renovations: material hunting

My interior designer, Michal Fishler-Katz, and I, went to the shops to choose materials for the upcoming renovation.

We both loved this almost slate-grey ceramic tile for the main part of the apartment (kitchen, living room, workroom), and this wood-like ceramic tile (yes it is ceramic, not real wood!) for the bedroom and bathrooms.

Here's a nicer catalog photo of the ceramic wood-like tile:

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The benefits of this tile over a real hard wood floor is that it's much cheaper and much more durable (does not wear or gets scratched), you can wash it with water just like any other ceramic tile. The downsides are that it's not really wood, not a real natural material which adds more warmth and character, and it is colder to step on or sit on during the winter, like any tile. But real hard wood floors of good quality are probably not in my budget, and I don't have the heart to see them get damaged over time.

This is an alternative floor tile, which is a lighter color, a "safer" choice, but a more boring one:

It's really hard to show the colors in photos... Especially since these were taken on a smartphone.

This is a laminated floor, also wood-like, but it can't be used in the bathroom, and I think it's more expensive than the ceramic wood-like tile:

Pretty amazing how it looks like real wood, right?

Remember that this is the look we were aiming at for the kitchen:

We chose formica cabinet doors, which is a much cheaper and more durable material than wood, or polymer painted doors (or whatever other technology is out there!) and we're pretty happy with what we found. We also liked this warm somewhat vintage looking marble counter top.

The kitchen cabinets will be flat (no indentations) because formica dictates that. If you want the indented kind, the paint is much more susceptible to being scratched.

Here's an example of a painted (polymer?) door shape that I liked but won't get:

And here's a formica kitchen, with flat cabinet doors (see, it looks fine):

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For the bathroom we looked at these tiles, but we still have some work to do with the design concept for the washroom:

the dark grey tile at the middle-left

I saw this colorful mosaic tile which costs a fortune, and Michal rightly said I should forget about it, but I took a picture just the same because it's so happy and colorful:

Check out my pinterest boards if you'd like:
Bathroom | Living Room | Bedroom

Kitchen | Workroom | Color

There's still a lot of work ahead of us... More to come soon!