Doorways can define a space, but what if you don’t want to use one?
Floors can also create definitions through colour, direction, or texture.
From using reclaimed terracotta tiles, timber and stone to having a consistent flooring all the way through. It’s not always possible.
What this guide covers
- Define the Journey in Your Home
- Change of Material to Create an Area
- Creating Flow with the Same Flooring
- Character With Reclaimed Terracotta Tiles
- Using Direction and Patterns
- Ensure Your Transitions Are Practical
- Try These Methods Before You Buy
- Final Thoughts
Define the Journey in Your Home
Firstly, consider where you’ll be moving through your home. Before selecting a colour for your kitchen tile, map out where you’re walking. If you enter your home and head straight to the kitchen and dining, you may find that it benefits from a consistent floor material. Where would you then rest? If you’re preparing or eating meals, it may be useful to create another area for relaxation. By changing your floor, you can create the definition of an area without another wall.
Flooring can be important to consider when designing your home or renovation project. According to Houzz’s study “UK Kitchen Trends 2026,” they surveyed 402 UK Houzz homeowners who had completed, were working on or were planning a kitchen renovation. Houzz’s 2026 UK Kitchen Trends Study found that 81% of surveyed renovators had upgraded, were upgrading, or planned to upgrade their kitchen flooring. Try to consider your floor as part of your design. Draw where people will enter, walk through, stand at, or relax in your home. If you have a large amount of foot traffic through your dining area, you may want to alter your desired demarcation point.
Change of Material to Create an Area
This will allow you to signal where you’re ending one activity and beginning another, without closing yourself off from the space.
You may wish to use a more distinctive flooring material in your kitchen and dining. Using reclaimed terracotta tiles is just one way of doing this. As seen here, using our range of reclaimed terracotta, brick and timber from lubelska, there are lots of ways you can create definition in your space using a variety of natural materials. Find a focal point in your room to align your flooring with. You don’t want your tiles to look like an afterthought, so find an existing pattern to work off of.
Create consistency between your materials:
- Similar tones, colours or hues
- If you choose to have a busier tile, you may want a simpler textured flooring beside it.
- Have repeating characteristics, for example the colour of your grouting, timber or furniture.
Remember to not have too many floor materials, as this can chop up a space.
Once you’ve decided on where you want your flooring to demarcate an area, look at it from each angle you can enter it from. You’ll also want to make sure your furniture is incorporated into this.
By pulling out your dining chair, can you see how far your flooring needs to go?
Creating Flow with the Same Flooring
As noted earlier, using one flooring material can blur the lines of definition in a space. If you want to create more of a continuous line, try laying timber that continues from your hallway into your lounge.
Keeping the direction of your flooring consistent will also help to achieve this look. However, you don’t have to match flooring colours and textures. Having similar hues will help tie your space together; using bright contrasting colours could distract from where your materials meet.
Limestone is another option; just be aware of what you’ll need to maintain it. Remember to check your flooring material by daylight and at night in the rooms you want to install it in. What may look light could look much darker once in situ, especially in hallways with little light. If your current floor is in good condition, there’s no need to rip it out and lay the same timber in your extension. Simply install the same type, with the same undertone, and you’ll see where your new extension begins. Consider what type of usage these rooms will get; you may want an easier-to-clean flooring material if they get a lot of foot traffic.
Character With Reclaimed Terracotta Tiles
Using reclaimed terracotta tiles can really give your floor personality, due to their age and wear. There can also be variances in sizes, meaning that your finished product may differ. By continuing your timber into your living space, you can balance this out with a calming space after using reclaimed clay in your kitchen.
Terracotta will often come in a variety of sizes and have uneven thickness when it’s reclaimed. Make sure you ask your supplier for samples and talk to your installer about what can be expected on site. Your clay flooring may require certain cleaning considerations, make sure you know what you can and can’t use on them, if your kitchen is a busy space, this can really benefit you in the long run. Also, if your current flooring is original to the home, seek appropriate conservation advice before applying any treatment to an original historic tile floor.
Speak to your installer about any considerations with your flooring, including whether it can be installed over underfloor heating, and if it will need movement gaps, etc. Remember this can depend on many factors when installing flooring; it may not be suitable just because of the tile you want to use.
Once you’ve received your samples, try to lay them down and see how they look, as there will be differences in colour, size, edging and grouting that can catch your attention.
Using Direction and Patterns
Depending on how you choose to lay your flooring, you will have more elements to notice in your room. If you direct your flooring out towards your back garden, your eyes may be drawn outside, or if you place your timber across your living room, you may notice it feels wider.
Tiles can allow for lots of fun with direction. If you keep to a straight line, it can create consistency, but if you choose to add interest, be aware of your surrounding decor.
Try not to overdo your pattern, and remember your flooring will have a pattern, so how this will look once tiled is something to consider; this will also depend on the tiles chosen for installation. Also consider the colour of your grouting, as brighter contrasts can catch the eye, and you may want your floor to appear as one.
Ensure Your Transitions Are Practical
Having beautiful floor transitions means nothing if people are tripping over them.
As stated previously, flooring materials can differ in thickness, so agree on finished levels and movement allowances before fitting, and depending on your tiles, you may need more gaps than you think; remember to consider the finished height of your flooring if it is meeting an existing one. Your installer should advise you on how to properly join your tiles and flooring, and there shouldn’t be too many issues that stop this being seamless. Unless it’s over a door or high foot traffic area, you may find you want to hide your demarcation point, but having a thin edge piece can look elegant. You may want to consider if your home will be wheelchair accessible, and make sure that your floor transitions reflect this.
As you’ll want to walk through your home, remember to think about where you may want to keep your flooring durable, and consider that your entryways may get muddy, and there could be spills around your kitchen sink. Choose flooring that fits your needs, and continue that through your material choices.
If your home has some great flooring, consider how you can highlight it, and not remove it for aesthetic purposes. Lastly, always make sure your flooring doesn’t affect the swing of your door.
Try These Methods Before You Buy
Remember, we talked about laying your flooring down, you want to check that your samples work with each other. Place your samples where your floors will meet, check around your house, against walls, doors, and other flooring, then walk in and see what you notice.
Ask yourself: what will someone’s eyes see first, where do you want the areas to separate, and can people clean and navigate the space easily? Once you’ve designed your pattern, make sure you order accordingly, speak to your supplier about any cuts or patterns you may need, and remember you may not be able to source tiles from the same batch, so ensure you have extras if you’re tiling an entire room.
Final Thoughts
Using your floors to highlight where one activity ends and another begins can make your space flow and create a harmony within your home; just make sure that your joiners allow for this and won’t interrupt your line of sight.
