Where have you seen this floor before?

We are getting super close to starting the kitchen renovation.

Yay!

We have some things figured out - cabinets, counter top, wall color, back splash.

And we have some things still to figure out - lighting over sink and table, floor and what to do with our dish washer (replace, paint or live with it).

The floor is a big mystery still. We have looked at a bunch of samples of all kinds of materials and we have a pretty good idea of what we don't want:

Hardwood - Would be too hard to match to existing floor.

Carpet - For obvious reasons, but there was carpet at one time.

Stick on squares - Not sold on how durable these are.

Ceramic tile - Um, with how cold my feet are ALL THE TIME, this would not be a good choice. Plus I like my dishes - There is no recovery from slippery hands. This would also rule out marble or slate (not that we were even considering these!)

Cork - fun, but pricey.

Laminate - Again, too hard to match the hardwood floors in the rest of the house.

What we are really leaning toward is linoleum. It is economical, easy to install and pretty durable. And you can do lots of fun things with it, like patterns!

source

We are totally loving the checkerboard pattern (but we would skip that fancy border - not quite our taste.)

source

Another a great floor. Not sure if we want to do the diagonal placement or straight.

But looking at this photo may make our decision much easier. These are the stairs that have the very same floor that our kitchen has. And the crew who put this floor in was meticulous about pattern placement, as can plainly be seen. Placing the tiles on the diagonal on the stairs would be a big pain in the neck. We are not up for any more big pain in the neck projects than we have to.

This floor is so not attractive in our house.

Not even considering the color, this trim looks so icky. Black underneath, and then painted ugly. I am all about patina, but this is not doing it for us. Ugh.

Remember how lovely our stairwell looked after this renovation? Notice the lack of floor photos. There was a reason for that.

But in the interest of full disclosure, this is what it looks like from the other angle. Oh boy.

source

Isn't this lovely? Love those painted risers!

We might do a few things before we get on the kitchen demolition and renovation. 

Maybe the stairs!