Torn Between Two Covers

Floor Covers...  OK, Floor Coverings.  Schmaltzy, but close enough.  ;-)

This was the sheet vinyl pattern that was the best.
Great colors for our room, but too busy and 'demanding.'

A couple of helpful people recommended I look at the floor tiles that look similar to ceramic, but are vinyl, and can be installed with or without grout... Which I did.

I wasn't sure about dealing with groutlines for the next few decades, but the bigger reason I had to X-out this option was the patterns.  These seem, like the sheet vinyl I considered, to come only in faux stone designs.  The style on one that had the best colors for us was referred to as "Tuscan," which my kitchen is really not.  The stone-looks tend to have more contrast, with splotches of white, which looks busy in our room.

During one visit to the flooring store, while I was collecting samples to bring home to look at in the kitchen, a particular piece of luxury vinyl planks kept catching my eye.  I, in turn, kept eliminating it, because I just knew Hubby would immediately reject it.  But it was a nice gray, what I thought would be the perfect shade in our kitchen... And it had a nice, authentic look to it. In the end I grabbed it, and figured there was no harm in taking it home for a day...

To my extreme surprise, my woodworker, wood-obsessed Hubby had no objections to the 'faux' oak flooring, even though it would meet our real, hardwood floors in 2 places.  The family much preferred its look to the ceramic tile and other vinyl patterns I'd brought home.  That sent me back to look at other brands of similar flooring in the wood look.  Plus, this sample came from a line the salesman hadn't thought to recommend to me, and I wondered if there was a reason why.

That reason was that the DevineLock flooring I'd been drawn to was a new product, and he didn't know of an installation they'd done with it.  But, he explained, it was essentially the same type of flooring as the brand he'd recommended, so he has no reason to believe it won't be good.  Still, I decided to look more at Invincible, the brand they'd had plentiful experience with, and brought home their grayest offering.

It's actually a golden brownish with a grayish tint and some grayish streaks.  Mostly, it's brown... Almost the look of bare, slightly aged wood.  In the store it looked pretty yellow, but thankfully, not so much in our house.  

My family is torn.  Not that everyone likes both, but that half the family seems to decidedly like the gray, and the other half like the brown.  I love both, and would have been happy with either, had I seen only one or the other.  But now that I've seen both, I'm stuck.

The gray is the safest.  It's nearly the same color as the Marmoleum Click we have, but barely lighter, which is a good thing.  It's the lesser known brand, and Hubby feels like it looks a little too much like old, white-washed oak, of which he was never a fan.  I think it looks stained light gray, so that's not as much of a worry to me.  

The brown is new and interesting.  The color intrigues me. But is that a reason to switch?  I have made the mistake of choosing 'new' over a 'known success' before, with disappointing results.  Should I stick to "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" strategy?  

I had originally wanted a wood-toned flooring, but the Marmoleum Click didn't offer any browns, so I settled for gray.  But now I can't remember if I just decided gray would fit in my other choices 'OK,' or if I made other selections after having the gray flooring in mind.  So I'm not altogether sure that brown floors will 'fit' now.  

Some of its detractors here say that with the Brazilian Cherry (Jatoba), and all our Douglas fir in cabinets and millwork, that we don't need another wood color.  

This is the gray.  I don't know why it
looks yellowish here, when not in real life

The brown selection really connects with the stone behind the stove.  The gray connects with the stove cabinets... maybe a little too closely, and is a different gray than the laminate countertops. (It's also presently different than the stove-cabinets' gray, but I think I've found creamy gray paint the color I'd originally intended for those, and will repaint.)  











I like the interplay of the goldish tones of the wood color with the burgundy cabinets.  (Please ignore the still unpainted drawer!)


I think, though, that the almost bare wood look is a little rustic, and I'm not sure that fits the rest of the house.  The gray is a little more sophisticated, while still casual and comfy.





I'll let you know whenever I decide something!