Here is a link to a thread from someone who has an entire silver shadow floor. In another thread she mentions it looking greenish, which I always thought when I looked at the sample. I know your frustration...Imagining the floor you want, then finding such limited colors in the click style. (I wanted a medium brown...not gold or oranges, which were the closest. We ordered Serene Gray planks with squares of Barbados mixed in.) I think either combo you're considering could be lovely, but could you be happy with cream and greenish light gray, or cream and yellow, when you've dreamed of blue and white? What else are you planning in the room, and how would the flooring choice change your vision?

Here is a link that might be useful: hest88's kitchen

Thanks for the link. Silver Shadow looks really nice with white cabinets.

On one side of my kitchen, I have light yellow walls with white beadboard under the chair rail. My breakfast set is white, and the adjoining family room has white furniture with silver-shadow-toned (light green/blue) couches, pillows, etc.

BUT, on the other side of the kitchen, I have very warm, medium wood cabinets. (I'm a white cabinet person but they are just too nice to replace or paint.) I've tried to incorporate white into that side of the kitchen as much as I could with white appliances, sink and white beadboard as my backsplash.

So my feeling is that while silver shadow would look good in my breakfast area, it would NOT look good against warm wood cabinets. Do you think yellow/cream would be a more neutral choice for the overall room? Or does it sound like too much yellow? My granite is also a gold tone.

I've been looking at these samples for a year now!

Better break down and order a box of each and lay them out. That's the only way you're going to know. As Rhome asks, what's going to make you happy to live with? I've spent some time musing over Marmoleum colors myself, even sending for a few samples, including Yellow Corn, which I really like but it'd probably end up creating a very yellow room.

Personally, I think the silver shadow and cream would go nicely with the wood, and the yellows would be too yellow for me...But that's a personal preference thing. Have you brought home samples to see in your room, with your things, and in your lighting? Rosie's right that seeing it in person is your best bet.

I do have little 3 inch samples. I've been sitting them in different locations around my kitchen for several months now, changing my mind every other day. (My husband thinks I'm crazy.)

That is a GREAT idea to buy a box of each of the three colors. I don't know why I never thought to do that. I'll end up using two of them, so in the end it wouldn't be much wasted... only about $50 of material.

Thanks to both of you for your advice!

I actually have close-ups of the Silver Shadow which I'll post when I get home tonight.

We ended up laying the Marmo samples, the paint swatches, and the cabinet door sample on the floor for days to figure out which combination would work best. The Silver Shadow is definitely not as neutral a grey as one would imagine, but oddly enough it worked fine with our green walls. I don't know if it's the reflection from the walls, but it has a green cast in some lights but when I look close it's more blue. Either way, I initially sought out the SS sample because I'd hoped for a very neutral grey, but it's really not like that at all.

OK, so now I'm leaning towards the SS and cream. Pictures would be great, hest88. Thank you!

I have sheet Marmoleum, not click, but if you want to see some fun colors, check this out. I have Purple Passion in my laundry room, Kerala, a blue, for the pantry, and Granada, a brown/gray,for the mud room.

Also scroll down to the October 19th post to see the actual samples, with names.

Here is a link that might be useful: Marmeolum in my house

Do you have a retailer near by with bigger samples available than 3"? No wonder you're having a hard time deciding! My Marmoleum just showed up today, along with our vinyl and hardwood...Flooring! I'm so excited!

Minnt, those are fun colors. I'm not a 'blue person,' but particularly like the wall and floor combo in the pantry. I was really wishing they would have broadened the color selection for the Click...The sheet comes in SO many wonderful colors and shades. Sounds like you're having some of the same challenges we are...Didn't have heat until a week ago, so we also went through sheetrock finishing without...Had to rent fans and heat. We actually just have the furnace part of the system going, the heat pump will get hooked up next week, most likely. How did you put flooring in without heat to acclimate it first?

Oooh, a marmoleum-color-choosing thread! My favorite!

Did you know you can get lots more colors if you go with the glue-down tile instead of the click? That's what I used and I don't think installation is any more expensive. Plus, the height is minimal so you don't have to worry about transitions into other rooms, etc.

I ended up with White Marble and Eiger (medium gray) checkerboard after much, much deliberation on this board. I was going to go with red and cream but I chickened out, and I'm glad I did.

It would help a lot if you posted a picture of your room so people could see what you mean by "warm" cabinets. That could mean a lot of different color tones. One thing I will say about adding color to your floor, having gone through this - - it will look much, much more cohesive if you have that same color elsewhere, like on the walls or on lots of accessories in the same room. While I love the silver shadow, with yellow walls it may be a bit too colorful, but it depends on what else you have going on in there.

So . . . do you have any pics?

Paige,
My adjoining family room couches are the same light blue/green tone as the Silver Shadow marm, and the window treatments throughout that room and my kitchen are blue, green and yellow. My house is a 1930s bungalow, so I'm going for a retro cottage look with the white appliances, beadboard, etc. I agree with what you are saying about doing too many colors. That was my reasoning behind the yellow and cream -- b/c it would match the walls. But SS is much more subtle than Natural Corn, which makes me think it would stand out less... even though it is a different color. Sorry, not sure if that makes any sense.

I'll see if I can get some pictures up, although I'm not sure if I'm ready to get judged yet. You all seem to have some nice looking kitchens on this site!

Oh, and we are doing click b/c it's DIY.

For several years I planned to do a "blue and white" kitchen. I saw a fabulous kitchen in a magazine and wanted that blue and white check floor. But that floor was marble, not marmoleum.

I totally understand your quandary. The blues are not the right blue, and the cremes (for me) were not cream at all. I thought Barbados was too pink, some are too cold, and that lovely corn color is, well, yellow.

I put off deciding for months! I thought I might do arabesque and carabbean, but they really never made a "ping" together.

My cabinet sales lady/KD saw our marmo samples laying around. She immediately pulled out serene grey and carribean and just said "wow, this pops". She was right. I gave up the quest for the marmoleum blue and white and went with creamy and almost-green and I am so happy. It was hard to give up completely on the blue and white but our floor and kitchen are so perfect.

I wish I had a digi camera to post photos! At some point I will somehow make it happen.

Take a look at that color combo: serene grey and caribbean, it is so rich and wonderful, It goes really well with my white cabinets and soapstone in our bungalow.

By the way, we did it ourselves. Very straightforward, but mind the edges! We had some tricky areas at doorways and around built in cabinets in a kitchen nook that were small areas that took a lot of sophisticated cutting and patience. The flooring goes down really fast in the main floor portion of a room where no cuts are required.

bmarshall-- used a bunch of Click colors in my kitchen, including Barbados and Silver Shadow--also Virgin Blue (slightly darker than SS), Blue, Lava, and whatever the red color is called. (I also have a bit of Natural Corn--I thought I was going to like that color in my mix, but when I finally starting laying out all my tiles, I discovered I didn't like it as much as I thought. I included a tile here and there, mostly partial tiles sticking out under cabinets--though if I had it to do over again, I would have left those tiles out all together).

Here is a picture--there is a little section with the Barbadoes and Silver Shadow in a checkerboard-esque layout, just in front of the sink.
{{!gwi}}

I was lucky to be able to find 20 inch square sample tiles at my local supplier (Environmental Home Center in Seattle), which really helped. I can't imagine trying to make the decision based on 3" tiles! And don't forget the amber issue...new tiles have a yellowish tint that goes away after time.

Oh--one other thing...you might have some trouble finding someone who will sell you a single box of tiles...I think some retailers have minimum order requirements.

Hope this helps!

How did you put flooring in without heat to acclimate it first?>>>>>>

This time of year here, in Minnesota, we don't have to acclimate hard wood floors. At least that is what our floor store told us. They only sell hardwood floors and they are the premier installers in our area, so I trust them.

It doesn't matter with the Marmoleum. Our installer is also really great and he had all three sheets in within an afternoon, after the underlayment went on.

KLB, A few questions:

So do you consider SS a blue or grey? And that Virgin Blue does look very close. Maybe I should consider that.

Did you do underlayment? I've seen them do marm click without it on DIY shows, and forbo told me it wasn't necessary. But somehow that seems weird to me. I'm going over one layer of sheet vinyl.

Also, what kind of stove do you have?

Everyone - Is there something other than Barbados that is more of a true white? I know Sleepy mentioned Caribbean, but that's more of a beige, right?

I know... I need to get some better samples. I'll find a store today.

Hiya minnt

Your floors look really cool. I checked out your blog - very interesting!
To go totally off topic - I would use a log for your mantle - we did - one out of our barn and it is unique and I like it - sometimes it is fun (and you are obviously FUN!) to throw in something a bit different!

Best of luck

Oh yeah - Paige - can we see pics of your finished kitchen? It has been a few years - I only chime in once in a while - nice to see that you do too.

I have nothing to offer the OP - other than I really like the flooring everyone is showing - but I don't have it in my house - so no advice from me.

Hi pickles! Good to see you. And sure, you can see pictures of my finished kitchen . . . when it's finished! Yes, it's been a couple of years. It's functional, but we still haven't installed all of the trim and the adjoining breakfast room needs lots of painting. It's a DIY job that kind of fell off the radar for awhile. I was about to get back to painting when I got bronchitis again, so maybe after the holidays. I'll try to take some progress pics this weekend.

KLB, you know I love that floor.

minnt, yours are so bold and fun! I wish I had a laundry room, pantry, etc. like that. You can really go wild in those rooms.

bmarshall, it sounds like SS would be a great color for your space, but it would still help to see a pic. :-) I think the size of the room and what else is in there make a big difference. I have a small kitchen and therefore went with more uniform colors, despite my initial inclinations. I'm happy that I did.

bmarshall, the click doesn't need underlayment, but we are putting down an acoustic pad (thin, foam type stuff) that our flooring supplier recommended. And, nope, nothing available that I'd call white.

Okay, here's a close-up of the SS on our floor:

Here to give more color contrast, is the floor next to the gray side of the refrigerator plus the wall--which is a sort of sage green. That hardwood at the back is red oak.

bmarshall--

I think the SS looks like a very pale blue....but I have it paired with some other shades of blue, which might help it read more 'blue' than 'grey' in my kitchen. I think hest88's close up picture shows that the 'flecks' in the SS are blue-ish. I like the Virgin Blue, but it might look too pastel-ish for your kitchen on its own (or just paired with the barbados). I think I would prefer the SS with the Barbados

I didn't use any underlayment, and haven't had any problems. I have original fir floors underneath that I couldn't quite bring myself to glue over--otherwise, I would have been tempted by the normal Marmoleum tiles...they really do have some cool colors and patterns available. (I guess I'm lucky I was limited to the click colors, or I would still be trying to decide which tiles to go with!)

The stove is a Lacanche Cormatin--it was a splurge, but I do love it! {{gwi:1482392}}

Off-topic, but KLB I swoon every time I see your kitchen. It's just so gorgeous!

Aww, thanks, hest88! Now if I could just get the backsplash installed, I could finally call my project done! (I was just shamefully realizing that the rest of the kitchen has been complete for nearly 1 1/2 years!)

I wanted to close out the post by thanking you all for your help. It was my first time on this forum (or any forum, for that matter), and it was really fun. I'm going to go with Barbados and my original choice of Silver Shadow. It comes down to the fact that I just really like that color -- be it grey, blue or green!

And hest88, I LOVE the stove. I WAS trying to stretch my budget for a 36 inch white Bertazzoni. Now I can't get yours out of my head! But that's a whole 'nother post...

Bye, everyone.

Ooops. Correction:

KLB, I love your stove.

Hest88, I'm sure yours is nice too ; ) Mine, on the other hand, is so gross I was too embarrassed to show you pictures of my kitchen during this posting!

klb, I also love your kitchen! We are in the planning stages of our kitchen remodel now and the kitchens I've always been drawn to in magazines are your kitchen. White cabinets and dark countertops. What are your countertops made of?

Cindy

It IS a pretty stove, isn't it? There are lots of nice options for more colorful appliances these days--I love those Bertazzonis, plus the colorful Vikings, BlueStars, Agas.... Be sure to find pictures of RedRange's kitchen (with a gorgeous red BlueStar, among other features...now THAT kitchen makes me swoon!)

sundownr...thanks! The countertops are black Paperstone, a recycled paper product similiar to Richlite. Both products have an almost leathery matte finish, and seem softer and warmer to the touch than granite. I was tempted by soapstone, but it seemed like quite a pain to find slabs in my area, and I was worried I would end up with a slab with more veining than I wanted...so I went with the Paperstone, and so far have been very happy with it. I actually used Paperstone as the threshold between my Marmoleum and hard wood floors, too--which has worked out surprisingly well!

bmarshall--it feels good to have the decision made, doesn't it? Now you have to make sure you post some pictures when you are done; we all love the marmoleum kitchens! :)

klb - Thank you! I've been worrying about what to use and Paperstone sounds like a great option. I'm not crazy about granite, don't want tile, don't want marble, considered soapstone but my GC doesn't know anything about it and the kids said "no way" when I told them it was on the tables in their science class, and I don't really want formica.

It's also pretty cool that I'm reading about Marmoleum here. I am not in love with any flooring product (wood, tile, stones, etc) and have thought about the old fashioned linoleum but haven't researched it in a couple of years so I wasn't aware of Marmoleum. When I looked for linoleum in the past, most of the info I could find was for commercial use.

The GC assumes I'll use granite and travertine but I'm just not sold on them. I'll have to try to sell my husband on the paperstone and marmoleum.

Thanks again!

I too am having trouble deciding on the right colours of marmoleum for my kitchen floor.I really like a grey and cream combination but am wondering what anyones thoughts might be on having this choice with a 'white' kitchen,I also love the red but am being cowardly about it.Does anyone have this already I'd love to see pic's,just worried that the white kitchen will be too stark maybe a wooden worksurface would soften things a little.All this to decide before christmas I'm really stressed out!