Generally speaking, tiles would not be my choice of flooring for anywhere other than the bathroom. Even at that, I found it very hard to find tiles I really liked when we renovated our bathroom a couple of years ago. We settled on these wood-effect tiles in the end and I am still very happy with them.
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| Our wood-effect tiles in the bathroom |
The only exception to my no-tiles-outside-the-bathroom rule is if the tiles are beautiful, original vintage tiles. I love the look of 1930s or 40s hallways - a plain border and a geometric pattern in various colours along a narrow hall with the staircase on the right.
When we were making some changes to our house before moving in, we had a toddler, a newborn and a tight budget. We painted the hall and left the laminate floor as it was, since it was in good condition.
Soon after we moved in, our neighbours mentioned in passing that it must be nice to have a tiled floor. We, puzzled, said we have laminate. "Oh, they must have put that down over the tiles" they said of the previous owners. Apparently, there once was a nice tiled hall floor in this house.
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| Mid-renovation. The floor stayed. |
In my grandparents house, which happens to have been built around the same time as ours, there is still the original tiled hall floor. I keep imaginging that there is something similar underneath our laminate. Something along the lines of these patterns would be fantastic.
The curiousity has been gnawing away at me for years now. Every so often I bring up the subject of ripping up the hall floor with The Bavarian. He is curious too, but practical. The laminate is well attached. There is no option of pulling out a slat or two to see what is underneath. It is an all-or-nothing job.
What if there is just a concrete floor? Or ugly or damaged tiles? Do we really want to risk it when we haven't the budget or the time to deal with the disaster that may result?
For now, we have decided to leave the floor till the boys are older. It is the sensible parent thing to do, isn't it? The laminate is warmer than tiles and there is less chance of things breaking if they are dropped that if they were dropped on tiles.
So for now I will dream of my double doors and original tiled floor and save for reproduction tiles in case there is nothing to discover beneath the laminate.
If you are interested, pop over to Pinterest and have a look at the looks I am currently swooning over.
