Best tile flooring for living room

When choosing the perfect flooring solution for your living room, you have a multitude of options available to you. From carpet to hardwood to luxury vinyl tile, your choice of flooring can brighten up your space, contrast or accentuate the room’s existing features, and make it feel cozy and warm. While tile flooring may seem like an unusual choice for the living room, luxury vinyl tile is one of the top flooring choices for living rooms. In this article, we will give you an overview of six different tile options commonly used for living rooms and the pros and cons of each.

What is the best floor tile for your living room?

Whether you call the gathering space in your home a living room, den, or family room, choosing the right flooring is essential. You want this to be a comfortable, warm, inviting space to relax and enjoy time with family and friends. The flooring is the foundation of the room, and while you may not initially think of tiling this room, some tiles, including LVT, work very well in these spaces.
 
Here the living room tile choices will explore, weighing both the advantages and disadvantages of each: 
 
  • Luxury Vinyl Tile (LVT)
  • Ceramic Tile
  • Porcelain Tile
  • Hardwood Tile
  • Linoleum Tile
  • Natural Stone Tile

Luxury Vinyl Tile or Plank

Luxury Vinyl Tile or Plank for Living Rooms
Luxury vinyl tile, or LVT, is a high-quality vinyl flooring that often mimics the look of stone or natural wood, and it comes in various sizes and shapes, from large roll-out sheets to tiles, to long planks that look like hardwood flooring. Luxury vinyl is an excellent choice for all types of living rooms, from modern to traditional. The plank format, often called LVP (luxury vinyl plank), is very popular in today’s living rooms.
 
Luxury vinyl is an excellent choice for your living room because of the variety of design choices, cost, and durability. Luxury vinyl comes in many different colors, patterns, or styles, including plank formats that closely resemble oak, maple, walnut, pine, and other types of wood. Luxury vinyl is highly durable and hard-wearing and will last for many decades. The top wear layer is stain, scruff, and scratch resistant, making it a great option for families with children and pets.
 
LVT and LVP are also more cost effective than many other options due to their ease of installation, making them the perfect option for the DIY crowd. Their price and long-lasting durability make LVTs an ideal option for many homes. LVTs can be glued in place or free-floating above the subfloor, thanks to innovative click-and-lock technologies that make LVT a snap to install. You can also add a layer of underlayment during installation to provide more cushion underfoot and better noise reduction.
 
However, LVTs do have a few drawbacks. The polymers they are made from are not eco-friendly and do not break down like other materials. They can also be hazardous during installation, as some LVT products release volatile organic compounds into the air. LVTs can also be challenging to remove if you choose a type of tile that uses adhesive glue when installing your floor. We recommend using LVTs installed as a floating floor to avoid this.
Ceramic Tile for Living Room

Ceramic Tile

Ceramic tiles are made from clay that is molded into a variety of shapes and heated at high temperatures. This process hardens the clays and gives the tiles their durability. Like LVTs, ceramic tiles are available in many colors, patterns, and styles, including tiles that mimic the look of wood and natural stone. These tiles come in polished, glazed, or unpolished forms that can lend themselves to the look and feel you are seeking. Additionally, ceramic tiles are among the most cost-effective flooring options on the market. However, they are more costly than LVTs and require more time and expertise to install, making them more expensive overall.
 
While the hardness of ceramic tiles gives them durability to withstand scratches and everyday wear and tear, this is also their drawback. Ceramic tiles are inflexible when heavy objects are dropped on them, which can cause the object to shatter and potentially damage the flooring. Ceramic tile is also cold and hard and not very comfortable underfoot. If your family likes to gather around and stretch out on the floor, there may be better options than ceramic. 
 

Porcelain Tile

Porcelain tiles are a type of ceramic tile made from finer clays that are hardened at higher temperatures than typical ceramic. This process makes porcelain tiles less porous and more durable to avoid scratches and stains on the tile. However, this benefit means porcelain tiles are more expensive than standard ceramic tiles. Just like ceramic tiles and LVTs, they can be found in numerous color and pattern options, along with mimicking the look of natural materials. 

Engineered Hardwood Tile

Engineered Hardwood Tile for Living Room

If you’ve always wanted real hardwood floors in your home but can’t justify their cost, engineered hardwood tile may be the best solution for you. As its name suggests, these tiles/planks are made from engineered wood to give your home that genuine hardwood floor look and feel. While these floors are more costly than other tile options, they are incredibly durable and easy to install. Hardwood tiles come in several different design options, so you can choose what fits best in your home.

Linoleum Tile

Linoleum tiles are made from linseed oil and cork dust. Like LVTs, ceramic, and porcelain, linoleum tiles can be made to imitate natural materials like wood and stone. However, they are not available in as many designs as vinyl tile. These tiles are dirt- and dust-resistant, making this type of floor easy to maintain. The affordable cost of linoleum flooring is a considerable benefit, but linoleum tiles will require professional installation, which can be expensive. The downside of linoleum is that it dents easily, which means there are better choices for a living room with heavy furniture.

Linoleum Tile

Natural Stone Tiles for Living Room

Natural stone tiles can make any living room feel sophisticated and will give your floor its own character that can bring the whole room together. There are countless stone flooring options, with marble, granite, and slate being among the most popular. Made from stone, these natural tiles are incredibly durable and resistant to the everyday wear and tear of high-traffic areas like your living room. While other types of tiles cannot match their durability on this list, stone tiles require much more maintenance than the other options. To maintain their durability, natural stone tiles must be resealed every five to six years to keep them water-, stain-, and scratch-resistant. Additionally, these types of tiles are some of the most expensive flooring solutions, and like ceramic and porcelain tiles, natural stone can be cold and uncomfortable. 

Pros and Cons of tile flooring for your living room

Homeowners often hesitate to choose a tile floor for their living room, but many of today’s tile sand planks are sold choices. Here we will discuss some of the pros and cons of tile flooring for you to consider.

Pros

  • Variety of Designs – Tile flooring options, such as LVTs, ceramic, porcelain, and linoleum, give you unmatched variety when choosing a color, style, and texture that best complements your living room.
  • Easy to Clean and Maintain – Most tile floors only require sweeping and mopping to keep them clean.
  • Repairing – When a tile breaks, you often only need to replace the broken tile to fix the floor, with a few exceptions.
  • Long-lasting Durability – Tile flooring is water-, scratch-, and stain-resistant, making it ideal for high-traffic areas like the living room.

Cons

  • Cold to the Touch – You probably want your living room to be warm and inviting, and stepping on a cold floor can ruin this feeling. Tile floors do not hold heat very well.
  • Hard and Slippery – Even though tile floors are water-resistant, they can be hard and slippery, leading to hazards. However, there are two exceptions – vinyl and linoleum.
  • Drop Resistance – Although most tiles have long-lasting durability, they are susceptible to scratches and cracking when heavy objects are dropped, especially ceramic and porcelain tiles.
Living Room Flooring Idea with LX Hausys H·FLOR

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If you’re looking for flooring for your living room, check out LX Hausys’ luxury vinyl brand H·FLOR. If you need assistance with your selection or have any questions, the LX Hausys team will gladly help. To contact us, complete the contact form on our website, and a team member will email you as soon as possible. 

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