Oh happy day, another patterned vinyl sheet kitchen flooring — with real color — new to the market: Kahlo from IVC. Again, I’d need to see it in person, but this looks like it really has color — even more so than the similar-look Mannington floor that I featured last week. This IVC flooring now really truly reminds me of the flooring that was put into my kitchen in 1976!
There are two other colorways as well. But they don’t have a retro look, so never mind.
I also kind of like this Serra design in the IVC lineup. Very light and neutral, but hooray not gray. Not really retro. But, if I were designing a contemporary, or country, or eclectic interior, and I wanted a flooring with pattern but also with flexibility, it might make my shortlist.
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Whoa. Here are some colorful floors as well. https://www.atrafloor.com/floors/orangery/
Wow – no idea what these look like in person, how they feel underfoot, what the environmental impact is, or well they hold up… by HOLY SMOKES THOSE ATRA FLOORS ARE EXCITING.
I actually like this floor in the dark blue colorway. It reminds of the floor my mom put in our house in 1975
I’m excited that retro options are showing up. However, you have to grab them now, because they get discontinued quickly. I am with you Robin, I like the darker blue one available on the website. I wish they made it in tile.
I think it looks fresh and lovely. Very comforting
Thanks to your research, I think I just found a flooring for my kitchen!! Kahlo looks like it might set well with my green walls— Way better than the mauve, blue, and tan nightmare that is currently my kitchen floor!
Hooray, send me a photo if / when you install it!
This is a beautiful pattern, Pam. It should work with any of a number of decor choices. Thank you for letting us know about it, and keep ’em coming!
Was looking at an mcm home outside the US and could not figure out (?original?) countertop surface in the bathroom….mentioned it to my friend (who also loves vintage) who informed me that it was probably SHEET LINOLEUM (or similar). She’d grown up with it and personally installed it on both her kitchen and bath counter tops and would never consider anything else. (And can afford any thing she wants😉).
Has anyone here tried it? Was it a regional thing? It could sure solve a lot of problems but is such an out of the box solution I’m having trouble getting my head around it.
I believe we have at least one story on the blog from a few years ago of a reader using linoleum (true linoleum, not vinyl sheet) on their countertops.
That said: Please check with the manufacturer to find out whether such use is recommended, warranted, etc.
In the 1950s, my dad used linoleum to cover a badly scratched wooden kitchen table and secured it with chrome edging. He got the idea from neighbors’ linoleum countertops. Not sure what vintage chemicals were in that linoleum, but perhaps I should mention that we children all had ADD, probably from the lead paint that flaked into our cereal during the kitchen ceiling repair. 🙂 Actually, the whole house had lead paint, which we helped scrape from a young age.
Pam’s advice is always good: be cautious while renovating. I would definitely ask the manufacturer of the new linoleum if the product is food safe and recommended for countertops. Personally, I would stick with laminate.
The Kahlo pattern is very similar to the floor my folks put down in our kitchen in about 1972. I like it much better in these blue choices than I did in my mother’s selection of dusty yellow and avocado green—sorry, Mom!
It definitely resembles the vinyl flooring in our previous 1920’s kitchen, which I assume has been installed when the pea soup green carpeting & curtains went into the living room & dining room. We replaced it with oak to go with the rest of the wood flooring. The vinyl had stains from the previous owner dying things (she was a weaver), so I appreciated its history, but I wanted something more “natural”, and hubby want yet sold on natural linoleum.
Lino on countertops was quite common. I remember it well from my childhood in the late 50s & early 60s in our kitchen and from visiting friends’ and relatives’ houses – probably installed in earlier decades as people didn’t renovate as frequently as we do now.
Also see these stories on a material called Cusheen: https://retrorenovation.com/?s=cusheen
How ironic. My daughter is having the Mannington Tapestry vinyl that you mentioned the other day installed in her kitchen next week. She also chose the “tweed” colorway. She has all knotty pine cupboards, by the way.
Woot! I’d love to see photos when the project is done!!!
I would love to see pictures of the entire kitchen, please. Floors and cabinets.
I really like this. Sheet vinyl is my favorite kitchen flooring and in various houses we have had ceramic tile, vinyl tile and hardwood. I replaced my worn out 1970 sheet vinyl (black background, grey and pink flecks pebble pattern) with IVC commercial fiberglass-backed sheet flooring in a very similar pattern (@work collection, Modus 589). I cant say enough good things about this flooring. So easy to keep clean in spite of dogs and the beach.
Gosh, that is just darn pretty, no matter what decade you favor. Wish I needed some.
I am amused by the latest trend I see in housing and design sites of some really gaudy, busy patterns in cement floor tiles, which every one seems to be swooning over.
If you fibbed and told these swoony folks that these pictures on Houzz they’re admiring as ultra on trend were actually vinyl flooring from the 70s, the cries of “Horrible! Outdated!” would be deafening. Proving, perhaps, the theorem that everything old is new again.
Thanks for finding this, Pam. I checked out the IVC website and there seems to be a few other retro options. The Bertram, Marble, Modus, Nero, and Parador all work for a particular color or style. It’s cool to see different patterns.
I love this flooring! Yet, I am secretly glad that I didn’t know about this earlier this year, when I had my new kitchen floor put in -If I did, I would still be trying to choose! (BTW, I put in Armstrong’s commercial BBT “Azure” which is a perfect match for my “Aqua Spin Drift ” counters)
I wonder how that Orangery would look as a backsplash…
About seven years ago I went looking for flooring for my whole house. I walked into the flooring store, walked around, beige as far as the eye could see so I asked the salesman where they kept the tiles with color! I assumed there must have been a whole other room where they kept the non-beige tile. Nope. Same for kitchen backsplash tile. I’m so happy to see color again!
As a child of the 60’s, I am so pleased to see homeowners using colors in their homes again! Color sets the rooms mood and theme you are trying to convey.
I was sick and tired of looking at gray and white interiors, throughout the homes on pinterest, decor videos, and magazines.
So, I am sending a huge thank-you to all of you lovely people for using colors in your interiors once again!
Same here, Cissy. Give me color! Please! I like gray but it’s so overdone now, and too often it looks cold and lifeless.
I can’t wait until I can replace my dingy, yellowed, kitchen floor. It’s quite a small room so I’m contemplating what would look good in such a small area. I’d love to do a colorful pattern but I’m concerned about whether a pattern such as this one will look good, or will it overwhelm the space?
Adding pattern to a small space can work wonderfully — if handled deftly. Layering color and pattern can make a small space seem like the inside of a wonderful jewel box.
I think it could be fabulous — but again, you’re going to need to be careful about color/pattern/scale harmonizing throughout the room. It’s hard to help without seeing all the elements — this is what you learn by trial and error, including looking at lots of photos to see how a beautiful room is put together. I know that this response isn’t really all that helpful, because I’m not giving you rules, but… it can be done.
Also, I will say, that since this pattern is not super large and is not super saturated with color, it is less likely to ‘overwhelm the space’ — because it’s on the floor. The darker denim color in the line — now to me, that one IS overwhelming the space — because its color is so pronounced. https://www.ivcfloors.com/product/kahlo-574/
All those rugs out there with large scale geometric patterns in high-contrast colors: Those overwhelm the space.
The idea is to select colors and patterns and scale — and even ’empty’ space, to rest — so that your eye is dancing around a room — not getting stuck on any single element.
See this story about how to handle color in a bathroom, it may be a bit helpful: https://retrorenovation.com/2015/10/05/five-steps-choose-bathroom-colors-infographic-guide/
Here is something very similar, but in a more 70’s style brown!
https://www.mannington.com/Residential/LuxuryVinylSheet/Decorative/Deco/130392