Do you want retro-style, resilient flooring for your kitchen, bathroom, basement — maybe even your entire house? We tend to write about new designs one at time — when we, or readers, spot them. And we’ll continue doing that. But realistically, if you are in the market for new resilient flooring, I recommend that you prepare your eyeballs and start looking through all the styles available from every manufacturer. “Every manufacturer?” Yes — and to help, I’ve begun the following list.
“Resilient”: meaning not tile or concrete, but cushioned flooring stuff that kind of bounces back underfoot.
Shown above: Dave and Frances’ Marmoleum-brand linoleum floor.
Where to look for linoleum flooring — available in sheets or in tiles:
I know of two companies in the U.S. that make old-style linoleum:
- Forbo / Marmoleum
- Tarkett
Where to look for vinyl, luxury vinyl and vinyl composite flooring — sheet and tile:
In alphabetical order:
- American Bilt-Rite
- Armstrong
- Azrock
- Congoleum
- IVC
- Harvey Maria
- Johnsonite
- Karndean
- Lonseal
- Mannington
- Olympia Tile
- Tandus-Centiva
- Tarkett (seems to have bought Amtico)
- Vinylasa
Important research tip: When searching these companies’ websites, look at the Residential/Homeowner sections of these companies’ websites, of course. BUT, you may be most likely to find flooring that suits our midcentury sensibilities in the Commercial/Contract sections.
I started to try and bucket and sort particular lines by size and type… but immediately became frustrated because there are so many options. Perhaps I will do this someday — but it will need to be an X-Y chart. There IS a lot of cool stuff available.
Where to find glue-down cork flooring:
Re cork flooring, I don’t know anything about the new floating floor technologies, so for this list, I focused on companies that sell original style glue ’em down cork flooring, just like I have in my 1951 bedrooms and foyer. When and if I ever redo these floors (the foyer in particular has seen better days), I will likely be using glue-down tiles from companies such as these:
- Duro Design Cork Flooring
- Expanko
- Evora Cork
- Forna Cork Flooring
- Globus Cork Flooring
- Jelinek Cork Flooring
- Lisbon Cork Flooring
- Nova Cork Flooring
- U.S. Floors
- Wicanders
Note: I have no idea how to vet the quality of one manufacturer’s cork floor tile vs. another’s.
Note, Precautionary Pam reminds: Be sure you know what’s in the vintage layers of your house — they could contain vintage nastiness such as lead and asbestos …. consult with a professional to assess what you have so that you can make informed decisions. For more info and links see our Be Safe / Renovate Safe page here.
All of our flooring research
is filed in the category Kitchen Help / Flooring
Thank you, dear readers: I was turned on to a number of these companies — likely, most — by readers. Thank you a million times over!