Houston, we have liftoff! We made a big kitchen purchase. We ordered the floor! Wait, we should back up. We originally hoped to find hardwood floors running all the way under the linoleum in the kitchen (after finding out that it ran under the fireplace side of the room here)…
… but we removed the transition between the kitchen and the office on the other side of the room to find… booo!… plywood. So no refinishing for us. Gotta start from scratch.
But there were a few limitations off the bat. We learned from the previous owners that the kitchen floors couldn’t handle tile (they would need to be reinforced/leveled from underneath = $$$), so tile was out. Even laying down new hardwood worried us since it’s thick and heavy and not as flexible as some other options. So based on the limitations, we honed in on these three options (any of which we hoped to install ourselves if we chose it):
- cork
- floating wood laminate like Pergo
- vinyl or linoleum/marmoleum
At first we loved the idea of laying some sort of sleek eco-friendly linoleum in some chic tone-on-tone stripes. Candice Olsen does it sometimes, but I couldn’t find any online pics. And I’m sure it sounds really tacky but I promise it looked really good and that lady spends five thousand dollars on sconces so she’s not exactly about compromising when it comes to form. But after checking out a ton of local places /online stores we just couldn’t find anything that we liked. And we didn’t want to give off that “we upgraded the whole kitchen but forgot to update the floors effect” (which is a pretty embarrassing result if you do, in fact, upgrade the floors but no one can tell).
So we were happy to move on from the whole striped linoleum thing. We also realized that we prefer when our floors fall back and let other things be the star (like the wall paint, textiles on the chairs & windows, light fixtures, art & accessories – etc). Next was the possibility of: 1) a Pergo type wood-look click floor or 2) cork (since it was substantially lighter than hardwood and even bamboo). So we looked at a bunch of options in both materials and zeroed in on two options that we liked best.
One was a whitewashed Pergo from Lowe’s (for $3 a square foot called “Driftwood Pine”) that looked so much like the hardwoods we already had in the house, except whitewashed – which could have been a fun choice for the kitchen. The planks were the same size as the existing ones and it still had warm wood tones underneath so it would almost look like we had the same hardwood running through the kitchen that we had in the office, dining room, and bedrooms, but decided to whitewash them in the kitchen.
The other option was a rich mocha cork from Lumber Liquidators (called “Porto” by Libson Cork) that was on super sale for $3.26 a square foot. Which is an awesome price since cork usually starts around $4 or $5 a square foot and can go all the way up to $10+.
We realized we might have initially been attracted to the whitewashed Pergo because it’s similar in tone to the existing vinyl flooring in our kitchen (so our eyes are just used to seeing that tone underfoot), but once we paint the cabinets white and add stainless appliances and make a bunch of other upgrades, we realized that we might appreciate a warmer toned floor (so the whole room wouldn’t be white and gray). Boom, option one was effectively eliminated. Buh-bye graywashed Pergo.
The funny thing was that when we checked out nearly all of the inspiration kitchens that I pinned on Pinterest, they all had one thing in common: rich dark floors. Talk about subliminal messages. Can’t believe we didn’t pick up on that sooner. They were actually similar in tone to the mocha hardwood ones that we added to our first kitchen, which we still miss on the daily. Oh and it bears mentioning that while some folks prefer lighter wood for shows-less-dust reasoning, we never had any issues with that (or keeping them clean in general) since they weren’t super dark/ebony, just deep enough to be called “mocha.”
Decision made. Mocha cork it is! Especially since we planned to refinish the existing hardwoods in a similar tone for an even more seamless whole-house feeling down the line. But before pulling the cork trigger we googled around for cork pros and cons – just to be thorough. We learned it’s warm, quiet, naturally fire & water & bacteria resistant, soft underfoot (for less dish breakage and sore knees from standing), and eco friendly. The cons were that the finish could be scratched (like hardwoods) and it could be dented over time by heavy appliances or furniture if you don’t put those felt feet on them (like hardwoods). But if scratched or dented it could be sanded down and even restained and resealed (yup, you guessed it – like hardwoods). So it didn’t sound too out of our league since we’re definitely not strangers to oak flooring, which is apparently pretty similar.
But because we’re neurotic, we took it one step crazier further. We emailed four people we know and love who have cork and asked them to be brutally honest with us and tell us what they hate and if they’d recommend it and what they’d change and all the bad stuff. Well, not a complaint among them. Everyone said they loved their cork and would make the same choice again. Whew. So we (finally) went for it.
We put in an order for 265 square feet of it to cover the entire 25′ kitchen and adjoined laundry room (and account for about 10% of extra cork, just in case of a catastrophe cork-tastrophe). Of course I haggled with the Lumber Liquidators guy to get $15 off our $863 cork order (down to $848, baby). Haha. Every penny helps. It’s definitely not a drop in the bucket, but we’re excited to install it ourselves (it should be pretty simple since it’s click + lock and doesn’t call for any adhesive). The awesome thing is that refinishing hardwoods usually runs around $3-4 a square foot around here, and our new floors were $3.26 a square foot – so we’re psyched that new cork floors are about the same price as refinishing what we wished we had found under that old linoleum. In the words of Clara: yoi! (that’s how she says yay).
The only ironic thing: installing the floor is one of the last things we’ll be tackling (floors usually go down last so they don’t get dinged up by demo or painting or appliance installing) but the price was right so we pounced! For anyone wondering what we have to get done before cork-ing things up, here’s a brief rundown:
- Switch out/alter some of the existing cabinets & relocate some appliances
- Order/install new appliances (since we have some bisque mixed with black going on)
- Open the doorway between the dining room & kitchen (still working on permits/contractors)
- Create a peninsula out of secondhand, built, or purchased cabinetry
- Upgrade the counters (possibly with some DIY concrete ones if the floor can support them)
- Redo the backsplash (we have something pretty fun planned… more on that later)
- Paint the old and new cabinets white, so they look nice and seamless
- Add some open shelving (that’ll go along with our fun TBA backsplash idea)
- Completely upgrade the lighting (goodbye florescent tube lights!)
So yeah… we might not have after kitchen pictures for you until 2013. Just kidding. But maybe not. Have you guys purchased flooring lately? Gone crazy for cork? Or whitewashed wood (or faux wood)? Or realized that there’s a subliminal common thread among all of the kitchens you’ve been pinning on Pinterest? It was kind of hilarious when we noticed they all had nearly identical floors.
Sara says
Yay cork! My parents redid their kitchen with cork floors when I was two count em – twenty five years ago!) and their cork floors still look great except for one small patch which fell victim to a leaky dishwasher. The good thing about cork is that if that happens you can “patch” it with other cork tiles, which is what they did. The only way you can tell is that the colour of the replaced tiles is slightly darker.
I lived the cork tiled growing up, they are so soft and comfortable to walk on. I spent many hours lying on the kitchen floor with my cat in front of the gas fire! Yes, you get indents from heavy furniture, but how often do you move your fridge? Enjoy your new kitchen floor guys!
kelly says
Yay, cork! We’re prepping to install (glue down) cork tile in our small (future kid) bedroom for many of the same reasons you guys gravitated towards it – soft, diy, repairable, natural, timeless. We plan on using self-leveler on our wonky exg wood floors prior to glue-down, and decided on a finish similar to our wood floors so it all flows together nicely. Also like you guys we’re doing the floors last… why are there always so many steps? :)
Sarah says
We are coming to the end of a big renovation – stairs to the deck going it today and that is it!! Phew.
We did our kitchen and added a new family room on and put down bamboo floorboards throughout. We luurve them. So does our kid: https://picasaweb.google.com/102394340278263921478/Home#5652426874349710114
They are a reddish brown (yep, show a wee bit of dust but so worth it) and get SO many comments on them. Funnily enough we found cork under the (uber ugly and cracked tiles).
Our new kitchen is a warm grey with nougart ceasarstone benchtops. I often just stand in it gently patting it. Good luck with laying the floor!
https://picasaweb.google.com/102394340278263921478/Home#5652427095589262130
YoungHouseLove says
Wow- looks like you’ve been busy! So pretty!
xo,
s
Stephanie Jones says
Hi guys,
I am super pumped for this cork floor adventure of yours! We are also in the market for a new floor and have been thinking of going cork so I cannot wait to see how this all goes down for you. Good luck!
Katie says
The cork sample looks really 70’s…kind of like a 2-D shag carpet. Hopefully it’ll look better once it’s all done.
Halle says
Love the cork! We have cork in our house too, and i don’t have a complaint about it :) Good luck and I look forward to reading about it all!
Michele says
we are about to do that “tile that looks like hardwood” business in our bathroom… all because of Pinterest. :)
Liz D. says
We had Pergo floors one time and I hated them. They looked nice, but clicked very loudly everytime you walked on them. It was very annoying. You made a good choice with the cork. I’ve saw cork in a friend’s house and it is very warm looking…. and not loud.
Erinn says
Before I got to the end I was hoping you chose the cork – it looks really rich looking. We also went with really dark floors which I’ve been very happy with since it hides the dirt better than the white tile that was there before. You can see our kitchen floor re-make at my blog.
http://oururbanrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/08/cabs-are-here.html
I’m really excited to see how your floor turns out.
YoungHouseLove says
Wow- your makeover looks awesome!
xo,
s
mKm says
Some people I used to babysit for (they moved) had cork throughout their entire house. They had four kids ranging from a ten year old to a one year old and the cork held up VERY well. And I remember it as being very easy to clean spills off of. I think you made an excellent choice!
YoungHouseLove says
WAHOO! We’re definitely hoping that have that luck!
xo,
s
Sam says
We’re actually in the middle of updating our kitchen, and it just so happens that we have painted our cabinets white, walls are grey and the floor is a rich chocolate-colored cork :) Too funny! We love the cork so far.
Tannie Smith says
I have to say that I am not normally a fan of cork flooring. The pattern usually lacks variation. But that is because I have never seen that kind of cork flooring! What a beautiful pattern! Should look amazing. Thanks for sharing.
Trude says
My parents put cork in their home office (formerly my brother’s bedroom) and love it! It looks gorgeous, it’s held up really well the past 2 years and doesn’t scratch nearly as easily as the hardwood in the kitchen, even with dogs running around half the time. :)
Amy says
I love your choice of cork- it’s going to look great!
We did DIY concrete tabletops for our outdoor patio set
(funny- I just posted on them yesterday! http://new1790house.blogspot.com/2011/10/pumping-iron.html )
I loved them, but they were very heavy. So you may want to check out if it would be an issue with the weight on your floor.
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks so much! Love that project and your pics! Since granite is heavier than concrete (and we already have that going on in half of the kitchen) we hope it’s an easy switch- just have to make sure the floor under the future peninsula can handle the weight too!
xo,
s
Savannah says
Love the mocha cork you guys picked out! Beautiful!
Last week the hot water heater in my moms house busted and flooded the kitchen. She put in matching laminate wood flooring all throughout the house a couple years ago, and it got ruined in the kitchen and adjoining living room. So now she is replacing the entire house, and we finally made the decision on what to get yesterday! Tiger strand woven bamboo..I loooove it!
YoungHouseLove says
Ooh I’ve seen that and it’s so gorgeous! Have fun and send pics!
xo,
s
Torey says
We just discovered hardwoods under our vinyl (and plywood subfloor). Unfortunately there is also a layer of vinyl glued onto the hardwoods. . grrrr. Not sure how tricky that will be to remove. How did you figure out at the transition that there wasn’t hardwood under the plywood subfloor?
YoungHouseLove says
By taking out the transition between the doorway to the kitchen/office we could chip up a piece of the plywood to see what was under it- sadly, no hardwoods there (which were nice and easy to see in the other side of the room when we demo’d out the desk).
xo,
s
Nicky @ Not My Mother says
We have cork flooring in our house. I think it’s original to when the house was built, so early nineties, and therefore only the ‘natural’ orangy/brown cork colour + varnish on the top (there weren’t the options then that there are now).
I love it. Like you said, it’s warm, it’s soft, so when B faceplants on it or I drop a dish there’s no damage. Yes, we have a couple of dark scuff marks under the table area where the varnish has worn off but as I said, it’s over 20 years old. A bonus is the swirly cork pattern does tend to hide a lot of dirt marks (though I’m sure YOU wouldn’t go as long between floor washings as I do :-)
The only negative we have (which you won’t) is the plain cork looks dated but the tiles are glued onto the floorboards so I anticipate a nightmare job to get them off. Also the floorboards will likely be damaged/gross afterwards so our idea of sanding and refinishing them with the rest of the house won’t float. But you won’t have that problem because yours are pretty and not glued down! So I say yay to cork. In fact, if our floorboards are too damaged to refinish, I think I’ll petition for new cork tiles instead of tiles too :-)
Meredith says
I am sure you are contacting the appropriate people to check about your floors being able to support the weight of concrete countertops, but I thought I would remind you JUST IN CASE. My mom is an architect and just finished a renovated on a 200 year old home. The homeowner really wanted to try concrete countertops. They had to bring in a special engineer to certify that there wouldn’t be any problems from the weight of the concrete. He had them install a special beam in the floor below, just to be on the safe side, but assured them that everything would be fine. WRONG. The weight of the concrete in the countertops on the floating island caused the island to sink just a hair, which in turn caused the column that runs from the island to the beam overhead to separate an equal hair. It isn’t a big structural issues, but repairs have had to be made and the paint at the top of the column keep cracking. Point is, those things are HEAVY!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes- we have to get someone to check that the floor under the future peninsula can support it since it’s lighter than granite (which is already on the existing cabinets without any issues). Here’s hoping!
xo,
s
Torey says
Bummer. I never would have guessed that I had hardwoods in this 1960 split level. I knew they were in the rest of my house but assumed the kitchen would be vinyl. Saw a home improvement show where they were redoing hardwoods in a lady’s kitchen and decided to investigate. I lifted up the floor register and saw the layers of vinyl and then the familiar tongue in groove of hardwoods. I was super excited but realized that they had glued one of the layers of vinyl to the wood. No telling how hard that will be to get off. When you redid floors in your last house did you have to do any removal/prep before you had them refinished? I’m thinking I’d save money if I removed vinyl/subfloor/vinyl and then had refinishing done. However, I’m wondering how difficult or environmentally safe it might be. . .
YoungHouseLove says
Ours were actually not covered in glue or anything so we got lucky- but I think there are some stripping agents and scrapers at home stores for that (some of which might be low or no-VOC). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
jessica w. says
I love that you are doing cork! I was born in Germany, and my Aunt and Uncle there have it in their whole house, even bathrooms and kitchens. They have no issues and just love it. I have always wondered why it is taking so long to catch on. Also, concrete is a great choice, if your cabinets can hold granite, then they can hold the conrete,but I have heard of people adding foam and other types of lighter materials into their concrete to make it lighter.
Johnnie says
wow! love this choice of cork!!
we looked at various flooring options when we pulled up some nasty 25 yr old carpet… ended up putting down plywood “hardwood floors” and love them. roughly $1.85/sq ft. cut the plywood into “planks” and sanded/stained/poly.
Lisa says
Are you putting the cork material in front of the fireplace? I’m curious because we are re-doing the floors in our living room and don’t really want to put tile in front of the fireplace.
YoungHouseLove says
I think we’ll choose some sort of complementary tile in front of the fireplace (maybe some honed chocolate tile in long planks?). It’s not operable now, but I think if you have an operable fireplace it needs to be stone to meet code.
xo,
s
GreenInOC says
@Lisa – in California you can have cork right up to the fireplace because of it’s high flashpoint, it’s how I have mine and I lurrrvvve it!!
YoungHouseLove says
Wow- that’s so cool!
xo,
s
Nessa says
thinking about using cork in our entryway. thanks for doing all the research. love the dark color you chose. can’t wait to see the finished product.
Erin says
Your situation is very similar to what we have in our 1960’s house. (An expanded kitchen that was once a kitchen and separate dining room. The previous owners put Pergo in the whole kitchen, but we know there is hardwood under the dining room side.) I was actually hoping you were going to take up the plywood underlayment and then lay unfinished oak hardwood on top of the original subfloor to match the original hardwood floors. And then refinish the whole room to match. Because that’s what I want to do someday and I wanted to see how you guys did it b/c I know you’d do a good job. =) But the cork does look like it will be nice, and gives me another probably easier option to think about.
YoungHouseLove says
Yeah we worried we couldn’t get the height to match up perfectly, so we didn’t want some sort of transition or step in the middle of the kitchen- but that would be really cool if you could pull it off! Send pics!
xo,
s
kari @ Human, MD says
FYI, I was just looking for new appliances, and the Sears outlet has built in wall ovens for 50% off! I know bisque isn’t your favorite color, and it looks like they have some excellent stainless steel options!
Love the floor idea. I’m looking into options for my kitchen floor right now… I need something that requires no to minimal destruction of the existing flooring because I’m pretty sure its linoleum from 1950, and I’m also pretty sure there might be aesbestos underneath….
YoungHouseLove says
Wow- thanks so much for the tip!
xo,
s
jeannette says
the zerbeys are scary awesome architects your age who are authoritative! on many things and are reno-ing a cute little house in seattle on a yhl budget. there’s nothing they don’t know about cork floors.
http://chezerbey.com/2010/10/17/installing-cork-flooring/
YoungHouseLove says
Wow- that’s an awesome post!
xo,
s
Lindsay says
I think the cork is a great choice, especially since there are already so many different type of wood floors in you home already. We recently installed laminate click lock floors in our entire house (you can read about it at the link below), including the kitchen. And although they look great and are really durable, water will definitely ruin them, as we learned our fridge was leaking right after the install. So now we are going to put a tile inlay in the main wet area that matches our entry tile.
http://materialsneeded.com/materialsneeded/archives/NewFloors_06.24.11.php
YoungHouseLove says
Ooh I love that undercut saw! And the floors of course!
xo,
s
Kate says
oh I love that it’s cork, cork is amazing!! I’m kind of surprised by the colour and pattern you chose..it sort of reminds me of some of the weirdly sponged walls in Katie Bower’s new house! But I am interested to see the end result which I’m sure will work out great knowing you guys! :)
MissJo says
OMG I have that 2nd kitchen as my phone’s wallpaper – it’s my dream kitchen!
Alas it’ll stay as a dream..I showed it to my builder when we were re-doing the kitchen, he said “yup, $40,000-$50,000 will get you this” *FAINT*
Lovelovelove traditional, farmhouse-y white kitchens with dark wooden floors.
p/s: We went with cream glossy tiles with slight marble veins for floors against off white cabinets. Purely because they’ll withstand water damage much better – plus we haven’t met one floor salesman/builder who recommends putting wooden floorboards in kitchens…especially when we love cooking and entertaining so much!
Joy says
I just had to tell you that I received the order I made last night at Joss & Main. . . . today!! I noticed that they came from Tukwila, Washington. We live on San Juan Island, WA, but UPS still has to come from the mainland on the ferry to deliver. They were packed beautifully and are even nicer than the picture online. I’ll be checking on their website frequently since I was impressed with their inventory and especially your favorites. Back to your floors, I love the cork. Bath Crasher had installed a cork floor in a bathroom the other night, and I really liked the look. Anxious to see the whole look when you’re done. I know it will be gorgeous.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh my gosh- that’s so fast! So glad they were packed well and even prettier than the pics! That makes me so happy.
xo,
s
Sarah says
Great choice! My in-laws bought a foreclosed house last year, and have been renovating since, and one of their favorite parts of the house (besides the two bidets), is their mocha cork kitchen floor. It looks amazing and it feels amazing, and they had no problems laying it themselves.
Barb says
Love love love my own cork floor in the kitchen and I’m pretty sure you will love yours too. All the best with the reno.
Thanks for your great blog and love to hear all of your ideas/plans/ and fun stuff.
HollandPhotoArts says
LOVE your choice! We are working on our basement right now and replaced the old carpet with a dark cork like the one you just got. It’s been mostly covered to protect it from the final touches, but we absolutely love it.
We put a lighter color cork in our home office several years ago and it’s held up really well. The only damage we’ve noticed is from our office chairs rolling back and forth on it, so I’d recommend to anyone thinking of putting cork in an office, to get one of those clear office floor protectors to put underneath.
Good luck and I can’t wait to see the after pics already!
…anne
Erin says
I’m an HGTV fanatic and I’ve seen them remodeling with cork floors a lot lately. I can’t wait to see what you think of your floors and was pleasantly surprised to read that they didn’t need adhesive…. just click and lock aye… I’m on the edge of my seat. I’ll have to meander my way down the flooring aisle next time and get my paws on some cork flooring. I keep thinking I can press my finger nail into it – like its super soft or something. Happy remodeling! Kitchens are my favorite.
Subha says
hey,
just have a look here.. they have also opted for cork flooring. but have gone for the glue down option.
http://chezerbey.com/2010/04/29/cork-quartz/
http://chezerbey.com/2010/02/22/cork-things-to-consider/
http://chezerbey.com/2010/10/17/installing-cork-flooring/
the moment you mentioned cork, I thought of them and thought of letting you know..
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks so much! Love their blog!
xo,
s
Donna says
Excellent choice, as usual! Cork is supposed to be really comfortable to, and will keep Clara’s little piggy toes nice and warm in the winter :)
Rachel says
That cork is going to look awesome! We put in dark hickory laminate in our kitchen before we moved in, but after we painted the cabinets white and LOOOOOOVE it. The dark floors with white cabinets is something I didn’t know I loved ’till I made it happen and it really is the jam. I’m excited for you! Yay!
gingerbisquite says
We found the exact same thing on pinterest for our bathroom inspiration. had been looking at white/black floors. Then realised yesterday all the one id pinned had med/dark wood look flooring! Finally we’re about to order nut tree look vinyl tiles from polyflor and can’t wait!
jja says
I had cork and it is warm and silent but also it damages really easy, so i would put it in a room not using a lot. Not a wise choice for kitchen.
“We also realized that we prefer when our floors fall back and let other things be the star (l”
For this I would use a neutral subtle colour, but at least with your choice floor doesn’t have to be perfectly clean all the time.:-) Driftwood pine next to it is great. And any dark option also but the one without “blur”.
Also dark gray could look great.
YoungHouseLove says
We talked to the floor guys and they recommended it for entire first floors of homes (including kitchens and even half bathrooms) since once it’s sealed it’s very similar to hardwood (which we had throughout our last home, even in the kitchen and half bath). Maybe the kind you used wasn’t sealed to be as durable or meant for a kitchen?
xo,
s
GreenInOC says
First of all, can you tell that I’m obsessed with this post?!
Do you know why your flooring guy made the comment about first floors of homes? My entire home, except for the entryway and stairs of course, is on the 2nd floor and it’s all cork. Now, being the hypochondriac that I am, I’m worried!
I didn’t catch that you were going to seal the cork. That probably makes a huge difference for the kitchen and for cleaning. My cork planks came individually sealed and that’s probably why they were damaged by the water from my broken fridge.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh no, he just meant that some folks prefer carpet upstairs but so many of the people they cater to do cork throughout the entire first floor because it’s just so soft and easy for living areas! But I can’t imagine there’s anything wrong with cork on the second floor too! Haha.
xo,
s
Amanda says
I love the cork! We put in new flooring in our entire house this spring. We went with luxury vinyl from earthwerks. It looks and has the feel of wood, but it is no muss no fuss cleaning which we needed with 3 kids and 2 dogs. It is also virtually indestructable, again a plus. We did everything but the bathrooms which are tile and the bedrooms which we kept carpet. I love the vinyl and wish we had made the switch sooner! Good luck with the install! Can’t wait to see it finished! :)
Tabitha says
We actually put some tongue and grove beadboard on our kitchen ceiling in August. We had a cosmetic crack running the length of the kitchen ceiling that we originally thought a beam would hide, but it needed too wide and would look very odd. I love the look of the beadboard and the contrast it plays around the kitchen. {swoon}
When we re-do our kitchen I think we may have to look into cork, I love what you guys chose!
Karen says
What is used to clean a cork floor?
BTW your site is not working on the Ipad — only the header shows up.
YoungHouseLove says
Hmm, thanks for the tip! That’s the first we’ve heard of it (we can see it on our ipad). Anyone else having ipad issues? As for the cork, it can be cleaned with a swiffer, a damp mop, a microfiber cloth, etc – just nothing too sopping wet (just like hardwoods).
xo,
s
GreenInOC says
Sherry, FYI, the manufacturers of my cork product told me not to use a Swiffer or swiffer-type mop because of the angle and the proximity it can spray that moisture right into the seams.
The told me that whatever you choose it should be on mist and help quite far away from the floor so that moisture in the seams doesn’t happen. I asked them about using Bona and they told me that it was fine. I’ve been happy with it.
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks so much for the tip! We definitely plan to use Bona products to seal them so maybe we’ll follow suit and use Bona to clean it too!
xo,
s
michelle says
I love cork. I had it in everyroom (except kitchen & bath) in my last home a 1950’s tri-level. I would caution you about fading. The sunlight really faded the cork, we refinished it and it faded again. We had floor to ceiling windows, but I would ask your supplier about this ASAP!
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks Michelle! We actually talked to them about this but because our kitchen is completely interior (no windows at all) and our laundry room is off of the carport (again, not much light coming in since it’s a covered area next to it) they think ours should do really well in our house! Here’s hoping!
xo,
s
Jeannie says
It looks like the third kitchen picture has the same floors that you just purchased!
Deb says
Love your flooring choice, the color is very classy, and will stand the test of time. On a side note, I love your blog. It took me a long time to work up the courage to post here, but alas I took the leap. I’ve been able to come up with lots of ideas for my own house from you(we bought our dream home 1.5 years ago, and decorating it has consumed me). Thanks so much and keep the posts coming:)!!!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks so much Deb!
xo,
s
Karen M. says
We recently installed cork in our kitchen and entry and love it! The dark color with our white cabinets is great and the cork is comfortable under our feet. It coordinates perfectly with the hardwood in the rest of the main floor. If only I could chose the backsplash tile and finish our kitchen reno. Do be careful of chairs with very tiny feet as they will dig into the cork. We replaced the feet on our kitchen chairs to a slightly larger surface, and now it is no problem (from 1/2 inch to 1-1/4 inch).
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks so much for the tip!
xo,
s
MimiG says
Cork fan here!!! For me, it’s the only floor for a kitchen. Arthritis in both knees, so I love anything that doesn’t have me “crying” at night… Plus, with 4 kidlets running around, you know a dish or two in going to be dropped.. A win-win.
Deborah says
Cork! Warm in winter, cool in summer. Easy on the feet and legs and QUIET. (Plastic floors are noisy). Also, naturally antimicrobial :) A brilliant choice.
Lauren says
Thank you so much for this great idea! I’ve been trying to come up with a flooring solution that wasn’t hardwood (too cold and not possible in our condo), carpet (too likely to be destroyed) or tile (too cold and hard).
Cork sounds like the perfect fit for our 6 m/o daughter to learn to crawl and walk!
I did a quick Google search and found some types in the $2-$3/sq ft range, but that seems awfully cheap based on what you ordered. Should I be looking for something special?
Thanks!
YoungHouseLove says
I would just look for something with good ratings or check out a flooring store in your area that can give you more info about what’s good in “high traffic” (that’s the key to durable, so if they say something is low traffic flooring it might not hold up as well). Good luck!
xo,
s
Lisa says
I’m so excited to see your new floors! We’re going to be replacing the floor in our kitchen too – we just haven’t decided on what. We just put floating wood laminate in our living room/hallways in a rich, dark color and LOVE it!