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Floors
Floors
Budget-Friendly & Sensible: Ways to Upgrade Floors Without Retiling
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A Guide to Kitchen Floor Tiles: Gloss vs Matte Finish

This mini guide can help solve the question of matte vs gloss

Pooja Khanna Tyagi
Pooja Khanna Tyagi25 October 2018
Houzz India Contributor. An Architect , Interior Designer, Valuer, a Marathon Runner, and love Writing Poetry and Creative Stories on Building Design. Have been practicing since the year 2000 with specialization in the field of Corporate Interiors with projects extensively published in journals of national repute. Recently honoured with the reputed A3 Foundation award for Journalism for the year 2016 an for architectural poetry in the year 2018. Currently practicing and residing in Delhi and Noida. Website: www.khannaenterprise.com, Email: poojakhanna224@gmail.com, M:9891993392
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Available in gloss or matte finish, in materials like ceramic, porcelain and vitrified tiles, kitchen floor tiles are some of the most hard-working surfaces in the home. Both these finishes work well on kitchen floors and can impart a completely different look and feel to the space. Deciding between both these finishes is more of a personal preference and mainly depends on the kind of look you want to achieve for the kitchen design.

Here are the pros and cons of glossy and matte tiles, along with some key design considerations that one must keep in mind to make an informed choice.
User
What is the basic difference between gloss and matte tiles?
Gloss- and matte-finish tiles are made with the same raw materials and go through a similar manufacturing process, but each finish has a different level of shine and smoothness.
  • Gloss-finish tiles are finished with a durable glazed coating of liquid glass. This is the main distinguishing factor between a glossy and a matte finish.
  • Matte-finish tiles look less shiny and are not as smooth to the touch as gloss-finish tiles.
Monnaie Architects & Interiors Pvt Ltd
Gloss-finish tiles
Thanks to the steep rise in real-estate prices, urban homes have become compact and are often open-plan or studio apartments. In these homes, a single type of flooring runs through the home, including the kitchen. This might be glossy tiling, so here are its pros and cons.

Pros:
  • Gloss-finish tiles have an attractive mirror-like sheen. The glossy tile’s reflective surface bounces light all around the space, which adds to the brightness of the kitchen. As a result, small kitchens look bigger.
  • The smooth surface of the gloss-finish tiles makes it easy to clean them by simply wiping with a damp mop.
  • To bring in a sleek modern look to your kitchen, nothing works better than gloss-finish tiles.
Prachi Damle Photography
Cons:
  • On the downside, the highly reflective surface of gloss finish tiles easily shows up dirt, fingerprints, footprints and wet spots.
  • Another drawback of gloss-finish floor tiles is that they tend to become slippery when wet. If you have kids (or seniors) around, then opt for matte-finish tiles for better safety.
Pro tip: In case you want the best of both gloss and matte finishes, go for a lappato or semi-matte finish for your kitchen. These tiles have a shiny surface but do not have high reflective properties like glazed tiles and are not very slippery.
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Matte-finish tiles
Pros:

  • Matte-finish tiles are slip-resistant, unlike gloss-finish tiles.
  • These tiles are low on maintenance. Also, the non-reflective surface of matte-finish tiles is good at concealing stains, smudges and dirt.
CTDC
Cons:
  • Matte-finish tiles are dull and do not reflect light like gloss-finish tiles. Hence, they are more appropriate for larger kitchens. Matte-finish tiles in compact kitchens can make the kitchen look and feel smaller, unless the rest of it is carefully designed to counteract this effect.
  • It can be difficult to remove stains from matte-finish tiles.
Pro tip: Matte-finish floor tiles go well with kitchens that have a traditional, rustic or industrial look.
Prashant Bhat Photography
Can’t decide between gloss- and matte-finish tiles? In that case, consider pairing matte-finish floor tiles with gloss-finish tiles on the kitchen backsplash, as in this example.

Read more:
Granite Countertop Guide: Which Finish Is Right for Your Kitchen?
10 Indian Modular Kitchens With Personalities

Tell us:
What is your preference between gloss and matte finish, and why? Let us know in the Comments section below.
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