These 50s Kentile flooring samples were recently on ebay. I bid on them all, but won just one set. Alas, I have been trying to cut back on building the “Museum of Pittsfield” collection, as my oh-so-patient husband calls it. I’ll tell you, I already have quite an exhibit ready to send cross-country!
Aren’t these incredible? It is so sad that pickin’s are so thin in terms of replicating them today. If you are in the market, be sure to check the “Flooring” Category (in the column just to the right) for the variety of choices still available.
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi,
I was lucky enough to find an entire 2-color batch at a Goodwill once, and they went down in my kitchen! I learned that they cannot be layered over other vinyls, etc., so a fresh topping of plywood was required.
Ronn at FUTURES Antiques
Hi Ronn. It’s nice to hear from you. I need to scan my actual samples and put them into a post. They are SO BEAUTIFUL!
OMG, which one did you get? I’m drooling over A and E.
Call me kooky but I’m kind of liking the whole patchwork look of all sample pictures. Especially the first two. If you have an area where it is possible to use this type of pattern…why not?
Too tacky?
These are beautiful. But they look a lot like the asbestos-tile floor we had to remove from our 1950 home, which we replaced with a Mannington VCT checkerboard floor. Are these tiles asbestos-free?
Be careful…they are all asbestos…:(
These were just 2″ sample squares that I had no intention of using, they were just for color/design reference. I agree – consult with an expert when determining what’s in your own vintage flooring.
To replicated the look using new products today, I like the 12×12 VCT tiles available from Azrock Cortina. There are some great streaky/slubby designs in great colors. Congoleum also makes some streaky tiles available in their commercial line. And Amstrong’s Imperial Excelon has some great designs, too. All these are listed on the Fast & Easy Flooring page.
Here is my post from last year about the original basement flooring: http://mjsputtering.blogspot.com/2008/04/vintage-music-and-martini-glass.html As mentioned in my blog (perhaps not that particular post), we deemed them all asbestos and brought in the professionals as we had at least 6 different tiles in the basement. It was just cheaper and less time-consuming to treat them as asbestos than to get an analysis done on each tile type to determine whether it had asbestos.
I’m looking for vintage-looking flooring for my 2010 kitchen reno. We plan to keep the style of the kitchen the same as currently (with the shelves/wooden valence above the sink)!