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.
Wrenaria says
Beautiful. So glad you chose the dark cork over the pale pergo. It’ll make your house feel more seamless, and I love me a dark floor. Mmmm.
brigzorn says
We installed cork in our kitchen last fall. We love it! Great choice.
Bethany says
The minute I saw the cork planks my heart sank you guys! We purchased that exact flooring from lumber liquidators a few years back and were quickly amazed by how not durable it was. And since it is only dark on the surface scratches are super obvious. We went back and forth with LL since they had said how durable it was but they were unwilling to let us return it. We ended up pulling it all up and installing a laminate instead. So…tread lightly!
YoungHouseLove says
Did you seal it according to their rec? We definitely plan to add a few layers of poly since they said that makes it a lot more durable than not sealing it! Thankfully we’ve heard from a few other folks who have the same kind and have loved it since they sealed it. And we also love that we can restain it dark (just like oak) if it gets a bit weathered down the line. We’ll definitely keep ya posted however it turns out though!
xo,
s
Bethany says
We did 3 coats of sealant and tried our best to be careful with it (no shoes, clipped dog’s nails). It was gorgeous when we finished it but within a few months it was pretty worn looking and not only needed to be re-stained but also patched since when it was scratched it came up in chunks. I am hoping we just had a bad batch because it truly was a stunning floor when it was initially installed. I am sure will look amazing in your house!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw man, that definitely sounds like a bad batch. So sorry!
xo,
s
Jennifer says
Hi! Long time-lurker here. We bought a house back in June that was just a shall; the builder hadn’t finished it…and after 3 long months of torture, it is finished…This post is so familiar to us and our great flooring debate. It took me zero time to realize I wanted white cabinets…but it wasn’t until the 2nd month or so that I realized everything I had seen and fell in love with had DARK hardwood floors!! Finally…the choice was clear. We ended up scoring hardwood at home depot on clearance for 1.16/sq ft. I nearly died! We installed it ourselves and I love love love it! Congrats on your choice…can’t wait to see it!
YoungHouseLove says
Holy cow- that’s the best price I’ve ever heard for hardwood! Amaaaaazing!
xo,
s
Karli says
Oh, so happy you didn’t go with the pergo. I grew up with a table that looked just like that and I could not imagine it being a floor…which I’m sure it would have looked good, but I really hated our table :)
Eva says
We put cork on our kitchen floor a couple of months ago and I love it! We went for the natural one that requires glue and a sealer… it was very easy to apply and looks great! The glue and the sealer are all natural too. I might have to send you some makeover pictures… we renovated kitchen cabinets dating from 1960 :)
YoungHouseLove says
So glad to hear you love it! Definitely send pics!
xo,
s
Claire says
We just put mocha cork in our sewing/classroom! If our kitchen and bathrooms didn’t already have tile we would have put it in there too. We LOVE it! Soft underfoot, but easy to clean and beautiful. You can even sand it like wood if it gets a ding. Did I mention we LOVE it ? :-)
Amy says
Do y’all read chezerbey.com? Definitely check out their experiences with cork — lots of great info about installing and whatnot, plus theirs turned out great! I think the only downside is that dog claws can really rough up the cork. Good luck!
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks for the tip! We love that blog.
xo,
s
carla says
congrats! We just purchased our flooring too from LL! You can’t beat their prices. We are covering 965 SQ ft so we went back and forth on the flooring. We narrowed it down to stranded bamboo…its really hard and we have 2 small kids and a lab. the cost of the floor and labor (we are not DIYers, thus the reason why I stalk your blog, lol) was around $8,000. Half of it was for the flooring itself. My husband said no way to that price and he asked if we could do laminate. I said that I would only consider it if we could go with a medium colored wood (he was set on a lighter one). We had to consider other options and went with a laminate on the higher end (Brazilian Koa). It received really great reviews on the LL website. We are getting installed on halloween and I can’t wait. We purchased our house brand new in 2000 and had the cheapest floors put in to save $$ on our mortgage. next came baby, another baby, etc. Never could afford new floors, lol! Sorry this is a book! congrats!
carla says
Oh, and with the laminate it cut the price in half, so now we can get new carpeting upstairs ;)
E @ Oh! Apostrophe says
We love our cork kitchen floor! We installed it ourselves…it was the adhesive kind though. Here’s a post from when we did it…still looks great 1.5 years later…they said we’d have to re-seal it…in 15-20 years!
http://ohapostrophe.blogspot.com/2009/12/couple-of-makeovers.html
YoungHouseLove says
So pretty! And wow – I love how long the sealer will last!
xo,
s
esther aka craftyvox says
The first beams for the foundation of our new home still have to go into the ground (which should be any day now!! So excited!) and it won’t be till around September 2012 that we’ll get the key to our finished house but we’ve started looking around with a serious eye for flooring just the other day. We’d love us a real wooden floor, but since we’ll be getting underfloor heating that migth prove a bit problematic (it is possible, but not with all types of wooden floors). Our first choice option for now is natural stone flooring using travertine, so so so pretty! But we’ve also seen a type of ceramic tiling that really caught our eye.. we had thought it to be a bit less pricy then travertine natural stone but in fact it was ~€1000/$1350 more expensive in total. Ouch! Luckily we have some time to make our final decision still. I have to say sometimes I’m secretly hoping we’ll end up with hardwood floors after all, cause it’s just so beautiful and warm and all! There’s too many options to choose from sometimes I think!
Sometimes it does dazzle me.. there’s so much one has to decide on while building a new home from scratch.. All that we get will be bare concrete pretty much, there’s nothing left by previous owners to start out with. On the one hand that’s awesome, since it gives you a true blank slate to fill in the house exactly to your liking. On the other hand, it also means there’s a lot we need to decide on right from the start which can be overwhelming at times!
Mary Barnstead says
Hi there- we recently purchased very similar cork flooring (in planks). It isn’t installed yet (need custom-milled nosing, but that’s another story) but its laying out in our bedroom and looks and feels wonderful. The reason we chose it is that it matches the brown concrete with mottled black stain that we poured over the first floor slab when we added radiant floors 10 years ago. Wonderful. You’ll love the dark floors – we always get compliments.
Mary from Rockville
Cecelia says
Love your old kitchen better than the fancier ones in the other pics.
It was so bright, light, and graceful.
Brandy @ midcenturymodernlove says
way to go, guys! i totally applaud your choice. we are making the same one for our kitchen and family toom. it’s a great mid-century choice. i see more and more MCM creeping in there! ;)
a great resource for green materials like cork floor is green depot (formerly ecohaus). we bought all our no-voc yolo paint there and love it. i think they are all over the country. i have some info on this post…
http://midcenturymodernlove.com/2011/08/23/yolo-and-ecohaus/
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks so much! We love greendepot.com!
xo,
s
Lauren says
Now I am lusting after cork floors for the kitchen. Can’t wait to see the finished product… someday!
Becky says
What’s weird is that I showed my hubby a picture of cork just this week and asked what he thought about it for our kitchen remodel. Hoping to go that way:)
Jaime says
Question–We laid tile down in our kitchen about three years ago. lately the grout has been chipping up in places. We made sure we followed all directions when we installed it and have installed other tile without issue. Could this be a symptom of the reason you cannot use tile? It’s giving us a headache to try to figure out!
YoungHouseLove says
Hmm, it definitely sounds like it could be a stability or level issue (if the tile shifts slightly since the floor isn’t stable or level it could definitely chip up the grout). Perhaps bringing photos to a tile specialty store to see what they recommend would be a good next step?
xo,
s
Hillary says
Okay, hope I haven’t missed the answer to this question and you have to repeat yourself…but what is the problem under your house that prevents you from using any heavy material on the floor and possible countertops? I have an older house too and didn’t know if it was a common old house issue or more specific to your house. What a frustrating roadblock!
YoungHouseLove says
I’m not sure that’s it’s super common but we’ve definitely heard from other folks in older homes with the same issue. It’s something to do with the floor boards not being reinforced enough to handle the inflexible heavy materials like slate or tile (they do better with lighter materials with more flex). Perhaps an architect or inspector can look under your house and give you a quick “yay or nay” for an hour’s pay?
xo,
s
Dani says
I am just catching up on some of your posts and I am excited that you picked that cork! I have the exact same brand and colour installed in my studio (you can see it here if you would like: http://www.danimiller.com/blog/?p=218)
It’s great stuff. I chose it because I knew it would be getting lots of abuse, like dropped scissors. It has worn really well over the year that it has been in there. What I will say is be careful in how you scrub at it if you get something hard to clean on it. I had a couple of spots of white paint on mine and worked at it too hard trying to get it off, and it took some of the shine off the surface. But it is really easy to stand on for long periods and should hold up to kitchen use well!
YoungHouseLove says
Wow- it looks gorgeous! Thanks for sharing the pic. So glad to hear that it holds up well – can’t wait to see ours in our kitchen!
xo,
s
Kerry says
I’m wondering how you guys were looking for the Candice Olson photos… because I found one right off the bat:
http://hishouseherhelp.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/design-inspiration/
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, you’re just a better googler than me! Love it.
xo,
s
Kirsten says
Okay, I don’t know if anyone has mentioned this in the comments yet (I’m catching up on the netz after vacay and doing loads of skimming), but when I think of cork flooring, I think of the book Room and get really freaked out. Have you read it? Basic story: woman is held prisoner by some sick dude in a room he built into his shed with cork floors and walls to help keep the sounds in so no one can hear her crying for help. I LOVE your cork, but hearing about the cork floors (one of the details that comes back and back in the book), I feel all shuddery. Maybe don’t read the book. :)
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- thanks for the tip!
xo,
s
Cara says
Hey Guys! What size cork pieces did you get? Are they 12 x 12? I’ve been researching cork and realizing there is quite a variety of sizes – plank, square, rectangle. Just curious what you chose.
Also, with your wealth of cork floor research, do you happen to know if it’s safe to use in a bathroom?
Thanks and Happy New Year!!
YoungHouseLove says
Ours are actually planks, sort of like extra wide hardwood planks – so long rectangles I guess? We haven’t opened the boxes up to see them yet but we’ll keep you posted with pics when we do!
xo,
s
Jen says
I’m so happy you decided on cork floors! We just put down cork floors in our new house last week (http://dejongdreamhouse.blogspot.com/2012/01/our-cork-floors.html)and I can’t wait to move in. They’re beautiful (in my totally biased opinion).
I think I’m mostly impressed that you know four other people with cork floors to ask about them. We don’t know anyone else who has them (IRL anyway!). Your friends must be cooler than ours! :-)
I was hoping that your floors would be down by now. Any idea when you’ll get to enjoy them?
YoungHouseLove says
We were trying to get as much of the kitchen done before putting the floors in (so they don’t get damaged during other projects). So it was on our list for the next week or two, but now with photoshoots happening we may wait until they’re done too. Hopefully by the end of Feb!
-John
Meredith says
Hey YHL,
I have a sort of cork-mergency… We are getting cork floors put in our kitchen right now (they are halfway done tonight) and we need a last minute recommendation on a type of sealer to get tomorrow AM! I am looking at this one: http://low.es/zGFxif but I’d greatly appreciate your thoughts on the subject. Thanks!!!!
YoungHouseLove says
We haven’t looked into that yet! Ahhh. So sorry not to be more prepared for your cork-mergency. Haha. We have had a great experience with eco sealers (from companies like SafeCoat) although I’m not sure they make one for floors. We have also heard great things about Bona which I think makes sealers that are low-VOC (the sealer for our hardwood floors at our first house wasn’t low-VOC and it stunk forever!). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Meredith says
Haha, thanks for the quick response! I would love to get a low-VOC sealer but obviously our options are limited because we didn’t realize it needed to be sealed until the last minute :( Talk about unprepared! Oops! Oh well, it’s our first reno and we’re learning! The Varathane and Minwax options at Lowe’s both claim to be “low odor” so I hope that will work for us…
YoungHouseLove says
Good luck! Feel free to let us know how it goes!
xo,
s
Sara C says
Out of curiosity, what makes a floor unable to handle tile? Is it the subfloor? Joists?
Btw…I’ve been going back and reading the full archives (almost done), and I have to say, it’s been really fun to see how each house has progressed over time!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Sara! As for the floor question, in this case we learned from the previous owners that they knew that (and passed it along, which was so nice). Since it’s been a while my brain is fuzzy but I think the floor needs a certain amount of joists that are strong enough to handle the weight and maybe the ones under the kitchen were too spread out or not thick enough?
xo
s