Design Flaw?! Need help!!

18 years ago

Help!! We're in the middle of remodeling the kitchen of our 30-year-old colonial. The POs created a walk-in pantry and coat closet by closing off a wall to the former dining room, leaving an open floor plan/great room. Our major stumbling block is the blank wall to the left of the pantry door, visually bisected by the change in flooring. We'd like to use this wall for cabinetry, but cannot decide what to do with the floor. We've been advised that, even with refinishing, it will be impossible to match the 30-year-old oak. The checkerboard vinyl was installed over an underlayment. Below that is the original vinyl floor which may contain asbestos and a sub-floor below that---no oak flooring there. The seam was covered by a metal strip.

The second pic (please ignore the wastebaskets!) shows how the floor continues by the peninsula and into our sunroom---the reason that we can't move the floor dividing line to the end of the pantry wall! Having moved a hutch to that wall, I can see that leaving the transition line where it is visually distracting.

We're open for suggestions in flooring, transitions and even a better use of the wall!

ï¿¼ï¿¼ï¿¼

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (7)

tamjo44
18 years ago
Maybe you could get a second opinion on hardwood. We matched our almost 40 year old oak by "weaving" our brand new kitchen floor into the dining room. Alternating boards were removed at the transition and new ones put in. Then the living room, dining room and kitchen were refinished. We think it looks great.
igloochic
18 years ago
I'm sorry...I'm confused...I have 30 year old oak in my kitchen, dining and hallway...and I extended it six feet in the hallway, and all around the kitchen (since it didn't previously go under the cabinets. The transition, once sanded down and refinished, is invisible.
Related Professionals
New Orleans Kitchen & Bathroom Designers · Amherst Kitchen & Bathroom Designers · Gloucester Kitchen & Bathroom Designers · Garden City Kitchen & Bathroom Designers · Portland Kitchen & Bathroom Designers · Palm Bay Kitchen Remodelers · Sarasota Kitchen Remodelers · Branson Kitchen Remodelers · Marietta Kitchen Remodelers · Knoxville Kitchen Remodelers · Sacramento Kitchen Remodelers · Fort Myers Custom Countertops · Tampa Custom Countertops · Corpus Christi Custom Countertops · South Sioux City Custom Countertops
User
18 years ago
What's being done to the kitchen? Do you only want to add a cabinet or is it a complete redo? If you're not redoing the kitchen, I'd still take the old vinyl flooring out,to the sub- floor, extend the wood floor into the kitchen, or at least to the pantry doors and around the edge of the island, then put in a new kitchen floor of cork or linoleum that is a level transition to the wood.
gego
Original Author
18 years ago
alexr...it's a complete redo.

Thanks to all so far. Maybe the first step is to contact a different floor guy!
bluekitobsessed
18 years ago
I had a very similar situation -- open floor plan, linoleum in kitchen and berber carpet in FR -- yuck! (My floor plan looked a lot like yours with the peninsula too, fwiw.) Dirt was always lurking at the transition. I'm putting a new floor throughout, but I don't know if that's an option for you.
User
18 years ago
Contact a different floor guy. We added new white oak right next to 85 year old white oak, oil finished the new and now that it's 2 years into the aging process, you can't tell a difference in the floor's age. Our new floor is taking on the same golden tone of the old. If you need extra old wood to help with the weaving mentioned above, take it out of closets and put new into the closet where no one can see it.
kristenfl
18 years ago
If the flooring option doesn't work, how about a cabinet on the left side and a hole for a desk on the checkered side. Have the counter go the whole length. Just a thought.