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  • Home » Kitchen Help Category » Brick tile flooring — is it original to the 1960s — and should Marie keep it?

    Brick tile flooring — is it original to the 1960s — and should Marie keep it?

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    Posted by: Pam Kueber • July 11, 2018

    Brick tile flooring: Is it appropriate for a mid-century home? And… do we like it? Marie writes:

    Hi Pam,

    Need to pick your brain. We’re in the process of buying a home from 1950. It’s got a lot of original details. I’m trying to figure out if the kitchen floor is original. It’s a glazed brick tile. To me it looks 90s, and I don’t like it… but maybe it is original? My aunt an uncle live in a house built in the early 60s, and it has a similar glazed brick floor in the entry and kitchen. Was glazed brick a midcentury thing? 

    Thanks!! 

    Marie

    Congratulations, Marie, on the new/old house, and thank you for sending this question.

    Brick flooring in a 1964 kitchen, from my archives. This is one of my favorite kitchens I’ve EVER show on the blog.

    My answer:

    My archives indicate that glazed brick flooring — either with real clay bricks or in a vinyl/asbestos or vinyl/composite resilient floor tile — were used in the midcentury era all the way through to… well, yes, the 1990s.  The brick tile flooring in your house could well be original.

    retro room decor rendering

    Louisa Kostich Cowan of Armstrong Flooring showed this style of flooring in her sketches. What a fabulous find these illustrations were!

    Personally, I adore the look. Brick is warm and inviting, and it’s a neutral that can be matched with ‘most any style of cabinetry.

    One downside to clay brick flooring would be that it could be hard on the back, like any ceramic tile would be. On the upside, though, real clay brick flooring is virtually indestructible — and golly, why wouldn’t you want flooring that would last forever and save so much money never needing to be replaced. Note, the old vinyl flooring also lasted a long long long time, I think — this stuff was made back in a time when “planned obsolescence” was still not necessarily a manufacturer’s de facto mode of operation. That is: Folks expected quality. Folks expected stuff that would last a long, long time — and were willing to pay for it.

    Should it stay — or should it go? Well, here is my regularly repeated answer: Sometimes we get shocked by an old design, an old look, that we’re not accustomed to seeing anymore. It’s not popular today. It may even be “despised” by the mainstream design world (which wants us to tear out everything old and install the new stuff that They Are Selling.) So because we are are unaccustomed to seeing the old, and because the new is so well-marketed, we decide that we, too, h*** the old.

    1963 Arnstrong catalog from my collection. Faux brick looks were all the rage. Armstrong #5352 — the most popular flooring ever sold — was still selling.

    However, if we hit the pause button, and take the time to learn about it, and see how it was used — and loved — historically, we may come to like, or even love, it ourselves. I suggest: Live with it a while before taking costly and irreversible steps. See: Just bought a mid-century house? My 9 tips before you start remodeling + 21 more tips from readers.

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    Comments

    1. Dan says

      July 11, 2018 at 6:24 am

      Very sensible reply. With any new home, first make sure the essentials – plumbing, electric, roof, drainage, etc. – are in good shape, then live with the rest for a while. Something drew you to this house; maybe that floor was part of the attraction without your realizing it.

      Reply
    2. Genevieve Rainey says

      July 11, 2018 at 6:46 am

      I just saw brick veneer tile being sold at home depot. It has come back into style. I definitely would leave it.

      Reply
    3. Beth Pierce says

      July 11, 2018 at 7:27 am

      Brick floors were definitely mid century. Much loved by those who favored Early American decorating style. Live with it, I would love to have something like it, but I don’t think anyone manufactures it anymore.

      Reply
    4. Jasmine says

      July 11, 2018 at 8:14 am

      Definitely brick was “in” during the 60’s and 70’s. My mother actually covered our hard wood floors in the upstairs hallway with a faux brick tile. I also lived in a condo that was built in the mid 60’s that had a featured brick wall. Early American and colonial décor was very big then as well at modern so brick would have been a good match.

      Reply
    5. Ethan says

      July 11, 2018 at 8:22 am

      I say yes, keep it.

      Reply
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