Remember when we “guested that nest” on Upper Kingston Road?
I’ve been thinking about those reclaimed brick floors in the hallway off their kitchen ever since!
The homeowner told us they were actually thin slices of salvaged brick, and that you install them just like you install regular tile flooring.
And now that the living and dining room floors are done…
…it’s almost time to rip out the ugly, stained old tile currently covering our kitchen floor and replace it with something we love.
So the question du jour: To brick, or not to brick?
Whaddya think?
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I think it’s very beautiful, however…
My major hesitation would be that it’s cold and very uncomfortable to stand on for any length of time. If you cook or entertain very much and are on your feet for long stretches, brick, tile or concrete is very unforgiving to your knees, hips and feet. Wood floors “give” and are much kinder to your body.
Without a doubt….. brick ….. It is soooooooooo vintage….. so so ….. gorgeous… and easy to clean!!!!!!!!!! Now…. I want brick!!!! 🙂 lol….. thanks for sharing Kayla!!!!!! Terri
Brick! Brick! Brick! Brick!
Strap some knee pads on the little ones and they’ll be just fine. 😉
Brick is nice, but I’m thinking more hardwood… The Chevron brick is wrong for your decor–too English or French country. Brick is really brutal on your calves, unless you don’t spend too much time working in the kitchen. 🙂
Love all you do much luck on the t.v. Gig.
brick!
Hey Layla, the floors look great in the pictures, I { L O V E } exposed brick, especially if it’s from the original home.
Your house is just stunning!
I LOVE the look, I would just want to make sure it wouldn’t feel rough or uncomfortable on my feet!!
Definitely! I love, love, love the look – always have.
Love the brick, I say go for it!
Hey Layla… we stayed in a cottage on Lake Michigan over the weekend. The kitchen had brick floors and of course, we dropped the tupperware of chili all over it! What a mess! I guess my point is, the floors cleaned up real well… I was surprised!
Love the look. Hate the maintenance. Trying to mop the grout? Oy. They’re also cold and hard. I even hate ceramic tile in a kitchen for that reason — it’s not comfortable when you’re standing and cooking. I could possibly see an entryway, however.
Definitely Brick! I love the look, especially the herringbone version… But that first kitchen picture is just to die for! I can’t wait to see what you do!
We actually used to live in a house with old, brick floors in the kitchen and dining room. It was beautiful and was a NIGHTMARE to clean. Just think of all the food particles and crumbs that find their way on the kitchen floor, then think of the gritty grout and super textured brick that wants to hold on the crumbs at all cost. There was not a good way to clean them ever. Sorry to be a kill-joy, but my assessment is beautiful, but highly impractical, especially for a kitchen.
My favorite thing involving brick and kitchens is to have one “exposed” brick wall. So pretty, Another great option if you are thinking of bricking the floor is to do stamped and dyed concrete instead, saves on costs and looks real.
I love the brick but personally I wouldn’t want it in my kitchen. As many have commented it would be hard to clean and anything dropped on it would probably break. Maybe just brick the entrance to the kitchen? Why not continue your wood floor into the kitchen? I think that is what I would do. I’m sure anything you and Kev do will be just perfect!
I love the look of brick on kitchen floors. I think it would be beautiful in your home. My only concern would be that of comfort and if you’d drop a glass or something breakable – bye bye. 🙂
I love the look, but like most on here, wonder about the cleaning. Be our guinea pig, go for it, and tell us your verdict in a few months! 🙂
Truthfully? They’re beautiful but I wondered about cleaning up after a kid had been sick…..lots of texture to capture stuff. Ewwwwwww.
Dixie
The brick looks lovely, but on a practical note is probably a pain to clean as the surface is a bit rough, and underfoot its will be a bit on the hard and cold side. My Neighbour has a stone tiled floor an in the winter it can be cold, and she is always cleaning it.
Sorry to be a kill joy.
Brick for sure! It looks awesome & brings more warmth to the area:)
Love the brick, especially in the first picture! I do wonder how comfortable it would be to stand on while cooking – although, I am sure a few cute rugs would do the trick 🙂
I am also sure whatever you decide to do will look amazing!
Hmmm. I think it depends. I think the answer is more a design question than an aesthetic question because obviuosly they’re beautiful. In a small house, you may want the floor material to blend with the floor in the rest of the house. In most of the photos you show, it seems the brick is used in a space that perhaps transitions to or from an outdoor space that might have a similar surface. Stylewish, it seems to have a real rustic and/or historical vocabulary; e.g., paired with barn doors, wrought iron, Windosr chairs. My advice, pun intended, is tread carefully on brick floors.
BRICK!!!
It’s kind of like shopping.. if you love something in the store and then decide to wait, but then think about it for the next week… then you should get it. You’ve been thinking about it for a while, so go for it!
I like the brick in a rear entry/mudroom location, but it’s just too hard/cold in a kitchen where you spend most of your time standing. Don’t know what your house construction is like, but I say a hung hardwood floor all the way (or cork)!
I LOVE the look and warmth of brick, but I would hate to try and keep it clean. I like to be able to Swiffer over our floors for a quick clean!
speaking from experience…..although beautiful the bricks will be ver hard on your feet and back if you spend any amount of time in the kitchen. I have tumbled marble stone in my kitchen and it’s gorgeous but painful for any length of time. And let’s face reality….we are in our kitchens way too much! I do have the “ugly” gel mat in front of the sink for some relief.
Do brick!! All of those floors pictured are amazing! We put brick floors in our kitchen in 2009 and love them. They are a breeze to clean… when you do clean them, they hide all the dirt! Ours are made to look like antique brick but are actually a resin. I read where some people commented they would be scratchy on feet or little knees but ours are no different than hardwood. Even with real bricks you aren’t using the same kind on an exterior of a house.
Here are some photos of ours. I haven’t been able to snap any great pictures of them so they do look better in person. You are more than welcome to come check them out, I just live right down the road in Auburn 😉
http://kleypas.blogspot.com/2011/04/kitchen-floors.html
Love brick, and I saw something like this one time. A homeowner put in a concrete counter and it was make from old crushed bricks it looked awesome. I do not know it you could do this as a floor though, but it would solve the grout problem. Kitchens get dirty no matter what you do. Good luck with which ever one you choose, it will look great.
Love the look, but would not find it a practical choice for a kitchen.
1. As mentioned, cleaning is an issue. Even if you are not OCD about clean, imagine something sticky spilling (life happens!) and dealing with getting it out of an uneven surface like that.
2. As mentioned, if you drop something, kiss it goodbye – brick is not forgiving – at all.
3. Hard on your feet and legs if you spend any time at all standing on it. Even if you don’t spend lots of time cooking long involved meals, picture being on your feet making holiday cookies for hours – oh my achin’ feet!
4. Maybe not now, but someday, that floor is going to be hard on little knees crawling around and any little tumble will be met with a hard, hard surface 🙁
Skip the brick. While a cool look, it doesn’t seem practical. Have you ever stood for a long period of time on a brick floor? What about when you drop a glass or a plate? You will have pieces everywhere.
Love the texture and color….but yeah, the cleaning, hard on the feet (ouch!), and durability (breaking/cracking) could be a down side. Love the previous post idea of backsplash or even an accent wall.
I have always loved brick floors in the kitchen. In fact when I was younger I would cut images out from magazines and that was one of the images I clipped. I guess it reminds me of the older days when they used to have brick floors. They are cooler on the feet but probably not as soft. Also if you drop anything on them, the item will surely break. But you won’t have to worry about stains! I can’t wait to see what you two decide.
haha I agree with Kimberley… it does hurt if stood on for long periods of time 🙁 My husband and I always joke that we are going to put in that bouncy floor that some playgrounds have now instead of bark! You know the one that kind of looks like a tar road…. that one!
Or maybe just go with the brick…
My sister has a brick floor and HATES it. 1. It is very hard to clean, 2. She has two little kids and it is hard to walk on for the baby. 3. Everything breaks if you drop it and the kids get hurt when they fall. 4. It is hard on your feet and body.
OOH, love the look but what a pain to clean. 🙂
BRICK! BRICK! BRICK! BRICK!
I may be going a little overboard here… I just might love brick though 🙂
Yes yes yes. Absolutely.
I looooove the look of brick! We considered using it in our kitchen when we remodeled. My husband wasn’t completely sold, so we chose to put it in our entry instead (I figured he would love it so much that we would eventually add it to the kitchen!!). We had our tile guy seal the heck out of it and I figured it would be just like tile– but, sadly, it is not. It is very difficult to clean (despite the thick sealant) because of all of the crevices. A mop doesn’t work well because it is uneven and rough and I can’t run a vacuum over it because it is so bumpy. Our brick entry is beautiful and I still love it, but I am relieved we didn’t put it in the kitchen with all of the spills, kid accidents, etc.
Brick!!! Love it. I’ve wanted to do it for years in my kitchen but couldn’t. But you say the ones this owner had are slivers of brick? Where do you get somthing like that? A friend has had brick for years and they put a polyurethan coating on it.
I love the look of the brick!
Brick! Brick! Heavens yes, BRICK!!
Not that you will read all the way down to my comment, but here it is anyways. If the kitchen is open to the living room I would match the flooring. It looks like you have an open floor plan. But that brick is adorable. If you have a seperate industrial room like a laundry or mud room that would be perfect.
Haven’t read through all the comments, but I’ve always heard that the conventional wisdom is that you want something easy on your feet in the kitchen (i.e. wood rather than brick, stone or tile) and forgiving of fragile items like ceramics and glassware if they’re dropped on it inadvertently. I’d vote for something durable in a foyer, and if it’s just a small area, brick is fine, but I think a large area, while beautiful, could be problematic on several levels. Good luck!
I love, love, love the looks of brick, especially the reclaimed (used) brick…BUT if you cook a lot and are standing in your kitchen for prolonged sessions, wood is so much easier on your legs and back. Just a thought.
I sure hope HGTV picks up your show and schedules it…I love the work you and Kevin do…so amazing and you guys are so talented.
Karen
My parents have brick floors and I love them. Make sure you seal them and they will be simple to clean with soap and water.
Go for the brick.! I have had it for over 28 years in the kitchen, entry, family room and absolutely love it. We have raised toddlers and grandkids on it with no scraped knees at all(ours is kind of smooth and we seal it once a year or 2.) Bumped heads will happen no matter what the flooring and wood can have water damage in kitchens. My husband does handyman work and has had to try to repair wood floors after a dishwasher or pipe leak and water got under the flooring and warped it. I am a grocery checker for over 37 years and so I stand a lot and standing on the kitchen floor has given me no problems. Things do break when they hit the floor but that doesn’t happen often, and with the kids, we usually went with plastic fun dinnerware and cups ’cause they wanted Disney, etc. anyway. I love how the floor never looks dirty and just gets more patina with age. I don’t generally sweep, I just vacuum it and it’s good. I originally used a stiff brush and bucket to clean and then went over it with towels to dry. Now I use a steam cleaner with a wand attachment with a stiff scrub brush at the end that I got at Costco and it is great. Maybe ’cause ours is sealed so well, we have never had anything stain. I live in S. Calif and go barefoot and like the cool of the floor most of the year. If I’m feeling cold I just wear those fuzzy socks. LOVE,LOVE,LOVE the brick floor.
Definitely, Brick! It’s so beautiful and unique. I love it, love it, love it!
Ummmm…I’d say no. Like everyone else has said…looks fanatastic…HARD to clean. I wonder if you could find some tile…OR…CUT some saltile tile to LOOK like brick? Saltile tile has that pretty red and adged look that looks like brick. Benefits of it, you can SEAL it and it cleans really easily.
Don’t give up your wants…just work them into a flooring that will work in real life with family and pets…save yourself the future headaches of massively hard cleaning…:)
I love the warm look of the brick floors and would love to have something like that in my kitchen. They would be so easy to take care. My only concern would be how comfortable they would be on your feet if you spend a lot of time standing in there. I’ll be anxious to see what you decide. I know it will be beautiful whatever it is. Good luck with your pilot.