I want to tile my kitchen floor but need to find a budget solution until we can afford it

Parquet terracotta flooring being installed

(Image credit: Hannah Carvell)

Screen printer Hannah Carvell is one of Ideal Home's new Open House contributors, sharing her thoughts on colourful home design for a creative family to live in. See the rest of her articles here.

My love affair for a tiled floor is long, I think my instagram feed is littered with as many tile brands and beautiful tiled interior shots as it is with funny cat videos (a lot). I have sent off for more tile samples over the years than I care to admit and any house I have ever owned I have always made tiles a central part of my decor.

We then moved from East London to a family home in the suburbs. I was determined I was bringing with me the some of the gorgeous colours and patterns I had seen on the mosques around where we previously lived. I found the most beautiful tiles at Habibi - you could design your layout with any colour and pattern of mosaic hand crafted tiles from Morocco, I was obsessed and insisting it was our "Forever Home" and "an investment" we ploughed ahead.

Dog on green, blue and white mosaic tile floor

Since then, I’ve enjoyed a lovely earthy terracotta floor from Floors of Stone, laid in herringbones with each tile having been made by hand and dried on roofs in Portugal. They had many quirks, and I was particularly charmed every time we found a paw print or birds foot print and made sure these ones were laid front and centre. They were kind of uneven and certainly not symmetrical.

The result? A beautiful and warm kitchen floor, which was not particularly easy to clean (for some this is a priority, my aunty can’t bear not having an pristine wipe clean surface). However, as non-pristine people with a house full of animals and children I think the uneven and imperfect surface hid a multitude of sins.

If it looks old, uneven, and has a unique patina then sign me up much to the distress of any tradesman I have ever hired to help me lay tiles over the years.

Terracotta floor tiles being laid out in parquet pattern

Fast forward to now, our current home in Somerset (hopefully the forever home!), two years on and I still get that pinch me feeling as I drive back home and see my house, a Somerset Long House. It's old and like a Chocolate Box Cottage complete with roses around the door come summer. I adore it.

Very different to past town houses we have lived in which all had high ceilings and spacious rooms and we always went into them knowing we would be renovating so I had ideas about walls coming down, kitchens, bathrooms and of course tiles!

Bathroom with floor and wall tiles in pink, yellow and white

A few things have changed for us, budget being the main one. We don’t have any spare cash for renovations and bought this home knowing this. There are things that need to be done (the day we moved in it was raining hard, and from the off we could see that rain was also coming inside as well as out) but this house is different we will make changes slowly and on a tight budget.

I adore its charm despite its faults and am more than happy to live in it as it is, leaks and walls in tact. However I just can’t help myself with the kitchen floor, and am getting the pangs of wanting beautiful tiles on the floor.

Brown and white square tiles with star motif

I have given the kitchen walls a quick fix update with paint and new kitchen knobs on the existing cupboards, but the floor is the most practical we have ever had. It's a dream to clean and with dogs and chickens running around that really has been a good thing, but its also a hard wearing industrial grey speckled lino, and it reminds me of being at the vets.

I find myself dreaming of gorgeous hand made colourful works of art from Otto Tiles or reclaimed encaustic beauties from Bert and May - all highly impractical and totally divine.

Cat sitting on brown and white aged tiles with star motif

So what’s a girl to do, with a tile habit she can no longer afford to feed? Well I may have found the solution for now while I wait to sell more screen prints/win the lottery. I'm going to tile the window sill in my kitchen diner instead.

In a past kitchen I had fallen in love with Mexican tiles from Milagros. These colourful, hand crafted rustic beauties I am hard pressed to pick a favourite among them, but forever drawn to minty greens I went with with a crackle surfaced, antique looking off white with a minty green pattern.

Windowsill being tiled with cream and green tiles

I've painted the once dark brown woodwork in a pea green eggshell and plan to tile the windowsill to bring a bit of colour and pattern into the room and draw the eye to these lovely tiles but without the price tag of a laying a full floor. It can be my real life Pinterest board giving me a little taste of the impractical tiles I will one day be able to lay instead of the vet waiting room vibes.

In the meantime my Pinterest boards and tile sample collection is expanding while I daydream about the perfectly imperfect kitchen floor.

Hannah Carvell is a screen printer based in the rural heart of Somerset, where she works from a converted stone outbuilding nestled beside her cottage. Her work has been featured in national press such as Livingetc and Ideal Home, and in the the homes - and Instagram feeds - of people such as Erica Davies and Louise Thompson. Her home studio is the creative hub where she hand-pulls her vibrant, layered prints, known for their rich use of colour and the alchemy of overlapping inks that produce unexpected, luminous shades.

Hannah's signature aesthetic—bold, playful, and full of movement—reflects her fascination with how hues interact and transform when placed in conversation with one another.