That Time I Felt Like A Celebrity

Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Floor & Decor.  All opinions are 100% my own. 

This summer I got an experience like no other.  I got a sneak peek at the new Floor & Decor store that was opening near me.  That’s right…before the doors were open to the public, Jeremy, I and the four little nuggets got to fan-girl all over the store’s tile, wood and stone.  Yes.  Jeremy did the fan-girl.  Complete with screaming and a ribbon dance.

This may not make everyone squeal like a sixth grade girl at a Taylor Swift concert but for me?  Having ‘back-stage passes’ made me feel like a total celebrity.  I am such a nerd for tiling…it’s one of my favorite DIY things in the whole world.  I love seeing the new options and the trends that are working their way up the trend ladder and then of course…seeing a tile job finished is like the best thing ever.  Nothing is as nice as a freshly tiled bathroom or backsplash.  Nothing.

But before I tell you all about the store….I promised a very fun virtual giveaway to two lucky readers.  I offered up two free photoshopped rooms to two people and received a huge outpouring of emails.  A lot of designers charge for this service and I was so happy to be able to virtually create a more finished space for two of you….I wish I could do it for you all!  I know that seeing a photoshopped version of the finished product is a huge motivator to get things done.  Congratulations to Liddia and Ashley!  Your emails were randomly chosen and your dining rooms got a virtual overhaul.

Here is Ashley’s space before complete with carpet….

The light fixture and table are so fun and show such personality.  Ashley has two fur babies and that usually makes carpet a big pain in the you-know-what.  Switching it up for a hardwearing wood plank like the Honey Oak Hand Scraped solid hardwoods makes it much more pet friendly.

Another interesting option would be a wood look tile throughout.  I have some friends who have lots of kids and they just filled their entire first floor with tile that looks just like wood and it is amazing.  If you get the right tile, it is undetectable that it is not wood!  This gray option is so modern (Kivu Ceniza Ceramic Tile)…

Lastly…there is another wood look that is tile.  Vintage Oak Wood Plank Porcelain tile would definitely hold up to a ton of abuse and still look great (plus it’s about $1 – $1.50 cheaper than hardwoods).

Liddia is our second winner and her dining room is definitely a work-in-progress.  She said she would love a blue upper wall and wants the wainscoting to be white.

Done 🙂

I wish painting a whole room was this easy!

I wanted to show her two options….one with a medium tone wood in a more gray finish and then something lighter to bring some airiness to the room.

Here is the one with Summerdine Maple Solid Hardwoods.  Isn’t it beautiful?

And this option is a tile again!  I can’t help it.  I love the idea of tile that looks like wood.

It’s Teton Owen Ceramic Planks.

Hope this give you girls the motivation to move forward in your renovations!  I know you both are doing AWESOME updating your homes!

And now back to the Floor & Decor tour.

When we got there, the crew was still cleaning the floor and doing finishing touches on the store while we waited for the manager to come over.  We immediately fell in love with the fact that they had mini set ups showing off their tile.  Weston is currently my favorite child for picking out this beautiful tub for his mother 🙂

The bathrooms were not only beautiful but I loved being able to see how they put unexpected twists on the tiling application.  See that woven tile to the far right?  I always thought of it as floor tile but seeing it on a backsplash changed my mind.  And I love the triple glass tile subways in a clean block layout!  So cute.

And you definitely need a closeup of this black slate.  Seriously gorgeous.

See that marble banding on marble in that middle bathroom?  SOOOO PERFECT.  It’s like strings of jewels!

And for all you tiling rookies…consider a band of color through an inexpensive travertine….this mosaic is sandwiched by some pencil tile and it looks like it was meant to be there!

One of the biggest trends I saw was subway and plank all running vertically for a more modern twist.

The store itself is absolutely huge.  It’s like the Ikea of hard flooring.  You seriously need to dedicate a whole day to shopping there.

And the prices are REALLY good.  Make sure you have a list of what you need because if you bought everything you could afford, your car would break from too much tile in the trunk.

Jeremy and I have a list of rooms that we need to tile….

• the downstairs guest bathroom (goodbye marble with red streaks!)
• the boys bathroom (cracked and not my style)
• the master bathroom (uuuuggghhhh!)
• the basement kitchen
• the fireplace in our sitting room

I think this ledger tile would look awesome wrapping our fireplace….

And of course, I would LOVE to do marble all over our master bathroom….

This would look amazing in the boys bathroom….

And I like the idea of marble for the first floor bathroom…to tie in the kitchen backsplash….

For all of you that might be saying….No Way Jose!  I am not good with picking out stuff.  Or my husband would need to see and touch everything….don’t fret.  The folks there get it.  They even have this huge design center with someone that can help you figure out which tile to pick, which accent tiles you will love and how much you need.

Those little framed tiles in the back?  They are interchangeable and Floor & Decor makes it clear that they want to be on top of the newest trends and tile combos.  They even have a board that the professionals can post info.  Floor & Decor does back ground checks on them to make sure they are a legit business and that way you don’t have to search till kingdom come for an installer.

Plus, they are really into education which I really appreciate.  Even their signage (which Mareks the manager is Vana White-ing for you) is informative.  Ever wonder why some tile is more expensive than others?  They can teach you that! They also have tiling classes that can take you from the very basics to a tiling pro.  If I were the bachelorette, that would be the date I would take my fellas on….nothing says husband material like DIY classes!

Jeremy said that the highlight of the store for him was the hard-to-find stuff that they seemed to have TONS of.  Wood moldings?  Check.

Ready to go countertop overlays?  In stock.

Matching outlet covers for your travertine, marble and slate?  Yup.

Farm sinks and vessels at super reasonable prices?  Oh yes they got it.

They even have butcher block counters…DIFFERENT WOODS.  That’s basically impossible to find here.

And I think it knocked both our socks off when we saw their laminate flooring collection.  It is amazing how far laminate has come!  These look like hardwoods. Can be wet mopped.  And are really REALLY affordable.

Imagine my face looking like this throughout the entire tour….

My favorite part was obviously the tiling stuff.  The tile itself…

and then the booty that they had to make the job easier.

Ever want a color of grout that they don’t have in stock at your local home improvement store?  Yes…that has happened to me TWICE now and it is enraging.  Floor & Decor had more colors than I had ever seen.  It made me tear up a little 🙂

Plus, they had the Schluter-Kerdi system….every bit of it in stock.  Don’t know what this is?  It’s my future people.  This is what I would use to redo our master bathroom…it’s the bomb dot com.  If you are considering redoing a bathroom yourself….consider this….

I would say that the boys had a highlight of the trip too…..seeing all the men with flags and the forklifts!  It was like toddler heaven!

Just wanted to say thank you to the folks at the store for giving us the tour and especially Mareks Meija who pushed my babies around while I fawned over all the tiling goodies.  We totally felt like we got the celebrity treatment and have already written down on our calendar when we are going back to tackle one of our big projects!

p.s.  For those of you that might be wondering…all of the tile shown above is available online too.  You can order and ship directly to your doorstop 🙂