We are going to remodel our kitchen very soon. The main thing wrong with our kitchen now is the cabinets: they’re ugly and there aren’t enough of them. We’re going to slightly change the layout of the kitchen which will give us about another 18 inches of cabinets and enable us to have one of those nice lazy susan corner cabinets in a currently almost unusable corner.
Two things I like about our kitchen are the countertops, which you can see in this photo and the floor, which is actually a bit bluer than it looks in that picture. We will be able to save some of the countertops and the last time I checked (which was recently) that color Formica is still available. Unfortunately, the flooring is not and neither is any other blue vinyl or laminate floor covering. AAARRRRRGGGGGHHH!!!!! I Must! Have! A Blue Floor! In My Kitchen! The fate of the universe depends on it!
Okay, really? I suppose the universe will survive but this is hugely disappointing. The vast majority of tile, sheet vinyl and laminate flooring available is dirt colored. (a.k.a. “warm earth tones”) That’s crazy! Why on Earth would anyone want a dirt colored kitchen floor? Well, I guess I do know why. Some of you want a dirt colored floor because it sort of hides the dirt so you can wait a little longer to clean it. But for me that’s a bad thing. I’m not instinctively a good housekeeper. I need for the dirt to be really noticeable so I will realize it needs to be cleaned before it gets too terribly disgusting. Besides, I want blue. It’s part of the vision I have in my head.
After some desperate searching I found this laminate. I was delighted. All was right with the universe again. It looks almost exactly like the kitchen floor I have now but it’s laminate which means there will be somewhat less cussing involved in the installation, though of course no home improvement project is ever completely profanity-free. However, knowing that colors in photos online (or anywhere) are often not accurate, we went to Home Depot this past weekend to look at samples in person. Oh woe! Despair! Hopes shattered and stomped upon! It was gray! Very gray, not the least bit, not even by the most extreme stretch of the imagination, blue.
But that’s probably going to be our new floor. I’ve seen a couple of samples that were dirt colored with generous streaks of blue and I briefly considered those but I really want a lighter, cleaner look. And the gray really isn’t bad. I think it will look fine with everything else. I will adjust as always. (Dammit!)
I don’t know exactly when we’ll get started on this project but it will be soon. We will keep all our current appliances except maybe the dishwasher but I’m not sure; we might keep the one we have for a while longer. I’m excited and eager to get started even though it will be a huge, stressful ordeal. We will be without a real kitchen for probably several weeks but we have both a microwave and a countertop convection oven that we can plug in anywhere and I’m sure we’ll find somewhere to plug in the refrigerator.
Of course there will be pictures. Stay tuned.
February 22nd, 2011 - 2:47 pm
When I replace my kitchen floor? It will be dust-colored, with random splashes and squiggles that are the color of (a) tea, (b) tomato sauce, and (c) cake or pancake batter.
That way, I will feel less compelled to scrub it after every time I cook. Because it gets really old doing that twice a day.
I have white ceramic tile right now. I wish I knew what the person who owned the house before me (and had that installed) was thinking.
I have salmon-colored formica countertops. As awful as some people might think that is, I really rather like them.
February 22nd, 2011 - 3:58 pm
– “dust-colored, with random splashes and squiggles that are the color of (a) tea, (b) tomato sauce, and (c) cake or pancake batter.” –
I think I saw that floor last weekend.
Salmon-colored doesn’t sound so bad. I can visualize that. When we were looking for a house when we first moved to Oklahoma my favorite kitchen of all the houses we looked at was huge and nicely decorated in pink and navy. It had one serious problem though: a pink shag carpet. Yes, in the kitchen. The reason we didn’t buy it was because the bedrooms were extremely tiny but if we had bought that one I would have immediately ripped out that carpet and lived with bare sub-floor if necessary.
February 22nd, 2011 - 5:14 pm
Balterio has a “Belgian blue honed” laminate that might be blue enough for you:
http://www.balterio.com/collection.php?cid=8&con=eu&lang=en
We’ve been very pleased with our Balterio laminate flooring. And my experiences helping others put down other brands of laminate flooring has convinced me that if we decide on laminate for another floor, it’ll be Balterio.
February 22nd, 2011 - 6:37 pm
Shag carpet in a KITCHEN?
What is this I don’t even….
I thought carpeting in bathrooms (which I’ve seen) was bizarre and wrong, but in a kitchen it seems even worse. At least if you cook like I do, and occasionally drop an egg or knock over a nearly full can of tomato paste….
One of the houses my parents looked at, the Realtor was trying very hard to be diplomatic, but wow, was it decorated ugly…one room had black shag carpeting, one of the bedrooms had purple carpet and a fancy chandelier. And I think one of the bathrooms was carpeted. The house had a nice layout but the effort and expense of undoing the crazy decorating was more than they wanted to do.
February 22nd, 2011 - 9:08 pm
It took us six months to find a house and we looked at some very bizarre houses – bizarre floor plans, bizarre decorating. It’s amazing what’s out there especially if you’re looking at houses out in the country where building codes are either non-existent or frequently ignored.
February 23rd, 2011 - 10:57 am
I too, have lusted for a blue floor. Have you considered cork tiles? They are available in many shades of blue from various companies. If you are unfamiliar with cork, you can read up on it at Wikipedia. Cork is easy on the feet and legs, naturally antimicrobial, cool in the summer and warm in winter, sound-absorbing, and easy to take care of (treat like a wood floor). The big bonus is that cork tiles are as “green” a product as you will ever find.
February 23rd, 2011 - 1:48 pm
Really? That’s interesting. All the cork tiles I’ve ever seen have been brown. I don’t want cork anyway. It’s too soft and even though they say it’s very durable I know we would gouge chunks out of it before we’d have had it a month.