This may be totally off base for you, but have you considered Marmoleum and/or black and white checkerboard floors for your 1921 home? I've heard from others on these boards that Marmoleum is easy to keep clean. And if the white seems like too much of a challenge to keep clean with two boys, they do have other color options, and it comes in sheet and "click" forms in addition to the linoleum tiles. In sheet form there are some really cool borders in black and white, or a greek key pattern. There are some colors that you could do in tones similar to your chestnut floor colors. I think the sheet form has to be installed over a perfectly flat subfloor. Their marmoleum "click" product can be installed over almost any subfloor, I think. Here is a "concept" photo...

and below a link to marmoleum's website.
I have a 1913 bungalow and I guess I wish I'd gone for this when we renovated the kitchen. Good luck with it.

Here is a link that might be useful: marmoleum

I just put Marmoluem in my mudroom/laundry area, so I am biased. But, the checkerboard look really would be classic in your classic home. You could do a tone-on-tone like a soft gray and charcoal. They have lots of grays, both warm and cool... Even if you don't want checkerboard, the sheet Marm is sooo yummy.

I love slate (just put that in my home too!) and maybe if the Amalfi is too cold, you could find a similar vinyl with a bit of rust and green in it, sort of like the Peacock (natural) Slate. Not too too colorful, but just enough to take the edge off.

My house is a Craftsman/Four Square knock-off (new construction) so it sounds like you and I are after similar looks! Would love to see pics!

Kimkitchy, thank you! Why didn't I think of Marmoleum? It's perfect! From the website, it looks like the click would work over the vinyl.

Amysrq, the tone-on-tone idea sounds really nice ... from the website I'm now thinking checkerboard with silver shadow and either volcanic ash or eternity ... I could do a solid dark border around the edges of the room with checkerboard in the middle. It would look really classic and soft, exactly the look I was going for.

I'm so excited now! So glad I delurked and asked for help.

Amysrq, did you do the Marmoleum installation yourselves? We were thinking of DIY ... was wondering how hard this material is to work with.

As I'm searching around the net, I found something called vinyl composition tile that looks interesting. Anyone have experience with it? It looks similar to Marmoleum but with more color choices.

Of the two, I'd go for the Marmoleum for quality reasons.

Have you looked under the lino to see what the original floor is?

If it were me doing the kitchen, I'd be looking to see if there was an original wood floor under there that could be rescued. If not, I'd probably do a slate (real or porcelain) floor.

Your choices sound gorgeous and I'd hate to see them cheapened by a mediocre floor.

Pbrisjar, we do suspect the chestnut is underneath the vinyl (because we can see the underside of the wood from the basement and it looks the same as the rest of the house), but when we tried to pull the vinyl up to see, we found that it's glued down so tightly that it would be a major pain in the you-know-what to get it off and possibly destroy the wood in the process anyway. At this point, we don't have the stomach or the budget for getting too down and dirty with this remodel -- we're looking for DIY, affordable and simple.

Also, if we did uncover the wormy chestnut in the kitchen, wouldn't it be a total hassle as far as maintenance and cleaning with all the grooves and nooks and crannies in the wood? It's not even close to smooth and never will be, thanks to the worms. I can just picture having to scrape the crumbs and gunk out of the worm marks with a toothpick ... no, thank you! I know it would look very pretty, but I'm thinking it's just not practical for us right now.

You sound pretty educated about all this ... is Marmoleum or slate more period-appropriate?

Oh, and what is the quality difference between VCT and Marmoleum? VCT looks like it's mainly commercial, so I would think it would be pretty durable? Am I wrong?

One more thing to consider -- the kitchen is tiny and oddly shaped, as is typical for that time period. There really isn't much floor space at all, so I just need something that won't clash and looks appropriate ... it's not like there's going to be miles of floor to look at, you know? The floor, if chosen right, will not be the centerpiece of the kitchen. It just needs to blend with everything else and not look odd.

just wondering: why don't you want the old wood showing? Classic:

what about a ceramic tile? Good quality /high standard ceramic? marazzi makes a usa brand red body that isn't too pricy. (just suggesting; not advertising)
you have to like and live with this for a long while. Small grout lines are great: less grout used and looks better: Seal grout well. Maybe you are on a budget? Look at all your options. Be happy & don't settle.

There are people here that are much more knowledgeable than I am. Much of what I know I've learned from them, actually. My personal bias also comes into play. In the choice between natural and artificial materials, I'll almost always choose the natural material. I'll also always go for the restoration of an original material whenever possible.

I know there's at least one person who has posted that she went with VCT for budget reasons and loves the result. But she has a different style of kitchen/house. Marmoleum is actually a natural material.

Knowing what your specs are, this is what I'd do: Have a wood floor restorer come out and take a look at the floor. That would give you an idea of whether or not it would be feasible to bring back the old floor and how much it would cost. That should be free. If it's a possibility and in the budget, do it. If it's a possibility and not in the budget right now, get a piece of the new linoleum they have out now that just "floats" on top of the existing floor and then do the hardwood restore in a few years when it's economically feasible. If it's not possible to restore, I'd either go with the Marmoleum and call it good or do the floating lino for now and a slate floor later.

I don't think you'd destroy the wood getting the flooring off...the flooring might rip and try to stick still, but it probably could be sanded off? A good finish should help with cleanability and I'd appreciate any texture to blend any future scratches, etc. The wood would be such a nice warm and homey counterpart to the white.

Anyway, we have Marmoleum Click flooring in our kitchen and love it. There are limited colors (15 or 18) so not anything like the huge array in the sheet Marmoleum. My husband and 18 yo son did ours (mostly our son). They'd both done some laminate flooring before, so had some experience with click together type goods, but it went in easily and quickly for them.

I wouldn't want ceramic tile or stone to stand on (cold and hard), and if you drop something breakable, you can pretty much count it destroyed.

My heart starting beating a little faster when I read that you might have wormy chestnut flooring... I looked into this and it was cost prohibitive. It is absolutely stunning wood and although I love the black and white checkerboard, the chestnut would be fabulous. I am sure that the polyurethane would fill in the little grooves.

Do a little bit of research on how fabulous wormy chestnut is before ripping it out. if you rip it out, i bet you'd be able to get some $$ for a flooring company that deals in reclaimed hw flooring.

Below is a link to the antique flooring place I visited. You'll see some pics of antique chestnut in kitchens.

Here is a link that might be useful: longleaf lumber

Mamadadapaige, you read that right. We do have the wormy chestnut through the entire house. I know how expensive it is to replace. That's why I want to just leave it be in the kitchen for now. It's kind of for its own protection.

Someday, we want to do this right, with an addition and wood cabinets (we're using IKEA Adel white) and soapstone counters and the rest of it. But this is what we can afford right now, having just bought this place with its unlivable 30-year-old kitchen in desperate need up updating NOW, and what we know we will not destroy raising two boys (and possibly more kids -- our boys are very little still and we're not sure we're done!). We want it to look nice and function well for the next decade or so, but we can wait on "showstopper" until the kids are much older and I have more time to maintain it the way it should be maintained.

Also, as far as the poly filling in the worm grooves .... it doesn't. At least not in the rest of the house. Maybe eleventy coats of it would, who knows. But both the worm grooves and the gaps between the boards are total grunge catchers in the rest of the house. And I know the previous owners repoly'd fairly recently.

But yeah, I know what a shame it is to leave the wormy chestnut covered ... and I'm doing it anyway. (NOT ripping it out! I would NEVER! So no one worry about that, please!) Unless someone can convince me that it won't be a messy and expensive undertaking to restore them (labor costs, too) ... and that the maintenance on them in a kitchen (with spilled water/drinks and mud from outside and dropped food and everything else) won't be a nightmare.

Isn't marmoleum $5+/sf? You can pull up your linoleum yourself and have a professional refinish the chestnut floors for $2/sf.
I grew up with an older brother and dobermans in a 1920s kitchen with an original oak floor. Hardwood can take a beating and look better for it, if you ask me. I wouldn't worry about ruining your wood floors. I'd want to see them everyday if I had them.

phew... so glad to hear that. you are so lucky to have chestnut!!! let us know what you decide to do.

The original post had kitchen1921's 5 parameters for a floor all spelled out clearly. This is his/her first post, so now that everybody has advocated for refinishing the wormy chestnut (which she ultimately desires to do, just not NOW - no stomach or budget and wants easy for DIY), let's respect that, and try and answer his/her questions. Kitchen1921 asked: Does anybody know the differences between VCT and Marmoleum? Does anybody have an opinion about whether linoleum or slate (or slate-look) is more period appropriate? Does anybody have other flooring material suggestions that fit the 5 parameters in the op?

Thanks for the support, kimkitchy. You are right about all that -- I do want to refinish the wood sometime down the line, but this is a quick and efficient remodel just to bring the kitchen into the 21st century! I need a dishwasher and a cooktop that actually heats up, stat!

Basically, the biggest problem I have with looking into refinishing the wood at this time is the mess and labor factor. We have a 4 year old and a 1 year old who are underfoot constantly. We just can't do that kind of a project ourselves right now, so we'd have to pay someone to do it (or pay someone to watch our kids, but since we just moved here we don't have anyone we trust to do that yet).

Really, we just want to streamline this as much as possible because the kitchen is just totally awful right now and we want it fixed ASAP, and the less we spend on labor the more we can spend on nice materials like the private collection Corian, the farmhouse sink and the higher-end appliances.

Frankly, I also am very attracted to the idea of a low-maintenance floor regardless of budget or time involved ... our previous home had a high-end textured porcelain tile and while it was very pretty, keeping the textured surface and the grout clean was a nightmare. I am a messy, clumsy cook and a procrastinator when it comes to housekeeping (just being honest!) -- so having something low maintenance that will clean up well in between short periods of complete abuse is appealing to me.

Seriously, when the kids are older and I have more time on my hands, I'll be back here asking you guys for advice on a much higher end remodel complete with wormy chestnut floors and custom cabinetry and soapstone and general contractors and pro ranges and all the rest ... but today I'm really hoping to find out the difference between VCT and Marmoleum Click, and whether anyone has used any of the other floating linoleum products out there and how they measure up to the Marmoleum.

Thanks in advance ...

Vinyl compostion tile is usually used in commercial, high traffic areas like schools, hospitals, grocery stores. It requires waxing and buffing maintenance on a regular basis. Armstrong is a major manufacturer of VCT.

Marmoleum is an updated version of linoleum. It is made from natural products. I have a friend who has the sheet goods installed in her home and it is really nice. Easy upkeep too.

Hope that helps,

Amy

CVT comes in lots of gorgeous colours most Armstrong dealers will have samples. They do recommend wax for it but I put in the bathrooms of a gallery I renovated and we waxed once after we put it in and never again.

I have friends with a gorgeous sheet Marmoleoum (which I believe is derived from linseed oil) and it is holding up great (they have 2 girls 3 & 6). As a sheet product you would probably need to at least lay a new 1\4 inch sub floor. Sheet isn't cheap to install because it is heat seamed. Click stuff doesn't have the same wild patterns but that doesn't seem like an issue. Linoleum is making a comeback but I don't know if there is any floating product yet.

Here is a link that might be useful: cvt tile floor

Caryscott, thank you so much for the link. That kitchen is gorgeous and very close to the look we're going for. That is very helpful.

I put marmoleum down in my kitchen last december and am in love! It is vibrant, warm and soft and very easy to clean. I also have a toddler and wanted a green and "softer" product than tile.

We had a professional install the tiles. The click option was too thick for my kitchen. I also preferred the tile to the sheet linoleum in case i wanted to replace a tile or change the layout of my kitchen.

There is a huge difference between marmoleum and VCT and I recommend marmoleum. Hope this helps.

If it's just temporary, I wouldn't spend the money on marmoleum, which is pretty expensive as far as flooring goes. I'd get a decent looking sheet vinyl that you can install yourselves and just put it on top of the vinyl you've got. It will be cheap and last a few years, and it won't be any harder to remove two layers of vinyl when you refinish than one.

Good luck, your house sounds cool.

Here is a link to my new favorite kitchen. It has a black VCT floor.

Here is a link that might be useful: Apartment Therapy House Tour - VCT floor

That is a cute kitchen, but not the look I'm going for. I checked out the VCT in person and wasn't impressed ... the textures/patterns were much too busy, not subtle like Marmoleum. Of course I could go with solid black, but my kitchen isn't light-flooded like that one and it would look cave-like.

I hate all the vinyl we looked at. The Marmoleum was nice looking but I honestly didn't like the feel of it. It reminded me of chalk. I couldn't imagine walking on it barefoot every morning.

At this point, I've set my sights on cork. I was surprised to learn that it's historically appropriate. A company called Duro-design offers very pleasing colors that I believe will give a warm look to the kitchen, coordinate with the rest of the materials, and not clash with the chestnut. I like that it's a living material, not synthetic. It's soft underfoot, and comes in a click version that I can lay over the vinyl. I'm leaning toward the Baltico design in Azure, Granite or Whiskey Brown, but I'm waiting for the samples to come to make a decision.

Here is a link that might be useful: Baltico colors

ktichen1921 - I don't really have any suggestions for you as we're sorting out our own kitchen issues at the moment, but I wondered if you would mind sharing what the approximate cost per square foot is for the Rain Cloud Corian? I have been looking for an alternative to carrara for our island, and the couple that I've found (Mystera White Carrara and Caesarstone Misty Carrera) don't look as convincing as the Corian.

worldmom, I thought the Corian looked more realistic, too. I wanted to love Misty Carrera, but Rain Cloud stole my heart! Anyway, I think list price is $71/ft, but Lowes has been running a promotion for $61/ft, which is what I paid. A seamless sink is being offered for free, but I wanted a farm sink, so I'm paying extra for the cutout/installation.

Hello! You have a very interesting issue! And, like you, I looked at both marmoleum and cork for my 1936 kitchen, as both are period appropriate. I've decided on cork from duro-design.

I was concerned about seams showing in the click flooring. I had heard that Marmoleum, the sheet kind, not the click kind, was a kind of fussy installation that even flooring installers who are used to sheet vinyl find difficult. And So I found a local Marmoleum certified installer. He sold a lot of different types of floors, but even so hadn't done too many Marmoleum installs. I felt like I would be a guinea pig. Again, I was also concerned about seams. The borders for the sheet goods have heat sealed seams, but you would still have open seams where the border meets the sheet lino, unless you specify "welded" seams. They're heat sealed on site, and it costs extra. That said, the costs for Marmoleum and the cork were comparable.

Here's why I chose the cork -- I've decided to use durodesign's glue-down cork tile that has a mfr-applied urethane layer and it will get the 4 coats of low voc urethane that I'll apply. That made all the difference to me, because as someone who has installed ceramic tile, peel-and-stick vinyl, wide plank wood and god only knows what all else, I hate seams. They catch dirt, etc. I like the site-applied urethane because it will fill any seams and make for a much more durable floor. Even though the cork tiles should be installed tightly against each other, even smooshed together a little, there will be seams.

The urethane sounds easy to apply (much like the tung oil finish that we applied to our wide-plank floors) and can also be hand-sanded and reapplied after 5 years, so that's a plus. And just judging by the very pretty samples that durodesign sent, it's going to be a joy to stand on these guys. Very comfy. I'm going to try either an all over tone-on-tone checkerboard (Barriga Leather Brown and Light Oak), or a checkerboard inset "rug effect" (leather brown and light oak)with a whiskey brown border in the center of the room, surrounded by a light oak or leather brown field. And I'm going to install it myself, if I don't jinx myself here.

All of this to say that if you are interested in DIY, I think the cork is the way to go. Also, I think there's an inspiration pic I used from Country Living that shows how pretty cork can be with white cabs. If I find it, I'll link.

Here's the kitchen floor I mentioned above. I think the best photo of it is 7 of 12 in the series

Here is a link that might be useful: country living cork floor

Oh, my ... evilbunnie, thankyouthankyouthankyou! That CL kitchen is delightful and really shows the cork off well. I'm glad to know someone else is going this route. I am so excited about this now! I can't wait to see the pictures of your kitchen and share mine with you.

I can't wait for the @$^&* kitchen to be done! I hate plaster dust! In fact I should post and see if anyone has any creative cleaning solutions. I'm sick of it!

But I'm hopeful that this is the month of turnaround. My kitchen is about 30% done, and walls are still open for inspections. But by the end of December, we should be sheetrocked, with floors and cabinets in, if not counters installed. I just ordered the cork ($6.50/sf, so that's about $2300 for my 360 s.f.), and I expect to be putting that down mid-December. I'm pretty happy with the price, and I'll be working with my excellent and very flexible GC to install it, though I'll be doing the bulk of the work, with him helping me to get it started with layout lines, etc. I'll try to post plenty of pics of the process, so you can crib from that, if you can wait that long.

Good luck!