Bluff Diaries Chapter 21 - The Enchanted Home

Hello friends and TGIF! Busy busy days over here with the arrival of the porcelain container, so exciting though. I am seriously swooning over all the new pieces, just so so beautiful. Onto this post, the PB house is moving right along. As we speak the bathrooms are getting tiled which is very exciting.

We have just finalized the cabinetry for the kitchen and all baths as well as the trim work, so lots of progress. Plan to get back there sometime in August to check on the progress as they begin the finishing which as we all know is by far the most fun. Here are some pictures from my last trip down there. It is really starting to look like a house!

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Really shaping up! Shutters should get put up fairly soon

Love this big window as you go downstairs, it brings such great light into the house

Back porch aka stone storage facility:)

They finished the wood ceiling, which will get stained in a month or so

Starting the coffer detailing

Progress!

A sneak peek into bathroom flooring, love:)

Son #2’s bathroom floor with a pale gray silvery vanity finish

Arbor getting done over garaage

This is the future study, I love this room

We have two rooms the study and master that have ceilings like this, wold love to finish them this way, gorgeous!

Today’s post is all about flooring for the back mudroom/hallway leading into the back kitchen/pantry and laundry. I knew I wanted the look of tumbled travertine, something kind of rustic but not overly so. I found lots of good options, but then started to see so many that I got confused:) As of this writing, think I found “the one” but waiting to get a sample, if its as good as it appears in pictures, I will be very happy.

There are also many porcelains made to resemble stone and I must say I was pretty amazed at what they are doing with porcelain today, astounding! I however am always still drawn to real stone for some reason, in that regard, I am a purist. But, porcelain is much easier to keep up and maintenance free, not to mention quite a bit less money. So here is some of what I found in my travels-

This stone above is really pretty, in the well known Versailles pattern, they do not however issues samples and you have to order it per the picture which was too risky for me, as things like natural stone can so vary

Travertine bricks

Two tones of tumbled travertine

Trying out some herringbone as I love the look of herringbone brick

I thought this was beautiful reminds me a lot of the antique barr limestone from Paris Ceramics and Francois and Co, hard to believe its porcelain!

Here is stone on top of the porcelain, quite amazing-

I thought this below was so interesting, wouldn’t do it in such a main area of the house but very neat for an accent area, of course you know I love this pale gray/blue

I really like this natural stone a lot but they do not have it in stock and we don’t have time to wait for it, feels very much like what I have in the kitchen right now

Like both of these a lot, the left I love but they are technically outdoor pavers, which was too thick but the look I was after. Far right is tumbled travertine in a Versailles pattern

So after all that hemming and hawing I ended up going with something we know and love- this gorgeous floor with smaller pavers, 6″ and 8″ from Francois and Co, same reclaimed stone we have now which we love and it is really indestructible. I put it together with the cubby cabinetry and works beautifully. Glad to have yet another decision under my belt!

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I am really happy this decision is behind me especially when decisions are flying at me left and right. The bottom line is there is a vast array of choices out there…do your homework, shop around, go on Pinterest, blogs and Instagram. There is truly a wealth of information out there. The porcelains they are doing today as I demonstrated above are remarkably “stone like”, sometimes you can’t even tell the difference. But of course there is also real stone, and well, you know my feelings on that…..love it.

A few good resources if you are looking for porcelain or natural stone-

The Tile Shop

Houzz

Basketweave Mosaics

Travertine Warehouse

M S International

I would have gone the porcelain route if I found exactly what I was looking for in the small pavers but I didn’t and when I finally found something close, the lead time was too long. So we ended up going with the real stone which I have now in my house in NY and love. It’s more money but it wasn’t a huge area so it worked for us. Thanks for following along, the really fun part is just beginning….