Three months ago we purchased a box of Vida cork flooring and installed a test piece in our bedroom. We soon moved the test area (3′ wide by 5′ long) to the kitchen to be sure it received not only paw traffic but foot traffic as well.
The results? We’re sold! It’s hard to tell from the photograph, but the cork has held up really well. Plus, it’s easy to clean and feels great underfoot.
The current plan is to install it in the future kitchen/dining area, but there has also been discussion of putting it over the oak floors in the future living/bedroom area as well. Because we will be opening up the floor plan quite a bit, we’re worried about transitions of materials between spaces. Would it look better if the flooring was the same throughout the “great room” area or should we try to keep a bit of the history of the house by keeping the oak floors (but maybe staining them a tad darker to better match the cork?). These are the type of quandaries that we still have to figure out and we may not make a decision until demo is complete and we can get a better sense of the new spaces.
But for now, we’re excited that the cork has passed the 3 month indurance test with flying colors and can’t wait to rid ourselves of the linoleum.*
[ * note – we love linoleum and think it’s a great green product, but ours was not maintained properly over the years and is now a dry and brittle dirt sponge.]