Have you considered Marmoleum? Durable, environmentally kinder than vinyl, much softer and warmer than tile.

Can you clarify why you do not want oak? i guess cork is supposed to be a bit more water resistant but i think of it as being less durable overall. hardwood is certainly my favorite flooring and holds up just fine in kitchens short of a flood. and trust me i am not careful, and my husband and kid are worse! but i would take worn wood floors over just about anything else.

It’s not really an open concept, but instead removing that wall next to the range to extend the countertops. And why I don’t want more hardwood - many reasons, two years ago we removed a window and added a door to a new 16x20 deck, so now that is an entry point that you can see at the top of the image, and so it’s not just the moisture from a kitchen but also from going in and outside. I also don’t want to try to match the wood and get into a need to refinish the living room, too.

You can see one of the two transition points at the bottom, the white space is the basement entrance so it’s basically about 3 feet wide - not a large arched entry or anything like that. I had originally planned sheet vinyl (I did it in our bathroom reno and love it for it’s softness and warmth and easy to clean) but I worry that 250sf of gray will be too cold, visually. So, I’m looking for the least worst option! :)

Yeah, there’s no room to move in this kitchen, or rearrange the layout. It has 4 doors and a chimney and the one option for counters is to link the rooms. They are two very small rooms as it is - 11x13 for kitchen and 11x10 for dining. The dining room has never been formal, LOL. It’s the only space to eat, it is also our home office, arts and crafts room, and pantry (on open wire shelves.) Removing the wall just makes it an eat in kitchen.

Yes, I’ve talked to several and all agree it’s a tricky space. Our goals are a larger fridge (currently 30” max), larger sink (currently 16x20x7), counterspace, and more storage. Closing an opening is not an option. It won’t short my eating area anymore than it already does, as our dining room is already holding open shelving for food and cookware, and a unit for our printer/home office stuff (as well as art supplies, a sewing desk, etc. Our furniture is IKEA bc that is what fits, - we have a 42” round table which is the max that that room can hold. I think we are not the usual houzz folks with multiple islands and new builds and large homes, we have a 1954 2 story that is 1000sf, but its almost paid for and in a great neighborhood with a great lot. It’s probably no one’s dream home, except it allows us to pursue other dreams by being enough.

Also, the only part of the wall being removed is that piece by the stove. The other side is the chimney. The area by the door would be open shelving and the unit to the right of the door would conceal our home office stuff. (this is just a rough mockup using the ikea planner). We’d remove (reverse, really) the built in so that we can add shallow (AND CONCEALED) pantry storage. the round item is a placeholder for our table.

From your photo it seems you enjoy color. Why not a pretty Marmoleum or vinyl floor that does not try to match the wood but proclaims its own area?

That was my initial thought but am getting cold feet that it might be too cold looking! And yes, we love color.

@lisaam browsing the options maybe this is a good color option - we are going for green cabinets with soapstone and copper hardware, I have vintage orange dining chairs, the LR has a red sofa, and this might feel warmer near the wood. (And honestly, our wood floors end up with acrylic paint on them all the time anyway… so this might help!)

I like Marmoleum--it's squishy and warm and easy to care for. (Put your samples in the sun a few hours to "cure" if they are new. They change a tiny bit. And get 12x12 samples at minimum.)

But I do think cork is fine adjacent to wood. Be sure to get the right color. There's no right color I suppose, but take time to see if you want to match or contrast...very much like Marmoleum!

Got it. i hear you on the floor matching! we have new oak in kitchen and bath that were done by different people and definitely neither matches and one is lighter and one is redder. there are doors seperating the spaces so i think it’s fine (and someday we can refinish the whole house together). if you don’t mind marmoleum in the dining i agree that’s a great option - we considered it for the kitchen. i like having a formal diningroom but sounds like this would work well for your lifestyle. Your kitchen design may be best option given constraints but it definitely looks like it is plopped between two rooms and there is a lot of unused space. i would try to get the main kitchen components in the kitchen and have coffee area/pantry in DR.

Tha’s a pretty color combo on the floor sample; a very personal preference would be to emphasize the blue tone and use smaller quantities of orange and red. The sample acknowledges the oak floor but doesn’t attempt to match.

@lharpie Nope, not plopped between two rooms. The footprint of my house is 23x23. The front half is the living room, the back half is the kitchen and dining area., We do not have room (or budget) to expand the footprint,. Trust me, in the almost 20 years I’ve lived here, a recurring dream is stumbling upon an extra room that makes the whole house more livable! The bottom corner is unusable space because it is the only entrance to our basement and even if we removed the door we need to leave room to be able to access it for large appliances, etc. If we add cabinetry to that wall, our upright freezer, furnace, laundry unit, etc are in the basement forever (and would require demo of the kitchen to replace!)

I love small houses and am fascinated by this thread. We’re contemplating a similar modification to our quirky old house.

I meant plopped between the kitchen and diningroom i totally get small homes! I find most of the kitchens on here mind bogglingly big (and things too far away). mine home is 1300 sf and my 1920s kitchen had 5 doors. thankfully was able to get rid of one of them haha. i would try to put fridge in built in area and move sink/stove over so they are in kitchen rather than at the dividing wall. current layout would only feel right to me if you could completely get rid of the dividing wall.

Ah, got it! I can’t get rid of the dividing wall completely because there is a chimney, and it is two feet from the main wall that separates the front half living room from the back half, that’s where there is so much built in around there and why there is no room to build in a fridge (I want a standard fridge not custom). If I had a straight up 11x13 room to work with with one doorway it would be amazing! Even if the chimney was flush to the main dividing wall I would have so many more options! It basically has to be a one wall layout because of all the quirks and encumbrances.

I live in a very old rowhome with an open first floor. The original floors are heart pine (considered a soft wood). I love them. When the old tile was removed during my kitchen reno, I was hoping that the old wood underneath the tile would be useable. It wasn't. I went with cork and am happy with it. I don't think the separation of the floors - half my floor is pine and the other half cork - looks bad. It delineates the kitchen from the living/dining area. I'm happy with it.

Really just do the matching wood. It will wear fine, tons of houses have wood floors throughout. It will be tricky to match but close enough will be better than a different material. I love cork but this does not look ‘intentional’

For what it’s worth, I have a small 100+ year old house with the original wood floors throughout, in a climate with lots of rain and snow and they are still in fine condition! We just use the water hog rugs at the entry points

But I wasn’t doing wood, I would go for one of the more colorful options so that it looks more intentional, and not just a wood-like product in different shade then the rest of the house.

@spainte2 Ha, we have a huge waterhog in our living room (the main entrance - we don't have a mudroom or foyer) and we called it Snowpants Island when the kids were little and came inside cold and wet!

Hah yes! Despite multiple waterhog mats, boot mats and shoes racks, I’ve never quite figured out how to corral the kids’ snow gear during the winter.