Flooring ideas - 10 of the best

Marble-clad floors and walls make for glamorous luxury bathrooms. Marble is very hardwearing and versatile, but is also very porous so will need sealing. Check with your supplier.

Marble-clad floors and walls make for glamorous luxury bathrooms. Marble is very hardwearing and versatile, but is also very porous so will need sealing. Check with your supplier.

1/10 Marble bathroom flooring

bathroom with bathtub and tiles wall

(Image credit: Future PLC/Robert Sanderson)

Similar flooring
Mandarin Stone

2/10 Wooden living room flooring

room with childs rocking horse and book shelfs and wooden floor

(Image credit: Future PLC/David Barbour)

Beautiful, renewable and recyclable, wood has a natural warmth that looks particularly good in large open-plan living rooms where it has the space to shine. Whether you expose existing floorboards or lay a new engineered or solid floor, wood needs little maintentance. Just sweep regularly with a soft brush or
vacuum and mop over once a week (wring out the
mop well before using).

Similar wood flooring

Wickes

3/10 Chequerboard porcelain bathroom tiles

bathroom with yellow wall and back and white tiles floor

(Image credit: Future PLC/David Barbour)

Classic black and white chequered floors will never go out of style. Create this chequerboard pattern with white and black porcelain bathroom tiles. Lay them on the diagonal for added interest.

Similar tiles
Fired Earth

4/10 Wood parquet kitchen flooring

kitchen area with wooden floor and white kitchen units

(Image credit: Future PLC/Robert Sanderson)

Classic kitchen wooden parquet flooring with its crisp, neat geometric pattern is a thing of beauty. A waxed parquet floor will need to be cleaned and rewaxed once a year; a varnished version can go much longer without requiring maintenance. Alternatively, look for vinyl or laminate designs that imitate the real thing without the work.

Similar flooring
Upton Wood Flooring

5/10 Terracotta tiled kitchen flooring

kitchen area with white wall and dining table and chairs

(Image credit: Future PLC/Derek Robinson)

Create a traditional farmhouse look with terracotta tiles. Tough and hardwearing, they are favourites for kitchens and utility rooms and add a rustic warmth to a decorating scheme of whitewashed walls and mix-and-match dining chairs.

Similar tiles
Topps Tiles

6/10 Stone flagstone hallway flooring

stone flagstone hallway and flooring and dog and cloths

(Image credit: Future PLC/Niall McDiarmid)

Natural stone, such as limestone, marble, basalt or granite, is ideal for heavy-traffic areas, such as hallways and kitchens. Stone is porous and can stain, but your supplier will be able to advise you on sealants.

Similar flagstone flooring
Stone Age

7/10 Ceramic tile kitchen flooring

kitchen area with wooden floor and white wall and black counter

(Image credit: Future PLC/David Still)

Ceramic tiles come in all shapes, sizes, colours and textures. Beautiful floor tiles border the island unit in this classic kitchen, producing an effect not unlike a patterned rug on the wooden floor.

Find similar tiles
Fired Earth

8/10 Vinyl bathroom floor tiles

bathroom with vinyl floor and bathtub and blue towel

(Image credit: Future PLC/Robert Sanderson)

These vinyl tiles with raised dots are wipe-clean and easy to fit and a warmer flooring solution than stone. Vinyl tiles are super-practical when you don't want to gut your bathroom completely.

Similar floor tiles
Carpet Right

9/10 Porcelain tile bathroom flooring

porcelain tile bathroom flooring with washbasin

(Image credit: Future PLC/Eleri Griffiths)

10/10 Walnut flooring in modern hallway

walnut flooring in modern hallway white wall and shelf

(Image credit: Future PLC/Fiona Murray)

Engineered wood flooring in rich walnut adds warmth to any room, but looks particularly fabulous in this modern hallway. Perfect if you have underfloor heating...

Similar wood flooring
European Heritage

Thea Babington-Stitt
Assistant Editor

Thea Babington-Stitt is the Assistant Editor for Ideal Home. Thea has been working across some of the UK’s leading interiors titles for nearly 10 years. 

She started working on these magazines and websites after graduating from City University London with a Masters in Magazine Journalism. Before moving to Ideal Home, Thea was News and Features Editor at Homes & Gardens, LivingEtc and Country Homes & Interiors.