Recommendations for cheap temporary kitchen floor in period home?

15 years ago

Long story short...we have to put a temporary kitchen in our home for now, but we're going to rip this kitchen out and add an addition with our dream kitchen, hopefully within a year.

So obviously we're doing this kitchen as cheaply as we can. Oak cabinets, laminate countertop (or Ikea butcherblock which I've read is very affordable)...but what to put on the floor?

The house was built in the early 1900s and we are restoring it as a period home. Even though this kitchen is just going to be temporary, I don't want it to look so ridiculous with the rest of our house (which is all the original hardwood).

The cheapest floor I can think of is vinyl. I was looking for a hex-tile-patterned vinyl or a B/W pinwheel-patterned vinyl, but haven't had any luck. I don't care for the fake stone or fake wood looks that seem to be popular, and solid vinyl/linoleum looks very modern and commercial to me. Does anyone have any recommendations as to what sort of vinyl I should use?

Thanks so much!

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Comments (5)

pcjs
15 years ago
Vinyl is the cheapest way, but it really isn't that cheap in less you can get it prepackaged in the roll, which is what we ended up doing - I wanted vinyl but couldn't decide so I went to Home Depot and decided I wasn't leaving till I picked something to put down as I was tired of the plywood floor - while looking at the big rolls, I turned around and found ours - $50 for a 9x12 and we taped it down, put molding around it and what's nice is if we ruin it, no biggie - remove the molding, pull it up, and put a new piece down - it sits right next to hardwood and looks nice.

Personally speaking, if it is only a year, why waste the money - we lived with a horrible sink base and tiny countertop pulling out most of the kitchen for about a year after moving in/redoing ours till we could get the money together and decide what we wanetd. I refused to use some of the stuff so we ripped it out as it was nasty.

The best vinyl's we found were just basic/neutral that weren't heavy patterned.

I really like ours as we are DIY the rest of the house and it is easy to clean, doesn't get dirty easily, and doesn't scratch. It was only supposed to be temporary, but it's staying as it grew on me.

Oh, I should mention, it really wasn't just $50 - the tape was about $10 for two rolls, then you have the plywood subfloor as ours was rotted out - about $200 as I didn't want luan (not as good as solid plywood), deck screws, and other misc. supplies, and the molding to match the cabinets.
mamadadapaige
15 years ago
how about those peel and stick squares. one black, the next white in a checkerboard pattern. that is a very period look and would be super cheap.
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Colickyboy, I studied this in college. The home you describe could be very close to the stickley style within the craftsman umbrella or really the mission era. Homes built around the 1900s had natural woods such as maple and oak on the floors. Stains were medium not dark but that does not mean dark was never done. I am sure there was one person on the planet who painted their floors a dark green or dark brown in 1911. But this was not the norm for this period. Knotty pine or wide plank wood floors also fit that time period. A great on line source for information is.... http://www.oldhousejournal.com/stowicism_the_legacy_of_arts_crafts_builtins/magazine/1572 I would ask do you want to follow the history of your home or do you want to create your own style? Go from there on what color you want for your floors. And the advice to talk to a realtor is good but keep in mind that if you plan to stay for more than 5 years you should make your home what you want. You are going to live there and unless you are doing something nasty (purple and orange polka dots with puce green) make your home a place you love. A house priced right will sell in any market. Priced right. As for Dark floors making a kitchen smaller?? Not at all. I used to believe this but not anymore. Dark floors are beautiful and can actually create a sense of space because it is a flat surface. Dark walls all around you might close in on you but a floor does not do that. Here are some images of traditional craftsman floors... Wait I should say updated for modern times of 2010 Thomas Conway Craftsman And here are two photos of dark floors. This one below is Spanish Mission style in the Arts and Crafts period. The one below that is not craftsman at all but it shows dark floors in a small kitchen. It can look lovely. Spanish style Mission River Rapids Paint by Ralph Lauren I don't think I helped you decide. Sorry. I just wanted you to see there are options that look beautiful either way. Make your kitchen a place you love to be in. ~boxerpups Here is a link that might be useful: Blog of a craftsman home with dark floors
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Recommendations for cheap temporary floor in period home?
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I'll second Johnmari's suggestion: try to track down KGWLisa's kitchen. She used regular VCT tile, but the reason her floor looks so much more appropriate than others is due to two reasons. For one thing, it's not the obvious, high-maintenance (and, in most cases, inauthentic) black-&-white checkerboard, but a less contrasty combination whose colors actually relate to the decor of her kitchen. The other thing that finishes her kitchen off so nicely is the wide border around the room, and the care with which she has laid out the pattern of the tiles. Most manuals say to find the center of the room, then start laying tiles from that point, to make sure that the inevitable partial tiles at the edges are balanced at each end of the room. To my mind, that's a lot less important than is making the pattern align at the most important entrance into the room. That, too, is another function of the border. You can widen it or narrow it to allow the line between the field & border to fall on a corner of the field tiles. Of course, in any room but the most perfectly symmetrical rooms, there's always going to be one corner or one side where there's a weird partial tile(s) or something that isn't the case in other places. Your job is to make sure that that area falLs in the back corner, or under the refrigerator or something, not in area that will get more attention. At any rate, the keys to success in using a multicolor selection of tiles to suggest a period linoleum--and a plaid or tattersall design in close colors is another option besides a checkerboard--is taking plenty of time to lay out the design ahead of time. Regards, MAGNAVERDE.
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I had the same situation in my kitchen and what we did was get the absolutely cheapest wood-look laminate I could find at the time--I think it was about $1/SF. The click, floating kind so no glue or permanent adhesives needed. I figured since it would only be for a year or two and it was so cheap I didn't care that it would quickly look battered, being so cheap and all. Surprise! That el cheapo floor has held up amazingly well. We drip water on it, drop stuff, have a couple of cats, four adult size folks tromping through and it still looks great. I seriously advise considering laminate. The stuff today seems a lot sturdier than it used to be. After I did mine I discovered IKEA and they have even cheaper wood-look laminate. It really would bear consideration, especially for a short term solution. We're about to take ours up now that I'm (finally) remodeling my kitchen. But it still looks fine and could easily be left on for ???. Good luck. Ann
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caligirl_cottage
15 years ago
Definitely vote for black and white checkerboard in a 12 X 12 sized tile or sheet vinyl that looks like black and white tile. We nearly bought an impeccably restored victorian that had a black and white checkerboard VCT floor in the kitchen and that was one of the features we really loved. It's cheap, easy to maintain and looks nice.
growlery
15 years ago
I would second just leaving whatever floor you have (or putting plywood down if there's no surface to walk on!) and covering things up with a big rug or floor cloth.

It doesn't have to be a good rug. And many rugs are washable, even knotted ones -- just use a little dish soap, the hose, scrub out any greasy spots and throw over a hedge to dry.

If you're creative, there's tons of information online about painting or stenciling your own floorcloths -- you could even do a checkerboard on that, then move it around to any area you wanted to protect while the workmen were there -- it's just thick canvas.

It will save money, installation headaches and keep more stuff out of the landfill.

Good luck!
Circus Peanut
15 years ago
I wholeheartedly third the black/white vinyl squares idea, unless you can get by painting and varnishing whatever floor is there now with a checkerboard pattern, even better.

Recommendations for cheap temporary kitchen floor in period home?

Comments (5)

pcjs

mamadadapaige

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