The Crowdsourced Kitchen, Part 1: The Floors

  |  July 2, 2013

We have a special project here at Upstater: a tiny kitchen that has to be remodeled. Not the fun kind of remodeling, in which you get to create some version of your dream kitchen, but the challenge of the reluctant landlord: fix the decay and get the place in working condition enough to sell it. Which means: go cheap. As we discussed yesterday, it’s got to look good enough to sell, but chances are the new owners will want to start over, so why invest much?

Floors are a particular challenge, especially when you’ve wasted an embarrassing number of hours ogling reclaimed white oak on Houzz. This calls for vinyl: marmoleum, maybe, or else sheets of the stuff. We found some beautiful retro vinyl sheet flooring, but it’s in the U.K., and prohibitively expensive to import.

Zazous Retro Vinyl Flooring

Zazous Retro Vinyl Flooring

More options, and the one we’re leaning toward, after the jump.

Next we honed in on Armstrong’s Adobe series: soft colors and a subtle texture called Rough Linen. The problem: it’s commercial grade, and not something you can just pick up at the local hardware store or giant chain home supply shops that shall not be named. None of the home stores have a sample in stock, and there’s no time to wait for one to arrive in the mail.

Armstrong's Adobe series in Dusty Aqua

Armstrong’s Adobe series in Dusty Aqua

 

We saw this very inexpensive vinyl tile by Tarkett and thought, hm. The kitchen has wood cabinets with white handles and the appliances are white: a checkerboard of black and white not be too bad.

tarkett-vinyl-black

Tarkett Vinyl Tile

tarkett-vinyl-white

Tarkett Vinyl Tile

 

But we started to chicken out…The speckles had the faint air of cafeteria. We looked at some wild, mod patterns, too:

 

Modularity Tiles

Modularity Tiles

Amtico Abstract

Amtico Abstract

 

Designer Vinyl/stripes

Designer Vinyl/stripes

 

But it was too much for this tiny and modest space. So then we found this black and white checkerboard vinyl sheeting by Armstrong — large squares, a slight upgrade from the glossy small checkerboard that’s more common.

Armstrong Siena Blackwhite

Armstrong Siena Blackwhite

Of course, no one seems to carry this in any stores near the house, so it may be impossible to use. But that’s our last guess as to how to make the place as pretty as possible. Well, actually, we’ve seen a lot of beautiful painted vinyl floors. If the tiny cabin were going to stay in the family, that’s probably what we’d do. If you’ve got other suggestions for pretty vinyl floors that make sense in a tiny country kitchen, do tell.

Read On, Reader...