floor will make your kitchen an inviting space for entertaining.
What to consider when choosing a wood floor for your kitchen
Now you know which types of flooring will best suit your cooking and dining space, there are a few other factors that it’s useful to consider when making a decision:
- Continuity. You may find you don’t just want wood flooring in your kitchen and would like to extend it into your hallway or a separate dining area as well. This won’t have too much of an impact on what you choose but if you’re conscious of costs, it’s wise to think about how much wood flooring you’ll need. You can use the room size calculator* on our site to give you a guide to how much your flooring will cost.
- *Simply click on any of the wood flooring options and the calculator button is present
- Where your kitchen is located in your house. If it opens out onto your garden, for example, it’s likely that you’ll have wet or muddy feet passing through the kitchen occasionally, and the same applies if your kitchen is very close to your front door. In these instances, you may want to choose more natural, distressed wood flooring that makes a feature of knots and imperfections, rather than a smooth, gleaming wood floor that you feel under pressure to keep pristine.
- For more information on looking after your engineered wood floor, see our guide
- Colour. Think about your existing décor, the size of the room and how much daylight it gets, as well as the colours you like and dislike. Generally, it’s thought that darker shades make a room look smaller and pale shades open the space up, but this isn’t a hard and fast rule, and a lot depends on the rest of the décor.
- Our blog on choosing the perfect wood floor colour offers more tips and guidance
Engineered wood flooring for your kitchen
Winchester Antique is our best-selling engineered floor and is finished by hand using 10 individual techniques. As it’s been aged and distressed, it’s almost immune from the effects of daily life – and as time goes on, a little bit of wear-and-tear will only add to its beauty. The Winchester collection offers six colours for you to choose from and is also available with matching large-format engineered herringbone. You can view both of these products in one of the room-sized sets at our large wood flooring showroom.
From the same range as Winchester Antique, Winchester Harvest has been finished with a grey-coloured oil to create a contemporary effect. If you’re looking for wood flooring to complete a modern kitchen, Winchester Harvest is a wonderful choice. The visible knots and woodgrain add depth and texture, and the distressed finish means your Winchester Harvest flooring will age beautifully.
Canterbury White has been finished by hand to allow the beauty of the oak to shine through. It has a slightly uneven surface which brings out the texture of the wood and emphasises the grain detail. Finished with white oil, Canterbury White will suit both period properties and modern homes alike, but will look especially attractive in contemporary settings. This is a floor that will only improve with age, too.
Multiply wood flooring for your kitchen
From our bespoke range, York Old English is a beautiful wood floor that is finished by hand by skilled artisans here in the UK. The surface has been distressed to provide an aged look that will only improve with time and use. The boards are available in three widths which, when combined, create elegant, heritage-style flooring that looks truly authentic. If you live in a period property, York Old English is a perfect choice, as it will add character and enhance the overall look of your home. And as it’s a bespoke floor, we can adjust the colour to your exact requirements.
Princeton Saddle is another of our striking bespoke floors that can be installed combining the three widths you can see on the sample – or we can supply in one plank width if you prefer. Finished with two coats of hardwax oil, Princeton Saddle is incredibly easy to look after, no matter how busy your household. And if you love the details and imperfections that a wood floor acquires over time, we can distress the surface to recreate that well-loved, aged look. We can also provide this in a matching herringbone.
When it comes to flooring, we can provide almost anything your heart desires, and Bespoke Herringbone 9114 is a beautiful example of flooring that is crafted just for you. It has been brushed, distressed, lightly fumed and finished with pigmented oils to highlight the natural beauty of the oak. It can be supplied in different thicknesses, prime grade (with no knots) and 4 different plank widths, plus a striking chevron option. And, as with our other bespoke flooring options, we can adjust the colour to your exact requirements.
All the above flooring options are finished with natural oils, which makes them easy to maintain. Unlike lacquered floors, they don’t require intensive work to sand and refinish in the event of scratches, meaning they’re family-friendly and can withstand pets with muddy paws.
For more inspiration, have a look at our full range of bespoke flooring, or come to our showroom where you can see the large-format samples in full-size room sets.
Visit our showroom
We’d be delighted to talk you through your options over the phone, but we’d also love to welcome you to our showroom in Camberley, Surrey, where you’ll find 16 display room sets of wood flooring. You’ll be able to ask our friendly team of flooring experts any questions you have, see the wide range of options and colours, and feel the various grains and finishes.
If you can’t make it to Camberley, you can still take a closer look at your wood flooring options by ordering samples. And if there’s anything else we can help with, please contact us today.
