While design, color, and surface appeal are important considerations, you’ll also want kitchen flooring that can live up to your lifestyle and provide the comfort and durability you need. Here are some favorites, with their pros and cons:

Natural Stone

Durable and easy to clean, stone offers a timeless appearance suited to most any kitchen decor. Choose larger pieces to create a more seamless look with fewer grout lines. Cons? There’s no denying the look is impressive, but you’ll likely need a strong subfloor and some big bucks to get the job done. Tile and stone can also be cold and uncomfortable if you stand in place for long. (One solution is to place a cushioned mat where you most frequently stand to reduce feet and leg fatigue.)

Cork

This often-overlooked natural material comes in various colors and patterns and is sustainable, warm, and slightly cushioned. Seal it to prevent water damage and clean the same as you would a hardwood floor.

Linoleum

Easy-to-clean linoleum is available in sheets or tiles in a broad range of colors. Many consumers confuse linoleum with vinyl, but vinyl is a synthetic material with a pattern imprinted on the surface, while linoleum is all-natural with color throughout.

Vinyl

This budget-friendly material (about $10-$13 per square yard) keeps upping its image as new technology helps it more closely imitate the look of stone, wood, tile, and leather. Vinyl is available in 6- or 12-foot wide sheets or as 12- to 18-inch tiles that are ideal for DIYers. Easy to clean, vinyl is also soft underfoot.

Hardwood

Improvements in products and sealers make wood a viable flooring material in kitchens. That’s good news for people with open floor plans, who wish to use the same material in adjoining living areas. Additionally, wood adds a sense of timelessness and warmth that suits any style, from urban loft to cozy cottage to traditional home.

Source: http://www.zillow.com/blog/2012-06-18/options-abound-for-kitchen-flooring/

More home owners want more space in their kitchens and are expanding the kitchen’s use for more than just cooking, according to the latest findings from the American Institute of Architects’ quarterly Home Design Trends Survey. The survey, conducted in the fourth quarter of 2011, focused on kitchens and bathrooms.

“Kitchens seem to be regaining their function as the home’s ‘nerve center,’” says AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker.

During the housing downturn, kitchen design fell as a priority for home owners, Baker notes. But as the market has picked up, Americans’ interest in kitchens has been renewed.

“The last few years have seen kitchens take on new functions with dedicated computer areas and recharging stations,” Baker notes.

The kitchen products and features growing the most in popularity, according to the survey of architects, are:

1. Computer area/recharging stations

2. Integration with family space

3. Renewable flooring materials

4. Recycling centers

5. Adaptability/universal design

Home owners are also placing more emphasis on sustainability in choosing products in the kitchen, such as with renewable flooring materials and renewable countertops increasing in popularity.

Sustainability is also important in bathrooms, the survey found. One of the biggest growing concerns for home owners in designing bathrooms is finding ways to minimize utility costs, according to the architect survey. As such, products like LED lighting, dual flush, and water-saving toilets are growing in demand, Baker notes.

Source: http://styledstagedsold.blogs.realtor.org/2012/04/23/home-trend-watch-home-owners-want-more-kitchen-space/

Remodeling kitchen trends are creating stylish kitchens with cleaner lines, built-in dining, and pops of color, according to a recent article in RISMedia.

Here are some recent trends in kitchens across the country.

1. Built-in dining areas. Eat-in kitchens are in high demand as more remodelers are opting for extensions in counters that resemble a table, either in lower or higher height to the countertop. The counter extension is different than bar seating because diners can sit around the edge and face one another, and not just sit in a row. The counter extension saves space, offers an extra buffet service, and more kitchen storage, says Deanna Carleton of Kitchen Design Group.

2. Dressing up the kitchen with lighting. An affordable way to upgrade a kitchen is just by switching out the lights, designers say. For example, hand-blown glass shades on pendant lights, contemporary drum shades, and chandeliers can quickly update a kitchen. Layers of light continue to be popular, such as with a ceiling lighting fixture combined with under-counter lighting as well as ambient lights behind a glass-front door, designers say. LED under-counter lighting and LED recessed ceiling lights are also popular.

3. Pops of color. Neutral colors in the kitchen is the safe preference, but more kitchens are adding bolder pops of color--such as in persimmon or pomegranate--to spice up the kitchen. Colored knobs, kitchen accessories, and even appliances are bringing in these pops of color. Designers say pops of color can also be brought in by the fabric choice in kitchen window seats, the upholstered seats, or window valances.

4. Striving for simplistic luxury. Clean lines and transitional designs are “in” while ornate Tuscan and French country kitchen styles are falling out of favor in the kitchen. Betty Nairn of Cabinet-S-Top in Granger Township, Ohio, says “simplistic luxury” is the kitchen trend nowadays.

Source: "8 Areas to Pay Attention to When Updating Your Kitchen," RISMedia (March 5, 2011)

http://www.realtor.org/RMODaily.nsf/pages/News2011030806?OpenDocument