We decided to change out our flooring in our kitchen this summer. Our existing flooring in the kitchen is wood which I love...but with a pool and kids that combination does not work well together. The kids come in soaking wet and stand in the kitchen to make lunch or go to the bathroom and it makes me stressed having to wipe up after them. You know how wood flooring goes, one puddle of water that sits and the floor warps. I am a BIG FAN of making my decor beautiful but my priority is to make sure it is family friendly and functional. The wood floor is NOT FUNCTIONAL.

I started the hunt for what I wanted. Of course, what I want and what is out there is a whole different story. Here are the pictures of what I had in my mind. I wanted a "veranda" feel in this house. Our pool is the focus of the house and can be seen from most rooms. I thought having Mexican Terra Cotta Tile "Saltillo tile" would be perfect. Here are my favorites...

LOVE THE ABOVE FLOOR!!!

After much looking and debate I decided that the care of "Saltillo" tile is really a lot of work. Of course, they lay it first then stain and then seal. About every 2 years they have to sand it down, re stain and seal. I'm not in for that every 2 years.

We finally agreed on Travertine. I think we will get the "look" I'm looking for and I loved the natural look of the stone. I knew that the color would resemble what I originally wanted in the "Saltillo" tile. Here is the sample board of what we picked. Each size here is an example of the different colors that each tile will have. No one is alike, they are all different in texture and color. Some are more solid, some have more veining, some are gold, some resemble the color of Terra Cotta.

Here are some BEFORE pictures of the kitchen. Of course, as you can see, the wood has been taken up already. Once the Travertine was delivered, we went through each tile and decided which one would go where. We had three piles, one for entry, one for kitchen and one for rejects. Because they are all SO different, I mean different.... I wanted to make sure that we had a nice combination of all the tiles. I apologized to my tile guy and told him I hated being high maintenance. He said "oh Ruth, you are not high maintenance. The other day we had a lady order 5 flats of Travertine (she only needed one) and she picked which tiles she wanted and told us to dispose the rest, that's high maintenance." I told him I wished I knew who she was and I would have been dumpster diving that night at her house. Those of you who know me, know that I would have done that too! I would have been in disguise of course!

As mentioned above, we also decided to go ahead and do the entry. We got an amazing price on the Travertine so we went ahead with it. Here's before pictures of the entry. After they took up the wood, they found this white 12x12 marble underneath it. Our entry steps down into the office, dining room and living room so having this Travertine will stop guests from falling on the step down because it will now be a totally different floor. Now it will be obvious that there is a transition. The kids also have to pass through the entry to go upstairs so this eliminates water damage too! Yippee!

I'll post the after pictures in a few days after they have enhanced and sealed the floor. I'm excited and can't wait to see the end result! We'll compare the end result to my original desire and see if we came close.