Choosing tiles for your home is almost like choosing paint or maybe even worse because that's more permanent move. It's much easier to repaint the room than remove tiles, not to mention the cost.  It’s hard to decide in the store which tiles you like. We recommend bringing samples home to see it during the day and in the evening. Just like paint, tiles look different in your home than in big showroom or home improvement store. We had tiles installed in our kitchen, bathroom, laundry room and hallway. We have installed backsplash ourselves (more about that soon). We find that most home improvement stores don’t offer free tile samples. You basically have to buy tiles and eventually return them later. If you want more customer focused experience, we strongly recommend local flooring stores. They have to compete with large stores and usually offer free samples and many times better prices. We found a local family owned flooring store in our town (recommended by many friends and coworkers) and had a great experience. We were able to bring free samples home and even got the actual display board which shows the pattern and it’s finished with grout. They allowed us to keep the board for a week which was great. We could decide if we really like the pattern and if it would fit our décor. Take a look at the display board we brought home.

Tiles by our front door - trying to see how they look like on the floor.

We also recommend getting extra tiles. They say you need 10% in case tiles brake during installation and for those unusual cuts like in the corner of your room. Besides that get some extra tiles, let’s say 5 or 6 just in case. Many companies discontinue some designs after a while, so it’s good to have extras just in case they brake or get stained. We have extra tiles for our kitchen, hallway, laundry room and bathroom and if we ever sell our house, we will leave them for the new owner. We also keep leftover grout. If you do, just make sure to sign the box, for example: Kitchen Grout. You may have similar colors for different rooms and may not remember it in 5 years :)

And the finished product -looks exactly like on the display board.

Tiles are very durable and easy to clean and also don't show age as fast as hardwood floors. They work great in kitchens, bathrooms and laundry rooms where floors often get wet. Have fun and good luck with your tiling projects.