Why not a different look, like ersatz stone? I'm thinking a light gray color.

such a happy room!

I don't know why but I envision something like a checkerboard. My cousin had a checkerboard tiled foyer in her Victorian(I've no idea whether yours is; just an association)..and similar floors. It looked both cheerful and elegant and amazing. And I see it working very well with your other colors.

Are you averse to real hardwood? You could probably get a good match (your floors are gorgeous!) and with a Swedish Finish, they really are bombproof. Water, pet pee, etc. really doesn't affect it. You can also have an extra coat put on (3 instead of 2) if you're at all nervous about their durability. I'd see about switching the direction of how they are laid, which would help distract from an imperfect match.

What's under the carpet -- possibly wood that matches?

If you don't want wood, Marmoleum Click would be something I'd explore. Vintage-aligned; hypoallergenic; easy for rolling, as colorful as you want to go (but also total neutral to neutral-with-colored-marbling); coordinates well with wood without trying to look like wood....

I'd do a large dark gray tile in a matte finish with thin grout lines as close to the same color as the tile as possible.

Olychick and House Vixen, I'm not at all averse to real hardwood in principle. Two complicating factors: what's under the carpet is two different things in the two halves of the room. The near end of the room has a continuation of the hardwood from the hallway, like the rest of the house. The back half of the room, which is a former enclosed porch, has plywood subflooring that's been raised to the level of the hardwood in the other half. So I have a level floor, but two different materials. I was hoping it would be possible to put LVT down over the whole room, right over the two different wood substrates. 2nd issue: cost. This is a room I'd like to have be as fabulous as possible under the circumstances, but I expect to remodel it out of existence after about a decade. That being the case, I'm less inclined to invest in rebuilding the whole subfloor and doing hardwood – unless I'm seriously mistaken about the relative cost and hassle. I will have to actually price out both options.

Hi again Maddybeagle --

Bummer about the floor -- but nice that the spaces were combined to give you that charming room!

I wouldn't pave with gold bricks, but 10 or so years til a remodel is a long time to look at/live with a floor that needs to work hard. So maybe just divide by 10 when it comes to materials + possible labor.

Since I didn't answer your original question (sorry, I *especially* love lino in older homes)....

I'd take a look at COREtec waterproof LVT [link]

It's not the cheapest LVT on the market but it has a lot going for it in terms of construction. Good for water bowls. ;) Looks-wise, it's one that I recommend as appearing more natural if going for a wood-look. I wasn't paying attention to their faux-slate but assume it looks pretty good at that price point. I mean I had cheapo peel-and-stick faux slate in my bath for 14 years that some thought was real, so....

I'd choose a color that contrasts enough with your beautiful floors to keep the comparisons down to a dull roar.

• Are you from a part of the country that often has fir or pine flooring in older homes? If so, the Carolina Pine is really pretty and adds a lot of color and warmth to a room -- amazing against blue/purple walls! And IMO looks good against old-growth oak, too.

• If you want lighter, they have a couple of white-washed "oak" or "pine" options; you can go dark or grey too. Here's the Corvallis Pine [driftwood (brown/grey) shade]; it might be an interesting counter to your oak but FWIW to me the overall effect skews cool despite the brown tones.

Various color consult projects · More Info

Various color consult projects · More Info

House Vixen, that's very helpful! Various answers: I'm kind of disinclined towards graying out or bleaching out wood or wood-look floors, which is all the rage in developer-flipped houses around here. But a fairly convincing slate look is not a bad idea in the gray spectrum, and it would be a nod to the bluestone patio right outside the window. For woods, I'm in the mid-Atlantic and my house is a 1922 kit house, so all the lumber was shipped from the upper midwest. I'm not good at identifying woods – maybe somebody can look at my pics above and tell me based on the grain – but in the 1922 catalogue, pine floors were standard and oak was an upgrade, and I don't think I have oak. Carolina Pine in the COREtec line does look lovely! I like the darker-but-not-too-dark look and the warmth. I can see that being fabulous with the lavender. I'll see if I can order some samples.

Lucky you to have a kit house!

I may rival you in being terrible at IDing wood species. Seriously, I have studied up a bit and it flies out the window. But I thought based on color [golden with brown tones, yes? or are the photos not telling the full story?] that you had old-growth oak. OG pine is orange/red-orange.

And I hear you on not feeling the grey/bleached tones in floors in most circumstances.

[I did rather like the whitewashed COREtec (Nantucket Oak?) for your room given its half-porch life and the painting/staining often used on those old porch floors.]

ps You should be able to borrow a plank sample from a flooring store, and the vendor is pretty big so I'd think you'd have good luck finding a supplier near you. Try one that caters to commercial.

Re whitewashed, I'll have to see in person, and about my real wood, I'll ask my furniture-restoring guy next time he's here, since he'll have a definitive answer.

I realized I forgot to reply to your suggestion of Marmoleum. I LOVE Marmoleum and want to use it in my eventual kitchen remodel. But what I really love are the COLORS, not so much the neutrals. There too, I'll have to look at samples IRL with the paint and fabrics to see if there's an option that would let me indulge my love of color without overdoing it. (Though what "overdoing it" might mean to a person with a Chinese Orange bathroom is a question for another thread...;-) )

Oh, Forbo or Armstrong lino will give you options that work, no worries hahaha!

Sadly in my own place I've been pretty neutral with lino shades. [However, check out Forbo - Vivace series - Donkey Island -- the intense marbling may make up for the neutrality and it looks great with fir, oak, *and* maple tones so I think you'd be covered, ha.]

However, circling back to April's checkerboard suggestion I did once suggest VCT in pool/pale blue shades. So partial credit?

I love that bathroom checkerboard! Filing it away for my own entirely hypothetical bathroom remodel.

(yeah, to clarify-I didn't mean the actual tile..I meant what House Vixen said..since you've already stated your preferred material-I figured they have to have this option..that's the beauty of the material-it can be anything, in terms of colors etc. well, it can be a lot of. )

I was going to suggest that you look at Marmoleum's Graphic series. I see now that you don't like the Marmoleum neutrals, but the Graphic series has a lot of drama that would be playful with your colorful room.

Or these fabulous Marmoleum colors:

I was thinking the b&w checkerboard look as soon as I saw your colorful room, but then I may be biased because your room reminds me a little of my laundry room. It's tile, but I'm sure linoleum would have a similar option. I think it would look great meeting up with your hard wood. I love your room and all the parts of your house we can see in the photos :)

cawaps, that third sample, the blue, is at the top of my list for my eventual kitchen floor. I love the purple, but that's a lot of purple in one room. And a lot of stripes, with the last. The first one looks like the cover of one of those lab books we used in school! eastautumn, thanks! I think B&W would be fabulous, but see above dog hair visibility issues.

Back again. You know, having decried the idea of neutrals, I'm now looking at some Marmoleum that has color but not too much, in something complementary to the walls. How about Fresco in Natural Corn:

or Piano in Mellow Yellow:

Thank you for getting me thinking, everybody.

Hi MB --

Wellllll, a few things since I noticed you pulled from the lino sheet options.

For your era home I'd default to a marblized pattern but am not hardcore about it.

I think both options you show would be super-fun in there; I would just see how the color looks against your wood floor if you're picky about that sort of thing. I am. ;)

As a big fan of lino for a number of reasons I always hate to mention the B Word, but since you referenced budget my advice would be to fall in like with colors from the sheet as well as the Click and Modular lines so you can compare costs.

At least in my HCOLabor area, the specialized pros you need for sheet lino install are well-compensated. And you need a luan underlayer for sheet, too...so $800 of flooring for an 8x8 room can easily be another $1K for other materials and labor.

Hence the VCT tiles in that cabana bath....

The nice thing about Click/Modular is that you can do patterns without driving up costs (cough inlays into sheet cough). So if it all works out for you, it might be fun to do a "rug" in your room with one color as a wide border and then another in the center.

[Tip: do check out Armstrong lino, too...and check for sheet lino remnants at flooring companies that serve primarily commercial. Those businesses are also a great place to source qualified installers who do the smaller home projects.]

ps I have believed them on timing before with sad results, but...this Old House says you can DIY your lino tile floor in a weekend. ;)

What if you paint a pattern on the existing floor with deck paint?

http://www.lovelyetc.com/2015/06/painted-plywood-subfloor-three-years-later-the-final-update/

House Vixen, useful info on costs. The room is such an odd shape – an L, into which a whole lot of furniture is fit – that I think adding "rugs" or borders in the lino itself would be too much. An allover pattern is fine, but any kind of border would just call attention to oddities, especially things like where the walls of the two joined rooms aren't actually flush with one another.

nosoccermom, I've thought about paint on and off. I love painted wood floors. There too, though, we'd run into the problem that there are two different wood surfaces there already, one narrow planks and one sheets – no easy way to hide that with paint.

Carpet. Designed for heavy duty use, low pile. They make stuff for offices. Flecked with color. Yum.

l pinkmountain, definitely not carpet, I'm afraid. Maddy Beagle (herself, not me her namesake) makes occasional mistakes; carpet holds allergens; I want to use some of my area rugs; and my older dog needs a cool surface to lie on. Hard surface mandatory.

Then I wouldn't do wood or linoleum, too absorbent. I would do vinyl flooring or ceramic. There are great ceramics that are printed to look like wood, with some you wouldn't know the difference from a distance.

Edited to add that you can put a very strong poly finish on wood, but I think you were already saying that was going to be too expensive. Same with linoleum. But I wouldn't overthink it, I'd get vinyl flooring, there are lots of nice kinds that don't look like typical vinyl flooring. Or the high end stuff that is tiles, more like a resin. We have that in our kitchen and family room, it looks great and is warm on the feet.

OK, proceeding on two fronts here:

1) What do others think of l pinkmountain's warning that linoleum is too porous for beagles who occasionally make mistakes? I started this thread determined to use LVT for impermeability combined with some resilience, but many of you are keen on lino, and I do love color.

2) I've just ordered 13 samples of Marmoleum, including a couple of cawaps' suggestions. Even if it turns out to be wrong for this room, it'll inspire my kitchen planning. And I can use the samples as coasters, which I've been doing with old Corian and Zodiaq samples for years now. ;-)

For beagles that make mistakes ... sheet vinyl

Yes, as much as it pains me to say so...sheet + vinyl or perhaps non-porous tile is your safest bet.

We have 2 coats of Forbo sealer on all our lino but have had some (barely noticeable) discoloration from standing water around the water bowl. [We keep an eye out now.] You can layer on as many coats as you like to protect what's beneath, but from what I've read pet urine is tough on lino.

I think there are higher end vinyl flooring styles that would give you the look you want and be less prone to odor and stain absorption. I had some great stuff at my last house. I didn't install it, but it looked like tile and wore like iron.

Edited to add that I love linoleum and wood flooring, so I would not be saying this unless I really thought there wasn't a better option. But maybe some others who have had linoleum or tile etc. can chime in. My only experience was having vinyl flooring in my last house that I inherited, and being pleasantly surprised at how nice it was, and then having this higher end vinyl tile just installed in my new house and liking it more than I thought I would too because it is somewhat textured so softer on the feet than the older stuff. But I also installed flat vinyl checkerboard flooring on an old clubhouse I was in charge of about ten years ago, and that was simple, inexpensive and looked good in the end. Again, I wanted linoleum, but the vinyl flooring was what was in my price range. I did green and white squares, the tile was lightly marbled.

Oh well...lino may not be in my future, then, but look what just came in the mail!