• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Tidbits

Inspiration for the Keeper of the Home

  • Home
  • About
    • About Me
    • Work with me
    • Media Kit
    • FAQ
    • Disclosure and Policy
  • Project Index
    • All
    • Decorating
    • DIY
    • Homesteading
    • Printables
    • Sewing
    • Crafts
    • Holidays
    • Recipes
    • Woodworking
    • Photography
    • Crafting with Kids
    • Other
  • Home Tours
  • Seasonal
    • Winter
    • Spring
    • Summer
    • Fall
  • Shop
  • Contact
You are at Home and DIY
Home and DIY
Food and recipes

You are here: Home / Design / How to Design Checkerboard Flooring (Color, Material, Finish)

How to Design Checkerboard Flooring (Color, Material, Finish)

March 28, 2022 • Design

6718 shares

Want to learn how to design checkerboard flooring? Let’s explore the many creative options there are for checkerboard flooring. Let’s think outside of the black and white box and talk about color options, tile material, and finishes to get you your own unique look for your checkered flooring.

Watch this Post

How to Design Checkerboard Flooring

As you will soon see, there are many options for creating a checkerboard flooring design in one of your living spaces. You should consider the type of floor tiles you would like to purchase as well as the colors of the tiles and the final finish.

Checkerboard Flooring Tile Material

Let’s first talk about tile material. I’m sure there are countless options but I’ll share the top three picks that I think are the best to get a beautiful checkerboard floor design.

1. Marble or Stone Flooring

In my humble opinion, marble or a genuine stone tile is going to give you the most authentic, timeless look. You can’t go wrong with something like a Carrara marble tile with gray veining and a black marble tile with white veining. That is the exact design I chose for our mudroom.

black and white carrara marble tiles in a vintage kitchen
DeVOL Kitchens

I don’t think this look will ever age, and when the tile does age–the patina will just make it look even better.

vintage table leg and Carrara marble floor tiles
Ham Interiors

Every lovely European space that inspired me the most had stone tile for the checkerboard design, no matter the color combo.

European living space with bluish gray and white marble floor tiles
Miguel Flores-Vianna

If doing all stone is a little out of the budget, you could even mix stone tile with something less expensive like a ceramic tile. I’ve seen that work like what appears to be in this bathroom space.

stone and ceramic floor tiling in a vintage bathroom design
House of Jade

Stone can even be something besides marbles, like travertine, limestone, slate, or any other natural stone. That is what appears to be in this space, and it is incredibly beautiful.

organic stone materials in a vintage kitchen design
Marie Flanigan Interiors

2. Ceramic or Porcelain Tile

Ceramic or porcelain tile tends to be the most budget-friendly option, generally speaking. To me, it doesn’t quite have as much of an authentic feel, but I found some images that prove it can still be lovely.

black and white ceramic tiles
Belgravia Stone Quarry

Here is a space done by Joanna Gaines with ceramic tile installed in a diagonal checkerboard pattern, and it looks very nice and high-end.

modern kitchen design with black and white flooring and classic elements like a wooden french door
Magnolia

Ceramic or porcelain tile also comes in more varieties and colors so you can play around with more options if you go that route.

ceramic floor tiles in gray and creamy beige colors in a hallway
Artisans of Devizes

3. Concrete

Another material that is getting more and more trendy is concrete tiles! The possibilities are endless with what kind of checkerboard pattern you can design with concrete. They can dye it so many colors and create so many custom sizes.

Where to Buy

Deb, from Seeking Lavender Lane, used a gray and white concrete tile in her mudroom area. I adore the organic look that it gives to her space. I think the texture of the concrete tile is so good if you love organic textures. Deb didn’t even grout her tile in this space, and I still love the design.

Seeking Lavender Lane

Checkerboard Flooring Finishes

Now let’s look at a couple of finishes or sheens that you might want to consider when you are thinking about the look you want on a checkerboard floor. In my mind, you have two main options–a matte finish or a glossy finish.

A matte finish is my personal favorite because it has more of the lived-in, old-world that feel I love so much.

black and white checkerboard floor tile finishes with old-world furniture and home decor pieces
Ham Interiors

In this case, you would look for honed marble or stone and make sure any sealer you apply is also in a matte finish.

A glossy finish on your checkerboard floor can be very striking, especially if you have a space that is very glamorous. All the images I found of very glamorous spaces had a checkerboard floor with a high sheen finish.

In this case, you would look for polished tiles and use a sealer with a glossy finish.

black and white checkerboard flooring with a glossy finish
Jill Shelvin
black and white checkerboard flooring with a glossy finish
Barlow and Barlow
black and white checkerboard flooring with a glossy finish
Barlow and Barlow
black and white checkerboard flooring with a glossy finish
Barlow and Barlow

Color Options

Alright, are you ready to have some fun? I discovered so many creative spaces that used a vast array of colored tiles for their checkerboard floors. They almost made me question my boring old black and white floor… almost.

This fancy entryway used brown and white stone, which goes great with the surrounding wood tones and white walls.

entryway that has brown and white stone floor tiles which blend with the surrounding wood tones and white walls
Home Bunch

This eclectic space looks very interesting! I felt the off-white and black checkerboard floor was the perfect choice in choosing a classic design but mixing it up.

eclectic kitchen design with off-white and black checkerboard flooring
Design Matters

Another favorite of mine is this brown and black checkerboard look as shown in this little entryway. I can’t get over this unique look and how European it feels to me. All the simple textures and elements go so well together.

brown and black checkerboard flooring in entryway with vintage furniture
Boligmagasinet

Brace yourself for this one–green and white stone checkerboard flooring. This image with the stone walls, that amazing door, the European architecture. There have been many times I have wanted to jump into this picture and soak it all in. That tile was a bold and very beautiful choice!

green and white stone checkerboard flooring with stone walls
GeorgiannaLane

I’ve been scared of red in my home for a long time, but I’m slowly warming up to the idea, especially when I saw this little bathroom with the red checkerboard floor. It’s so vintage and so charming.

My Grandma had a red, black, and white vinyl checkerboard floor in her kitchen. This feels so familiar to me, in the best way possible.

House and Garden

Look closely and you can see that this is a painted checkerboard floor with green and white.  It looks fantastic and I think you could get this same look with the concrete tiles too.

This was done by one of my favorite designers, Leanne Ford–so if she can pull off a painted checkerboard floor–so can you.

Leanne Ford

Now this one was the most jaw-dropping image I found! These look like handmade tiles in smaller squares were installed together in a bigger square to create the checkerboard look. Isn’t it so fantastic!

This is the work of June and Blue that I found on Instagram.  What a creative designer she must be!

Instagram: june.and.blue

Here is another unique space where they used green and black checkerboard tile or vinyl in this cute retro kitchen.

Hunker

Another retro kitchen with blue and white flooring, which I find to be so creative. Sometimes I wish I could be brave enough to make these kinds of design decisions.

Treasures and Travels Blog

Kind of like these smaller green and white tiles. Somehow it doesn’t feel too busy for this space, to me, and was a bold design decision!

Sarah Sherman Samuel

I’ll finish up with perhaps my absolute favorite look for a checkerboard floor that I’ve seen – with this tone-on-tone stone floor.

Oh my, I think it is incredibly beautiful and I adore all the organic textures. This tile was well out of my budget, but a girl can dream, right?

Home Depot
How to Design Checkerboard Flooring Story

Did we get your creative juices flowing? I would love to hear which look was your favorite!

Make sure you catch up on the entire series I published on checkerboard flooring.

  • Day 1: Our Mudroom Checkerboard Flooring
  • Day 2: 12 Timeless Black and White Checkerboard Flooring Ideas
  • Day 3: Checkerboard vs Harlequin Flooring. What is the difference?
  • Day 4: How to Choose the Color, Material and Finish for your Checkerboard Floors
  • Day 5: How to Choose the right size of tile for your space
  • Day 6: Where to Buy Tile for Checkerboard Flooring

I’m Cami! Welcome to my blog TIDBITS. Follow me along for beautiful home decor ideas and inspiration for do-it-yourself living
Thank you for Subscribing to TIDBITS! Talk to you soon.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

6718 shares

Leave a Comment

You might also like

  • European Farmhouse Living Room Design PlansEuropean Farmhouse Living Room Design Plans
  • Create · Share · Inspire Link Party #19Create · Share · Inspire Link Party #19
  • The Top 5 Reasons to Buy an Organic, Non-Toxic Latex MattressThe Top 5 Reasons to Buy an Organic, Non-Toxic Latex Mattress
  • Do not fear!  How to Clean a Cast Iron Skillet is HereDo not fear! How to Clean a Cast Iron Skillet is Here

Reader Interactions

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




CommentLuv badgeShow more posts

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Hi! I am Cami. My passion is to help you, as the keeper of your home, to feel inspired to create a home you love and to learn the homemaking skills to help you do so.


About Cami

My product lines

TIDBITS Planners
TIDBITS Linen

Our books

Front cover of 'Master The Electric Pressure Cooker' cookbook

Hot off the press
tidbits.
Right to your inbox.

Sign up to get post updates, monthly subscriber only content, and inspiration for do-it-yourself living
Thank you for Subscribing to TIDBITS! Talk to you soon.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

Archives

Follow on Facebook

Footer

Welcome to my blog, TIDBITS! I am a homeschool Mom to 4 and a fanatical DIY'er. I absolutely love home - and I love to inspire others as the keeper of their homes!

Subscribe

Thank you for Subscribing to TIDBITS! Talk to you soon.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

Privacy

Copyright

I love sharing my ideas and tutorials! I ask that you respect my work and follow these guidelines. 1. All images are property of Tidbits blog. 2. Feel free to use 1 or 2 images on your own webpages, provided a link back to my blog is clearly available. 3. Do not remove any watermark or crop/edit my images in any way, unless given written consent by myself. 4. All tutorials/ideas/designs are for personal use only and are not to be copied and distributed in any way. 5. Sharing and pinning through social media is always welcome!

An elite Cafemedia Home/DIY Publisher
Branding + Website By Coded Creative

6718 shares