apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Love them all!

Yes, it's a great look, but have you actually lived with it?

The black squares show all the crumbs and lint. The white squares show all the dirt. I'm about as far from a neatnik/clean freak as you can get and our B&W floor bugged me no end. It really only looked good for maybe a an hour or two after mopping it, then the kids and our black dog and whoever would tromp through and it would look dirty again.

When we had the house on the market to sell it, I would mop the floor a half hour before prospective buyers were scheduled to look at it and then I would clear kids and dog out of the house until later.

The only way I'd do a checkerboard floor now is with very speckly-patterned tiles.

The wallpaper in the last photo is incredible. Any idea where it's from?

I think the checkered floors look great in some spaces but I definitely prefer them on the diagonal, like in the 4th pic. I'm confused about #5. Is it just the angle of the pic, or are the tiles laid differently on either side of the peninsula? Wouldn't that look weird where they met?

spanky- I was going to say the EXACT same thing... except mine was speckly, and it was still bad. My biggest problem was the black always looked clean enough, but the white always looked filthy, no matter what. I'd find myself scrubbing the white squares, and then wondering what messes I was not seeing on the black ones.

I love a classic black and white checkered floor. It adds such a nice graphic punch. The dirt issue has never occurred to me however.

There's this checkered floor made out of cork. I'm guessing it probably would be more low maintenance than a more glossy material.

I have a checkered floor and agree with spanky and teeze. Keeping it clean is a total nightmare.

I have a checkerboard floor too and Spanky is right! It's great when clean and it doesn't look clean for long.

I like a checkered floor that is earth toned. I've seen these a few times and thought they were really attractive. I've also seen this with stone tiles.

I love that cork floor. I have marmoleum, which hides dirt well, but if I had it to do over, I'd choose a checkboard pattern of earth tones.

This post brings me back to an earlier post, about design pet peeves. Black and white checked tiles are one of mine. I have yet to figure out why anyone would find them to be a good idea as I find them to be uuuuuuugly.

Yay! I love this look. Even though my current place's floor is cheap peel and stick vinyl, the black and white check makes it look WAY better than if they'd gone with one solid color. Someday I'd love to have a real checkered linoleum floor, though perhaps not in black and white.

I have black and white checkerboard floor in the kitchen and like it a lot, but wish they were on the diagonal. It just looks more sophisticated that way for some reason.

I like checkerboards, but I'm kinda over the black-and-white type. It starts looking too Mary Engelbreit after a while. I hope to put in a marmoleum checkerboard floor in our kitchen, but am definitely leaning toward a subtler contrast in the colors. Currently leaning toward a middle yellow and a washed out red.

I have marmoleum, too. It demands a little (lot of!) maintenance, but it is so timeless and so flexible. It's perfect, now, with pale lavender-grey walls, but should I suddenly want red walls, or white, or violet - the floor will always be just perfect.

Hey, that's my old kitchen up there! Oh how I miss it. But I don't miss cleaning the floor - as spanky said, even for a non-neatnik like myself that floor was hard to maintain.

Wow, I'm so interested to learn that others have trouble keeping their black and white checkered floors looking clean. I thought it was just me, that maybe it's because we went with cheap vinyl (we rent). Seriously, I simply can't sweep it clean enough. And if we vacuum it only looks good for an hour. I tell myself at least we know when it's clean, whereas the old vinyl pattern must have been just as dirty and we just didn't realize it. Sigh. I think the checkerboard *looks* great though. When it's clean.

I love this look. And black-and-white floors must be easier to keep clean than all-white ones like I have.

I have b/w on the diagonal smooth ceramic. So glad I am not the only non-neatnik who notices how it only looks great one hour after mopping. BUT, I am a slave to fashion and think it looks so old world Paris and even though some of them are cracking (pot and pan attack), if I ever redo the floor, I would do the same thing. Personal preference but it goes with my fantasy slate countertops, white cabinets with finger cup hardware and glass display doors. (No lace) just crisp and classic I think.

I love them all, too. But I especially love pic #4 with the dark blue lower cabinets and green walls. It is simply stunning!

I love checkered floors, and we had them in our last apartment in the kitchen, but they looked as if they hadn't been cleaned in the last 50 years. Every time I'd clean them more and more dirt would come off, it was never ending. They were also the speckled ones from the 50's, so they always looked dirty. Bummed me out big time.

I like 'em. There's a local raft company that has "watery" checkerboard colors that I especially like. Pic at the link:

http://stickmop.com/images/stickmop4.jpg

So much to think about! We have cheap checkerboards lurking under the horrible carpet in the office. When we moved in, I took one look at it (large scale, very speckled, *not* on the diagonal) and covered it right back up. Over the years, the room has turned into a lovely red and white retro work/craft space and I find myself wondering if those checks would suit the space. Right now the idea is still full of possibilities. I'm afraid to look again for fear that it will be just as ugly as the first time I looked at it!

Love the look, though I've never actually lived w/it and most likely never will (we have hardwood kitchen floors... though I suppose I could paint them). The classic black and white checks are my favorite amongst these.

My dream is to have an entry hall with a black & white marble checkerboard floor. Someday...

In the meantime, for an example of a more upscale version of the checkerboard floor, check out the September issue of House Beautiful. There's a gorgeous floor composed of white marble paired with a blue-ish gray limestone. Absolutely beautiful.

I have large B&W tiles set on the diagonal in my skinny row house kitchen...LOVE the look, but like others have said, it only looks clean for about 10 minutes. An automatic self-mopping floor would be a wonderful invention!

OK So totally don't care about the floors - but I love the small metal table in the first photo - Can anyone tell me where I can get one? Its exactly what I've been looking for. THANKS~