Our house came with marble tile in the kitchen and bathrooms and carpeting everywhere else. I've gotten rid of the carpeting everywhere except the bedrooms and replaced it with ceramic tile.
I hate the marble tile and would love to get rid of it if it wasn't so expensive to do so. There's practically no grout involved with marble, but it's hard to clean and it cracks easily. It looked awesome when it was new but it's not so great-looking now.
I have two different kinds of ceramic tile. The tile in the living room and family room, etc. is more of a matte finish -- not shiny. It's great because it doesn't show stains and it cleans fairly easily. It's like a beige swirl with a hint of burnt orange and they tinted the grout burnt orange to pick up that color. They can tint grout any color you want. You definitely want that done because it doesn't show stains or discolorations.
I got shiny ceramic tile in my dressing area and walk-in closet, though, when I had a plumbing problem that ruined my carpet there. It's my FAVORITE! It cost more, but it's even easier to clean than the other ceramic tile. It looks like porcelain but it was a lot cheaper than porcelain tile. I have light brown grout with that tile and it looks really great!
Tile has come down in price a lot. It's the installation that can be pricey. If you're interested in tile, definitely find a private person who will install it. Home Depot and those places charge an incredible amount of money to install and they expect you to rip up whatever is there and prepare the surface for them before they come. Otherwise, my matte ceramic tile cost just 99 cents per square foot and the shiny tile cost $1.49 for the 13X13 tile.
Julie |