ORC Spring 2020: Let’s Talk Kitchen FLOORS!

ORC Spring 2020 Week Three

Are you ready for this week’s project in My Tuscan Inspired Kitchen? We tackled the floors!

Welcome friends! It is Week 3 of the One Room Challenge, Spring 2020 Edition! You can follow this LINK to see all of the projects of the guest participants like me. Click HERE to see the progress of the talented featured designers. Prepare to be amazed!

Last week I shared our appliance choices. If you missed that post, you can read about it HERE.

Selecting Floors for My Tuscan Inspired Kitchen

I’m one of those who has to see every option and check every detail before they can make a choice on just about anything. I wanted our floors to be light because our old floors were light. We agreed that vinyl planking would be our best choice of product since this is a kitchen floor. Water from leaky ice maker lines or dishwashers can wreak havoc on a laminate or even a true hardwood floor.

The very first sample we spotted was the floor display at Home Depot of Lifeproof Sterling Oak. Our back splash is mix of grey so I wanted my floors to have both grey and beige tones to unify the appliances and backsplash and all of the elements of my Tuscan Inspired Kitchen.

While I liked the Sterling Oak, it seemed a little dark. I also considered Chiffon Lace Oak, which was very light and Lighthouse Oak, which had more brown tones. Can you believe Lifeproof has 79 choices in their vinyl planking? It is 100% waterproof and guaranteed for life. Talk about overwhelming.

I was very conscious to make sure we had a complementary and consistent color flow running between all of the newly selected kitchen elements. So I took all of my samples home to the kitchen and observed them together in my kitchen. I lined up the sink, the Tuscan Stainless sample chip, and the floor samples to see which one best unified my kitchen.

Again Rebecca, the Pelham Home Depot appliance specialist came to the rescue. She recommended viewing the samples online to see the bigger picture. This last tip was critical as I found the Chiffon Lace to be more “splotchy”, if you will. I know this probably shocks those of you who know me because I am indeed an uber distressor…the chippier or the more worn then the better for me! But in this case, I felt the variations of color made the floors look less authentic. I really want the Copper Hammered Farmhouse Sink to stand out. So a more uniform flooring would ensure this.

Sterling Oak was our choice.

Installation: Floors!

I had requested install estimates from three contractors. One was a friend of a friend. One was a local kitchen reno company. And one was a no show. So two choices. We went with the friend of the friend because I’ve seen his work and his work is incredible. He would schedule us for some time in April. Then the pandemic hit. And essential stores limited the number of shoppers permitted inside. And our guy’s productivity dropped by 50% because a good portion of his day was now spent waiting in line to gain access to supplies. So we sheltered at home. And we waited, expecting a call in May or even later. But the day after I posted my Week 2 update, my guy called and said he would be here on Saturday! Whoohoo!

Saturday came and the floor was quickly and efficiently installed!

I left the kitchen completely empty for days. I just love the floor so much! The transformation is incredible and I love the open roomy look. We’ve lived with clutter for so long that this was incredibly satisfying. How long do you think it took before I moved the table back in??

Let me just say that this floor installation and the resulting effect led to formulating another change for our kitchen! Can you guess what that change might be? It is an addition to the original plan. Stay tuned once the cabinets are painted to see what else we are adding to our kitchen!

Next week…my hammered copper sink gets installed!