We used this product Smartcore Pro on a kitchen floor install. It was a nightmare to install. In my opinion the tile snap in‘s are defective. Once snapping in place they pop back up, and a slight adjustment to a tile throws every other tile in place out of alignment. It’s poorly engineered, not the type for a DIY project There’s no room for error. After living with it for two years of constantly shifting out of place we pulled it out and put it in the trash were it belongs. We had a Tile setter come in and installed a porcelain tile floor. Save your money would not recommend it ever. Poorly made and engineered.

I don’t feel that Hallmark carried as many lighter colors but def check them out. If anyone near you carries the Wicander’s Hydrocork line they make beautiful floors, too. Have some lovely light colors. Karndean makes Korlock which also has beautiful floors. And Southwind has some new ones that have a small bevel and the colors are muted. looked at these and ordered samples online from American Carpet Wholesalers in Dalton, Ga. the Timber Lodge and Prairie Grass were really pretty. I didn’t mind a small bevel but I didn’t care for the large bevel. My husband didn’t want it at all so we have no real bevel. (Also, some floors have a micro bevel which to me looks more like wood.) it’s all personal pref and I used instagram to do a lot of research on how the product looks down in real homes. The company pix always look weird and unrealistic. Let me know how it goes! Can’t wait to see what you find and what you choose:)

Floating flooring cannot be 'PINCHED' or anchored into place. It can and will rip itself apart at the seams. I've seen this dozens of times. The fix for THAT issue: have the installer come back (you pay for it because you wanted it run underneath = you chose to void flooring warranty) and cut the floor. They use a floor cutting tool for this. No big deal. Then they use quarter/shoe round to cover up the cut. It is MORE expensive and it gives you the look you DO NOT want. Not good. Now onto the REAL way to do this. Ideally you install the kitchen cabinets and counters. You get everything shimmed up and nice looking. You leave the kick plates OFF the cabinets (for now...Ikea is brilliant for this very reason). You run the floor UNDERNEATH the cabinets until they hit the feet (leave a little room...use a pool noodle cut into spacer 'O' then cut in half like a 'C' shape and fit it around the legs...pull them off when you finish laying the floor...works like a charm). Now the floor is installed, pull the foam 'c's off of the legs. Install the appliances and then TRIM the foot plates (the one's that come with the cabinets) and install as usual. No need for shoe/quarter round. Done. It's almost like Ikea planned it this way (which they did). If you insist on having the floors laid first you NEED to leave space for the legs to sit ON the subfloor. You can nail 2"x4" onto the subfloor where the feet will sit (roughly) so that you have something rigid to run the floor up against. You leave the wood in place until you get the cabinets delivered. The cabinets are built and put into place and the wood shims are removed on the same day. This option takes a LOT of planning and a LOT of measuring by you and the floor installer. You and the installer will fiddle fart around with the template wood boxes = more money for the flooring install. And you need to be VERY good with your measurements with the appliances. That takes more time and time = MONEY. Simplest cheapest fastest solution = cabinets first flooring next and then foot kicks last.

I also considered those two other colors. The floor is a hard thing to photograph because of all the different lighting. I looked through my phone for a pic that looked most like it does in person. I took this pic yesterday when it was overcast... I think it's about right. It's kind of a chameleon floor. You can see the red cat toy under the chair. The red seems to bring out a bit of a pink tone, more than is really there, I think. Closer to the doors, next to gray chair you see gray popping out. When I look at the floor I see a warm tan (golden) undertone with some gray streaks and because my red oak wood stairs are still a bit pink (despite bleaching) I see a little bit of pink in the floor, thankfully. For a second, I regretted the Lotus clove when I laid out the first pieces in the strong light, I thought it was too bland and I should have been bolder with the color. It was so subtle. Once it went in and I let the warm sunset light and and the furniture colors (and cat toys) do their reflective thing I totally changed my mind. Lotus Clove is a realistic, plain white oak-look floor that doesn't draw too much attention to itself. I think it's great.