In Praise of Red Linoleum

The first time I dyed my hair I was in my 20s. Obviously I am not very experimental when it comes to my hair. But I wanted a change. Something new. I went red.

One of my friends saw me for the first time as a red head and said,

"Wow. Red. That' s a bold move."

That is kind of how I feel about our red linoleum.

Oh, how we went back and forth and round and round, and over and under and every other direction trying to decide on a floor. We knew we wanted linoleum. We knew we wanted color. We knew we wanted bright. But did we want checkerboard? 3 colors? 2? 1? White with a few blocks of color scattered around? It was so hard to decide.

In the end, we both decided we'd always loved the idea of a red kitchen floor.

Our floor guy thought we were insane.

Other people probably think that too when they walk into our kitchen.

But I love it.

When we first moved in, I just couldn't stop looking at it. It was so perfect. So much better than I expected it to be. It is vintage looking and fits right in with our old metal cabinets and 1950s stove. But, to me at least, it doesn't look dated or "dinery", 2 of the things I was trying to avoid.

We didn't polish it right away. We were told it needed to rest. And so, months have have gone by and it still wasn't polished. Finally got to it last night.

And now I am in love with it all over again.

Of course, I love the shine. But also the color is richer, deeper. It is less pink and more tomato.

Do you ever put off doing something and once you've done it you can't believe how long it took you? I have a house full of that. But now I can check floor off the list.

Oh, except for the bathroom floor. That's turquoise linoleum. It's like a pool in there. A very small pool. Another bold move.

One more note on linoleum. We didn't just choose it for aesthetic purposes. It is really great flooring.

It is durable. Why do you think it is always in grocery stores?

It comes in so many different colors and styles. (But please don't get the fake stone. It's linoleum. Let it look like linoleum!)

It is self healing. Because it is an organic material, made from linseed oil, linoleum heals the cuts and scratches it gets. It does it all by itself. You don't have to do a thing.

It's green baby! Made from that linseed oil.

A testimony to linoleum's self healing and durability: After enough of the work had been done on the house for the kids and I to live here, Aaron hired a cleaning company to come in and deep clean before I moved in. I arrived on move in day to see my floor for the first time. It was clean, but had huge, deep scratches right down the middle of it. I was so bummed.

Those scratches are completely gone now. I tell you, it's great flooring.

We used Armstrong linoleum. There are other brands out there, but we liked their colors and patterns the best.

Don't be afraid to make a bold move in your home. After all, you're the one living with it. Have you noticed I like red?