I am loving how recently it seems mudrooms and laundry rooms are taking on a design life of their own. They are no longer boring utilitarian spaces, but rooms that you can give some serious personality to. One major trend in these rooms is colorful cement tile. Three of my favorite sources for cement tile are Sabine Hill, Cle´ Tile, and The Cement Tile Shop.

If you remember the BEFORE pictures of our kitchen we have a small enclosed room off the back of the kitchen, which was likely the original porch on the house. It would have taken some serious cash and structural changes to open this room up into the kitchen, so we’ve opted to make it a functional mudroom and carry the kitchen design scheme along into the space.

Of course, I had my heart set on cement tile because it looks so great on a mudroom floor, but this stuff is not cheap! There are other places in this renovation where I’d rather spend money, and so I was determined to find a cement tile look-alike. Can you tell which tile out of the four pictured is ceramic versus cement?

You should know that cement tile is expensive because it’s often hand made, hand painted and very durable. Porcelain floor tile is also quite strong, and lastly ceramic tile is usually the least expensive and is not always recommended for floor use, but some tiles are floor rated. I wanted to carry the black and white KITCHEN color scheme into the mudroom, and these four tiles were my top choices. I was pretty excited when I finally found a ceramic tile with the look I was going for! This tile by Forties sold on Wayfair had the look I wanted for at a fraction of the cost, and it was floor-rated ceramic. Since I don’t think we’ll be that hard on this floor, I decided to go for it and hope for the best!

We also need to design a built-in bench and coat/storage option to make the space really function. Here are some of my favorite Pinterest inspiration images:

The tile has been installed and it’s looking awesome! I’m thinking we’ll keep the walls white and I like the idea of cushion on the bench and pop of color, but I haven’t gotten that far yet. Finishing up this room is going to take a little while, because we’ve got bigger fish to fry in other rooms. I would love to have the mudroom ship shape before the first snow, so that is goal for now!

What do you think? Are you into the cement tile look? Do you think the look-alike was a good idea?

XO – CLAIRE