For the last topic I wanted to cover about our tile in our home I wanted to cover the most frequently ask question. Or maybe remark? In general people are very shocked to hear that we have tile EVERYWHERE, and we couldn’t be happier with it!:
You can see all our choices on a special Small Fry page on Marazzi’s site here!
Besides two places: the loft – which we did carpet (for sound absorption mostly slash against my will) and the toy room. The toy room is just sealed concrete for indoor scooter riding. #boymom
- THE ALTERNATIVES. We were pretty adamant about tile and that simply came from life experience and living with a slew of other types of floor covering. Our wood floors got absolutely beat up. You can only claim you’re going for a “weathered look” for so long. And you all know how I feel about carpet. I hate how it gets matted down and shows high traffic areas. I hate how it shows stains, and if you have pets? Oof, forget about it. I only have one carpeted room in my house and I feel like I have spent hours, invested in carpet cleaners, solutions, and old fashioned nagging to it looking semi-decent.
- FLOODING. Having a basement and a well on our property, lots of groundwater and a history of flooding in our area made tile the absolute smartest choice for our basement as well. When we dug out our basement at the beginning of our build it filled with water. Our town is not incorporated with any city, we’re under County jurisdiction. So we don’t have gutters, sewers and snow run off is on the property owner to deal with. We had 1 day above fifty degrees this February and we didn’t know, but one of our basement windows was filling with run-off. By the time we realized (bless you Hayes) we had at least an inch of water in our bunk room. The window well looked like an aquarium, filled with water nearly to the top. The water leaked through the window and drywall and then down to the floor. We will need to replace the baseboards and do some drywall repair but guess what? That’s it! Floor is like new.
- KIDS. I’m not saying my kids are any harder on floors than another kid, but it sure feels like it. They’re constantly dragging furniture around for forts, running in with muddy boots, wrestling, jumping, spilling, stomping, scootering (not allowed but I know they still try to sneak them in — nanny cam!) Not to mention potty training, flu season, and anytime I pour them a glass of juice, ever. I am not necessarily any better. Stilettos, dropping dishes, rearranging furniture myself, we’re just really hard on our belongings. I can’t count how many times I’ve said or thought “so glad we have tile.” It cleans up right as rain every single time.
- DECOR. We of course want our kids to feel comfortable playing on the floor, and lounging, so we’re very big on rugs. But we haven’t had much if any carpet for several years before this, and it never stops them (or me) from playing on the floor. From a decor standpoint I love that I can bring in a new texture, color palette, and style with a rug. If I want to update a room it doesn’t feel like such a big investment to grab a new rug or swap with another room. If they get spilled on, they can easily be replaced. I love the freedom of knowing it’s temporary. Most of our rugs were under $150 and when compared with the cost of carpet and replacing carpet, it’s much more affordable over time!
- CLEANLINESS. I can’t tell you how satisfying it is to take a mop over my floors and have them look brand new each time. The walls and baseboards might be showing signs of life, but the floors look so amazing still. Everyone comments on how it the Chateau Reserve doesn’t even feel like tile. It has a handscraped feel under foot. Has no slip to it and has that variety of wood but the hardiness of tile. It looks and feels amazing, but even more importantly I love knowing my floors are REALLY clean. They aren’t holding some bacteria, allergens, dust or some molecule way down some place I can’t reach. And my kids can get them clean, too!
We have so many different styles (see them all here!) of tile in our home, from ceramic, natural stone, trendy, classic, and of course the wood look tile that we loved enough to put it in 70% of our home. We were able to create variety, warmth, texture and style and it was all done exclusively Marazzi.
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