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Remodel & decorate in Mid Century Style

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Home / Kitchen / Kitchen Flooring

1970s style kitchen flooring: Kahlo by IVC

Pam Kueber - Updated: November 24, 2021

Retro Renovation stopped publishing in 2021; these stories remain for historical information, as potential continued resources, and for archival purposes.

1970s style kitchen flooringOh 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 (now remodeled) kitchen in 1976! 

Update: A reader tells me that this colorway is now discontinued (but there is another one in gray/of course.)

1970s kitchen flooring styleThere are two other colorways as well. But they don’t have a retro look, so never mind.

  • See all my flooring research here.

CATEGORIES:
Kitchen Kitchen Flooring

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28 comments

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  1. Barbara says

    October 11, 2018 at 10:23 am

    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.

  2. Lynne says

    October 11, 2018 at 9:24 am

    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.

    • Pam Kueber says

      October 11, 2018 at 1:53 pm

      Woot! I’d love to see photos when the project is done!!!

    • Alberta Mobley says

      October 14, 2018 at 9:10 am

      I would love to see pictures of the entire kitchen, please. Floors and cabinets.

  3. Lynn Marie says

    October 11, 2018 at 5:53 am

    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.

    • Pam Kueber says

      October 11, 2018 at 9:19 am

      Also see these stories on a material called Cusheen: https://retrorenovation.com/?s=cusheen

  4. meb says

    October 10, 2018 at 6:29 pm

    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.

  5. Debbie in Portland says

    October 10, 2018 at 3:18 pm

    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!

  6. Primrose Road says

    October 10, 2018 at 11:31 am

    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.

    • Pam Kueber says

      October 10, 2018 at 1:00 pm

      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.

      • Mary Elizabeth says

        October 14, 2018 at 6:04 pm

        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.

  7. Felicia Alexander says

    October 10, 2018 at 10:19 am

    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!

  8. Amarissa D Parker says

    October 10, 2018 at 9:25 am

    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!

    • Pam Kueber says

      October 10, 2018 at 9:35 am

      Hooray, send me a photo if / when you install it!

  9. Robin, WA says

    October 10, 2018 at 8:57 am

    I actually like this floor in the dark blue colorway. It reminds of the floor my mom put in our house in 1975

    • Tarquin says

      October 10, 2018 at 5:04 pm

      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.

      • Judy G says

        October 14, 2018 at 9:35 pm

        I think it looks fresh and lovely. Very comforting

  10. alison says

    October 10, 2018 at 6:35 am

    Whoa. Here are some colorful floors as well. https://www.atrafloor.com/floors/orangery/

    • txpacotaco says

      October 15, 2018 at 10:40 pm

      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.

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