Vinyl Flooring Samples for an Upcoming Ugly Kitchen Quick Fix

Tuesday, February 24, 2015


In my last kitchen-related post I mentioned how I had finally bought some new hardware for our recently painted cabinets. Holla!!! I was excited.


We spent one Saturday morning installing all of our new knobs and pulls, and I was feeling pretty good about the simple, little kitchen refresh.

(You can see in the next picture that we did actually put them on.)


So why no pictures for the ol' blog you ask?

Well, I lugged out my big camera and tripod for the sole purpose of having a nice before and after post. In my mind it was going to be an epic transformation. 

Ugly Kitchen with Old Cabinet Hardware

But then, but then, but then. When I uploaded the pictures onto my computer all I could see was the gross linoleum floor and the swirly retro countertops / backsplash. The epic before and after wasn't exactly as epic as I had hoped.

The floors especially have been driving me insane. Remember our cute Ikea kitchen carts? They're not so cute with a disgusting, peeling hole right beside them let-me-tell-you.


So, what to do about the floors.

We talked about it for weeks - weighing the different options and possibilities. One of the easiest things to do would be to throw some inexpensive peel and stick vinyl floor tiles right on top of the linoleum. The only problem with that solution is the local selection at Home Depot / Lowe's is limited to about four options each. And, I'm not really a fan of any of them. 

I thought a peel and stick floor in a checkerboard pattern would be a very cute option. 

Source - Holly Mathis Interiors

However, the only plain black and white tiles that I can find are from www.armstrong.com and it would cost an arm and a leg to get them shipped here since I don't even think they ship to Canada directly. 

For awhile I contemplated painting the floors with porch paint in some sort of checkerboard or stripe pattern. I found a few cute examples on the internet but Alex was really hesitant because of the heavy traffic our kitchen gets on a daily basis. (Our doggies are confined to the kitchen / breakfast room when we aren't home). We also have those spots where the linoleum has peeled right off.

I also thought about ripping up all of the existing flooring to expose the wooden sub-floor. If it was in good shape I thought that maybe I could paint it. Alex did a little bit of investigating and found about five layers of flooring / plywood on top of the sub-floor. Hmpfh.

So, this past weekend we went again to look at the inexpensive vinyl options. This time we went to an actual flooring store instead of a big box hardware store.

They had four click-together vinyl floor tiles that I didn't hate. Progress, people, progress. We took some samples home to try them out. Be forewarned that all of the tile samples in the next picture are WAY out of my comfort zone. I like light colours. I like wood. 

Alex gave me a pep talk and said that this is just a quick fix until we are ready to do the full, expensive, gut-the-whole-kitchen-reno. He said it would be okay to choose something a little bit different than I would normally.

So, I did. I picked one. We are going to remove the top layer of linoleum and install a layer of vinyl click-together floor tiles in it's place. 


Oh my. I'm freaking out a little bit just looking at that picture. Gulp. What have I done!?!?!?!??!?!?!

Can you guess which option we chose? 

It's Option #4 - in the bottom right-hand corner.

I keep going on Pinterest to find pictures of kitchens with similar looking flooring to help my anxiety-ridden brain settle down a bit.

Here are a few cute inspiration pictures that I found:

Source - Decor Pad

Source - Decor Pad
So, Alex is talking about possibly installing this new flooring in our kitchen on Saturday. That's in four days.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

21 comments:

  1. My husband and I just installed peel n stick wood plank vinyl flooring in our bathroom over existing tile and I absolutely love how it turned out. We purchased online from Wal-mart of all places. It's called Tivoli II and we used Rustic Oak. It was just over $17 per box and it covers 15 sq ft. I will upload a pic to your facebook post so you can see how it looks. :)

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    1. Thanks again for sharing that pic! I think the vinyl planks look fantastic in your space! I would have loved to do vinyl wood planks in our kitchen - but we just have too many doorways leading into rooms with orange-y birch hardwood. Sigh. ;)

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  2. That's the color I would have chosen also. Not too dark, but not trying to compete with wood tones. I think it's great you're doing an inexpensive fix now. Sometimes it's the little things that make us love our house while we're waiting for the "big" things to be accomplished down the road. Exciting!

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    1. Oooh, glad to hear you would have picked the same! Thanks for your input, I really appreciate it. :)

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  3. it's going to look great...I too like a checkerboard black and white...totally surprised that isn't available.

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    1. I'm crying a little bit inside about not doing the checkerboard. It's so frustrating finding stuff up here in N.O. Hopefully the tile we picked looks okay (fingers and toes crossed). :)

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  4. We just installed a floating vinyl plank floor on our back porch--it looks great and wasn't expensive at all. Good luck!!

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    1. This is giving me hope. :) Thanks for sharing!

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  5. I love this look. I have the tile from your inspiration pictures in my mudroom and laundry room in a herringbone pattern. I have to say though, without the light grout to break it up I'm not sure I would like it!? Just a thought from one light floor lovin girl to another:)

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    1. Oh trust me, I am freaking out about not having any grout lines. I'm so worried it will just look like a sea of grey / black. I'm hoping a cute Dash and Albert rug will liven it up a little? Fingers crossed. :)

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  6. I've never commented before but wanted to say it'll look great!! Just curious, though - what age is your home and the vinyl? Have you tested it for asbestos? Linoleum flooring pre-1982 or something around then can contain asbestos. Our bathroom floor came back positive for asbestos so instead of paying over $1000 to have it professionally removed, we went right over the top. As long as the fibers aren't disturbed it's safe. Maybe your house is fine - I was just curious since you said you were removing the top layer of vinyl.

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    1. I will definitely have to look into that. Thanks so much for the heads up. I forgot all about nasty asbestos. Asbestos = booooooo.

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  7. Congradulations. I can't wait to see it all done!

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    1. Thanks!!! Although I'll only share pictures if it turns out looking okay. ;)

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  8. Love your choice! I can't wait to see the finished floor!

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  9. I think your kitchen is just darling and I love the flooring you chose, I think it will be beautiful! Your counter top and back splash remind me so much of ours in our farmhouse. I ended up applying bead board wallpaper to the back splash and painting and sealing the counter tops and we love it! The transformation was huge. Love your blog!! :)

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  10. I too had to live for a long time"with little kitchen fixes" ...believe me it helps! every little bit! and you get to try things you may have otherwise never have. so have some fun with it and relax! you get to do exactly what you want when u do the big gut job! good luck!

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  11. Do you know where I can purchase that gray subway tile backsplash?

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    1. Hi Hilary, the pic on my blog was just an inspiration picture so I'm not sure where the tiles were from. They are pretty though! :)

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  12. What is the name of the back splash tile?

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    1. Hi Lynnette, the pic on my blog was an inspiration picture from another site so I'm not exactly sure where the backsplash tiles were from. They are pretty though! :)

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