7 Kitchen Flooring Trends You'll See Everywhere In 2026

New year, new ... kitchen? Well, if you're preparing for a kitchen remodel in 2026, you're in good company. We're sure you're already knee-deep wading through research material, but one part of the journey we can make a little easier is navigating your kitchen flooring options. Plentiful flooring practices are on the rise this year, and honestly, you'd be remiss to go into your remodel without considering 2026's biggest kitchen floor trends.

We caught up with several interior design and flooring experts to get the full scoop on what types of flooring are taking center stage in modern kitchens. Overall, you'll want to gravitate toward materials that feel warm underfoot, cozy and inviting hues, as well as durable materials that are as eco-friendly as possible. Don't worry, though — there's still plenty of room for creativity when designing your kitchen floors, even if you're strict about following many of the guidelines below.

First up is a trend you've probably already noticed as you've gone about your research. After all, when it comes to kitchen flooring, cool tones are out, and warm tones are in. Consumers go gaga for the cozy, at-home feel that warm tones infuse into a kitchen, and flooring is no exception. As expected, this plays into a couple of material-related tips we're going to talk about in a bit, and the increasing popularity of hardwood floors is a consistent theme you'll notice throughout this piece.

Natalie Cooper, Certified Kitchen & Bath Designer and Principal Designer at Kitchens Inside Out, emphasizes this point, saying, "Hardwood is popular because of the warmth it brings. It asks for a little bit of care, but gives back decades of life, renewal, and reinvention." Cooper also suggests that hardwood is a timeless option because of the ways it can be updated to fit with whatever's trending at the moment.

However, you're not limited to hardwood, as warming colorways are available outside of the hardwood box. The biggest emphasis is that cool-toned floors are out. Brittny Button, Interior Designer and Founder of Button Atelier, advises prospective remodelers to move "away from stark whites and cool greys and into warm shades of tans, creams, browns, beiges, and subtle blues."

All that said, hardwood still may be your best option when you're choosing a warm colorway for your kitchen flooring; hardwood is trending in general, anyway. Wondering why? Well, in addition to the visual warmth it can bring to your kitchen, it'll also feel warmer underfoot than materials like tile (again with the cozy, homey vibes). Nobody relishes walking barefoot on a cold tile floor in the morning, but walking on hardwood is a much more pleasant affair.

Natalie Cooper mentioned the alluring feel of hardwood when telling us why it's a popular kitchen flooring choice. "People are less focused on durability and more concerned with how it actually feels," she stated, adding tile is "so chilly in the mornings, very hard on joints if cooking for long periods of time."

Colleen Bennett, founder and lead designer at CBB Design Firm, also noted a particular type of hardwood she's seeing more requests for. She noted she's seeing "dark walnut floors coming back" this year, as "people are loving that look." On the whole, if hardwood floors are accessible and appealing to you as you're planning your kitchen remodel, they seem to be a timely and worthwhile investment.

Not everyone is going to want to switch to hardwood, of course, which we totally understand. If you're married to the idea of tile floors, we won't try to change your mind; in fact, there are a couple of trending tile floor designs that you can employ to update the look (and feel) of your kitchen without sacrificing your beloved tile. Perhaps the biggest of these large-format tiling, which helps make a kitchen look more spacious and retains a minimalistic feel that small-form tiles are too busy to exude.

Large-format tile can warm up a kitchen in its own way. Moreover, opting for large-format tile can satisfy the low-maintenance, high-durability qualifiers many consumers look for in a kitchen floor. Alan Dewberry, flooring expert and owner of Tile Factory Direct, is still seeing ample demand for tile flooring in kitchens, confirming large-format tiles are on the rise. "The typical dimensions of these tiles are 24×48 inches and above. Their installation reduces the number of grout lines, which makes cleaning a lot simpler," he advises.

Additionally, Dewberry suggests consumers searching for durability seek out porcelain tiles, saying "porcelain is extremely strong, impervious to stains and moisture." He also says that consumers caught between choosing tile and hardwood might choose porcelain tiles that visually mimic wood. He echoed others' opinions that the "emphasis will be on the warmer and mid-tone wood finishes, like natural oak, chestnut, and walnut."

As we've already noted, the feel of kitchen floors under bare feet matters more now than it has in the past, which plays into the overall rise in popularity of hardwood. In addition to choosing warmer materials, textural appeal also matters to modern consumers considering a kitchen remodel. But this may be more a necessity than a preference; in fact, Alan Dewberry believes that "textured finishes will become the rule."

Brittny Button echoed this sentiment, giving her input as to why textured floors are going to be a big hit in 2026. She said "linear detailing with wire brush ... hand scraped or lime indentations are primed for an elevated look." These textures add some movement to a kitchen, keeping it from being a static, stale room in your house. Dewberry raised another, more practical reason why textured floors are being more utilized, saying simply "the textured tiles also offer improved slip resistance."

Warmth, textures, movement, wood — we're swiftly shifting away from cold, static kitchens, so it only makes sense that patterned flooring is also on the rise. There's a lot of wiggle room here, enough to suit the pattern preferences of any consumer. One popular and classic pattern is back in: Checkerboard can breathe new life into your kitchen floors in 2026.

Colleen Bennett spoke to the versatility of the checkerboard trend. She noted that with "your marbles and your travertines, or your dual marbles, all obviously honed, [checkerboard] is a real big thing that's coming back in kitchens." Meanwhile, if you're opting for tile flooring, Alan Dewberry suggests taking advantage of big patterns. He stated "bold geometric and floral patterns in different color combinations" are a particularly popular trend, especially when placed in front of the sink or an island to draw attention to that area of the kitchen. You should also be on the lookout for angular geometric patterns.

Brittny Button also mentions herringbone and horizontal chevron as particular patterns of interest, saying that they "add architectural interest." Not feeling patterns? Button notes large-form wood as a viable alternative, too, telling us that "oversized wood planks add drama," while Natalie Cooper states patterned wood "blends rooms seamlessly between one another for ultimate continuity."

No matter which material you're choosing as your primary kitchen flooring, you'll have to take finishes into account. On that note, it seems as though high-gloss finishes are seriously falling in popularity in 2026. So if you want to be hip with the times in your design choices, matte finishes are the way to go. Matte flooring is popular partially because it plays into the warmth factor we've already discussed, but also because it boasts some practical advantages.

Alan Dewberry says that matte finishes "are less prone to visible scratches and do not show smudges easily," placing them in stark contrast to glossy tiles. But there's also a luxurious, down-to-Earth feel that matte finishes can imbue into a kitchen. After all, Brittny Button says that matte finishes "enable a calm, spa kind of feeling," and honestly, who among us couldn't use a little serenity when we're cooking up a storm?

Sustainability is being prioritized in kitchen remodels in 2026, and flooring is no exception. There are pros and cons to every kitchen flooring material, but sustainable production is becoming a more and more important pro in the world, so we'll always support eco-friendly design choices. Brittny Button mentioned a few materials she's seeing more of due to the rise in eco-conscious material use.

According to Button, "cork, recycled bamboo LVP (luxury vinyl plank) and LVT (luxury vinyl tile) imprinted with realistic textures are incredibly durable and cost-effective if you're flooring a large room." More than that, it appears sustainability is important enough to consumers that it's even impacted the tile industry.

Alan Dewberry told us about new sustainability efforts in ceramic tile manufacturing, saying ceramic tile manufacturers "are increasingly adopting the use of raw materials that contain recycled materials or have a lower carbon footprint." In other words, if sustainability is going to be a key factor when you determine which flooring you're going to install in your kitchen, it at least seems like you have options — after all, as consumer habits change, industries have to adapt to accommodate.