Vinyl Flooring Samples for an Upcoming Ugly Kitchen Quick Fix

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!