Check out Forbo's marmoleum. They carry several design categories of it, so if you just see hospital, keep looking at their other options.

I installed 'Forbo's "All the colours of the rainbow" in my bathroom and love it.

I had a hard time myself, I didn't like the beiges either and wanted a different look so we went with Alfa Lux Lavagna 12x24 - they are a darker gray with shades of blue and a slight brown. Each tile varies in color, but mostly gray.

I should have also added that whatever I chose has to be fade resistant as I have a sliding door and that kitchen gets flooded with the afternoon sun.

We have Serene Gray Marmoleum Click flooring in our kitchen. I didn't want it to be completely without interest, so scattered in a few squares of their Carribean, which is a creamy color. -You are NOT the only one who dislikes beige. ;-)

A close-up...Ignore the celery. That was for Fori who wanted to see if 'celery green' would look nice with it. :-)

An overall shot:

Another option is Globus Cork, which comes in a couple of different shades of gray.

I'm another Marmoleum user. We haven't yet got our floor in, but we'll be using a dark gray with light gray and aqua mixed in.

volcanic ash:

eternity:

dove gray, which comes in tiles:

Thanks for all the suggestions! Does anyone know if the Mamoleum flooring is fade resistant? I have a sliding glass door and my kitchen gets flooded with afternoon sunshine. Whatever I install has to stand up to the sun.

TTMA

I have another question for those of you that have installed the Mamoleum fooring. What does it feel like when you walk on it? Is is cold like tile? Or does it feel more like a laminate? rhome410 thanks for sharing the pictures. I love your gray floor, it looks beautiful. karen_belle your choices are great too, I would love to see how your floor turns out.

Thanks everyone, for suggesting this type of flooring. Perhaps there is hope that I might just be able to find the perfect gray floor after all!

TTMA

We have Marmoleum in one area of our house and I would say it's much more like laminate than tile. Not cold. It's about the same as our wood floors and warmer than the concrete floors we have in another section.

Not cold...at least nothing like tile. Probably close to laminate, which we had in our previous house. Because our floor is the Click, rather than the sheet Marmoleum, it has the cork backing, which adds an extra measure of comfort, I think. It also has a thin, foam type liner between it and the subfloor. I know there's a proper term for it, but my mind can't get a hold of the right wording at the moment.

We have old-fashioned linoleum (which is what marmoleum is) in our house. At about 50 years old, it shows no fading. We don't get a ton of direct sun, but enough that after 50 years, it would be showing it, if it was inclined to fade. The color goes all the way through, so the pattern doesn't wear off like it does with vinyl.

In terms of feel and temperature, is is pretty resilient and doesn't have the coldness of tile.

I have Marmoleum's Eternity in a sheet, just a shade darker than Rhome's Serene Gray (but with celery walls you betcha!). Very nice underfoot, holding up to severe kid wear and cat skids and easy to clean (no dimples like many vinyls).

It was hard to get it installed correctly. If you do a linoleum, get someone good, or do the DIY click.

Okay, this is sounding better and better. But I'd still like to hear more from those of you that have it in your house. Here's some more questions for you:
1. What are the things you love about it and what are the things you don't like, pros and cons please.
2. I understand that if an area does not get any kind of light it gets an amber tint that will go away if exposed to light again. Has anyone had any experience with this? How bad does the amber tint look on the gray colors.
3. Is there anything that you wish you had known about before you had it installed, were there any surprises?
4. Has anyone had it installed over sheet vinyl flooring?
If you have anything else to share with me about this flooring I would love to hear it.

All of you have been great, I sincerely thank you for responding to my post.
TTMA

I have had no problems except installation ones. Unlike much of my unfinished kitchen, I don't regret the floor. I do regret my installers.

The amber doesn't last--don't even think about it! Get a big sample. If it's been in a cupboard at the store it'll go amber then clear. It's fast. Obvious in some colors but so transient you can ignore the phenomenon. Just be aware your samples might be funky when you first get them home.

There are two seam methods: welded and lapped. You don't want welded because it's huge (cause of my first floor reinstallation). Just get a good installer....

I don't think it'll go over vinyl. The sheet, and probably the click, needs to be on an incredibly flat clean surface (reinstallation number two).

A bit more on the ambering. It is a byproduct of the manufacturing process. Once the stuff is exposed to light, the ambering goes away and does not come back. They warn people that when it shows up on the job site the color may be off, but that it will correct itself quickly.

Installation is tricky. Getting the seams right may be the hardest part. I recently saw some that were not placed or executed well. Very sad.

The feel of the marmoleum is like silk under foot. Is is smooth and just feels wonderful. I really wish I'd put it in my bathroom instead of ceramic.

The pattern hides a lot of dirt, which is a blessing in my mudroom. The only downside is that I briefly contemplated wallpaper in the powder room and think it would compete with the pattern in the marmo. I love paint anyway. No biggie.

Here's my Grenada:

We are installing Marmoleum Click "Shitake" tomorrow! I am really excited about it, and glad to read the positive reviews above.

I never even noticed any ambering. Maybe because it all had it and it gradually faded away so I never noticed the difference.

I have no complaints. We steam clean ours, as we have a large area to cover...It's not a glossy surface, so tends to be a little streakier than a vinyl when wiped. But it's just the nature of it and it hides in the pattern.

A busy, most-of-us-home-all-day family of 10, 2 big dogs, and a few cats. It takes it all. The only permanent marks are where a stack of sideless cookie sheets slid off the edge of the sink and hit the floor, corners first and with quite a force. 2 little dings. But kids and dog toe nails haven't hurt it.

We have the Marmoleum in a hall connecting our original house to an addition; the old house has longleaf pine floors and the addition concrete and we needed something to connect the two. We went with a sort of dark gray concrete colored Marmo.

We used the 20x20-inch tiles (not the Click, I don't think, but not the sheet) and even though there must be many seams (I think the hall is about two tiles wide and about 15 feet long) you can't see them at all. Maybe if you looked really hard . . . but I never notice them.

The installer took forever -- like days and days -- making sure the floor was absolutely smooth. And that was on brand-new subfloor.

The installer was recommended by the store here that carries Marmoleum and he had been to some sort of Forbo school and had Marmo certification of some kind. He was extremely odd (he was definitely upholding the keep Austin weird idea) but meticulous and nearly four years later the floors, which are very heavily traveled, including teenagers and a dog, look as good as new. And they completely hide dirt.

Oh and I never noticed the ambering thing but he had us get the material and keep it in the house for a couple of days to acclimate so maybe it went through the ambering process during that time.

I am on the search for gray too and currently have TWENTY-TWO samples laying all over my kitchen from five different stores!! What I found was samples will look different home than in stores! Plus it gives you a chance to see next to cabinets, etc. and in your own light!

I also have found there's different SHADES of gray. Thought I'd list for you what I have home at the present time. Maybe you can check 'em out online first and then find different store locations that handle the brands you're interested in (that's what I did). THEN, after you find something you really like, get that same sample from various stores so you can place them altogether to get a better idea what it'll look like (also what I'm doing-it helps). Here's the list:

BLUE-GRAY:
Mohawk (laminate) Concreto-Gray CAD24 42
Quick-Step-Quadra-Charcoal Gray Tile
Dura-Ceramic Plus-Polished Concrete PS34-Weathered Gray
Dura-Ceramic-Sierra Slate Sl-34, Rain Cloud
Wilsonart, Red Label Tile, Urban Slate

BROWNISH-GRAY:
Stairmaster-SM Ashmore-SM5000
Duraceramic Plus-Rustic Stone-Natural Gray Multi (purplish)
Duraceramic-Sierra Slate Sl-43-Chocolate (more brown)
Konecto-Safari-Capetown-80030
Wilsonart-Red Label Tile-Clift Slate

GREENISH-GRAY:
ALLOC-Commercial-Vermont Slate ST-674952

WHITISH-GRAY:
Duraceramic-Roman Elegance-RE43-Light Greige
Mannington Revolutions-Venicia-Graphite 138531

EarthScapes (vinyl) I was able to bring home the whole sample book & there's various shades of gray in there.

Good luck! I feel your pain!

By the way, Marmo's Eternity shows all kinds of crumbs and dirt. But it comes off easily enough so I'm not complaining. I think it was installed in August and I've only had to clean it with hot water. Haven't even used a mop on it since my floor is so small--it's so nice to not have to scrub the dirt out (except tree sap). It doesn't stain, if the remnants I have as a temporary counter on my baking center are any indication. I had cranberry sauce and red wine soaking for days after Thanksgiving...s'pose I shouldn't admit that...

I just installed Marmoleum click panels in dark gray and cream (Lava and Barbados). They did great with the yellowing thing, now all look like the colors I wanted, so don't worry about that- and the light varies in my kitchen. I installed whisper wool underlayment and LOVE it! It instantly warmed my floor, it's soft to walk on. I just had friends over for dinner and they raved over my floor, saying it's so soft and warm. My cat now lays on the floor while I cook, and at 18 years old he hates cold things to lay on!! It does show little crumbs, but it's so easy to vacuum off or sweep that I don't worry about that. I did get a few specks of paint on it as I painted after I installed the floor and they just scrubbed off with a scrub sponge. I really love this floor. And the color options are endless.

Here is a link that might be useful: marmoluem floor

I'm really starting to get excited about this flooring option, but I have no idea how to find a really good installer. There are only a few places in my area that even sell Marmoleum (live in south east PA right near the Maryland/DE borders). So how do you find someone who will install it right the first time? From what I have heard you all love the floor, but a number of you struggled with the installation. Any suggestions as to how to find the right person?

There should be some proof that installers had the proper training...at least if they've had the actual Forbo training. (One of their training centers is in Hazleton, PA, so maybe they could help you find someone near you?) Otherwise, I would question any potential installer thoroughly and if they at all downplay the installation technique, or compare it to installing vinyl or something vague, I'd run. The store where we got our Click flooring, I spoke to the sales rep enough to tell they understood the difficulty of installation and had fully trained installers if we'd decided to go with the sheets. We did the Click ourselves, since my dh and ds were experienced with installing click types of flooring.

I agree about making sure that the installer has had the appropriate training. At the time we bought our Marmoleum there was only one store in Austin that carried it (there may be more now). And we got the name of the installer from the store owner, who told us "Don't use anyone else. They may say they know what they're doing but you'll be sorry." The guy we used had been to several Forbo training classes.

We used Mannington Supreme Sobello (Pebble Beach). Everyone thinks it's ceramic - We L O V E it. It's warm, doesn't show dirt, and a bit unique.

Worth a look at.

You could also search my user name and see photos of it - or just google Mannington.

Good luck.

Just got back from a floor store. When asking about the marmoleum we were told they only use installers certified for marmoleum. The click and the tile could be DIY but was told the sheet install requires expertise to get it right. They have TONS of colors. And the guy said it could easily last 100 years!! Too bad I couldn't sell my DH on it. We will be going with tile but I'm going to try to get him to agree to some sort of heating system under the tile.

Just got back from a floor store. When asking about the marmoleum we were told they only use installers certified for marmoleum. The click and the tile could be DIY but was told the sheet install requires expertise to get it right. They have TONS of colors. And the guy said it could easily last 100 years!! Too bad I couldn't sell my DH on it. We will be going with tile but I'm going to try to get him to agree to some sort of heating system under the tile.