Hi Pamela,

It would be great to have some pics of the kitchen or furniture. This would give us the existing style of the house. We have experienced with cork for a bathroom in the past. We choose cork dots from Modwalls. We had mixed feelings about the installation from an aesthetic point-of-view. The homeowner has since sold the house, so we cannot attest to its durability. Depending of the overall style of the house, cork floors can look contemporary or rustic, so there is a lot style range.

Bamboo floors work well with contemporary style and minimalist setting because the grains of bamboo are very straight in comparison with oak, for example. We used bamboo flooring for one of our projects and we were pleased with the results. The client was very happy, too. The style chosen for this project was Zen/contemporary. Therefore, bamboo floors went very well with the overall design.

If you decide to use cork floor see this product as an examples, US floors, naturalCork, wide cork tiles. Because of the large format, the cork tile looks contemporary and works well with many styles. It is also eco-friendly, non-toxic and sound absorbent.

However you choose to proceed please post the pics of the finished product. Good luck!

-AS, Interior Designer

I like cork a lot but don't seem to be able to sell much of it. There's several different kinds, laminated floating 1' x 3' panels, amalgamated cork in tiles or planks that are glued down, amalgamated cork with a cork top veneer that offer variety in pattern and color, and cork that's incorporated with layers of vinyl. I've done them all. They all have specific challenges, which are too numerous for me to catalogue here.

If you have specific questions or can narrow things down I'd be happy to give some input.

Here's the last product I used, in the formal dining room of a billionaire's home in Palm Beach. If my current slate floor ever fails, I'll be using this laid in a checkerboard on the diagonal.
http://www.expanko.com/heirloom/heirloom.htm

We installed cork planks in our kitchen and love it! We used USFloors Natural Cork Almada Collection: Tira Areia High Density Cork.

It's great because it is warm and soft underfoot. We continued the flooring through the dining room and the chairs have no issue sliding over it. Our 2 active dogs also like it. These planks are 4"x36" so they kind of mimic the hardwood in the living room.

Good luck with your project!

We had cork tiles (1x3') in our kitchen, which we actually took out because we hated them so much (they were there when we bought the house). They were durable enough, but the color was terrible in my opinion - very orange. Something about the pattern of the cork always made it look dirty, too.

My dislike of cork is mostly aesthetic, though - we have a small child and two dogs, and it held up just fine, and was easy to vacuum or mop. It did seem to be permanently stickier than wood or tile, though it's possible we weren't cleaning it with the right products.

cork is an excellent choice, also a very environmentally responsible product. If bamboo enters the equation again in a high traffic area only use stranded