Floored by Flooring Choices

We've been looking at flooring for a little while now but now that our house is officially under construction, we're feeling pretty motivated to make some decisions. Charis suggested that we talk to the folks at Bob & Pete's Flooring. D and I had actually randomly found their shop several weeks ago, and I was impressed by the staff, so I was happy to come back with Niels. Our son was such a trooper, we were there over two hours, through dinner and past bedtime, but he just played with Legos, sang, read books, made dinner in the toy kitchen. I am a very proud mommy. With the little one occupied, we were able to have a productive night.

Kitchen and Dinette: Cork
We knew from the start that we would use cork here. It's soft, warm, easy on the knees, low maintenance, green, anti-allergenic, insect resistant, and best of all, it reduces noise! I'd buy it for that reason alone!

The winner: Avante Garde Canyon by We Cork.

Cork in context

Mudroom, Foyer, Power Room, Family Bath, Guest Suite Bath, Master Suite Bath: Tile
We feel in love with Emser Strand 12x24 tile this past weekend at The Great Indoors. We love the suble clean lines on linen tiles. Bob & Pete's didn't have it in stock, but they did have Daltile's Fabrique, which is very similar.

We're thinking one of the whitish ones in the Suite Baths and one of the dark ones in the others. I'd really like to see 12x20 sample of all 5 to decide for sure, though.

Daltile Fabrique Creme Linen

Emser Strands Oyster

Emser Tile Olive

Daltile Gris Linen

Emser Tile Twilight

Great Room, Master Bedroom, D's Room and Upstairs Guest Room: Frise Carpet

If money were no object, we'd probably do all cork, at least downstairs. Alas, we have a budget, and carpet is an easy way to stretch. our floor allowance. The carpet we're considering is low VOC and made of recycled materials.

Leading carpet (forgot the name, but B&P have it) as it will transition to the kitchen/dining area.

Office and Guest Suite: Some sort of low pile carpet:

We're still working on this one, but it will be something that plays nice with office and wheel chairs.

Laundry Room and Pantry: Linoleum

As much as I'd love to do cork in pantry, it's hard to justify in a 9'x9' space. So we'll do linoleum instead. We'll use the same flooring in the upstairs laundry room. 

Leading linoleum option with Canyon Cork.

Kitchen Backsplash: Green (Recycled?) Glass Subway Tiles...I think.

I have no doubt that I have spent entirely too much time thinking about backsplash, especially since we don't even have one in our current house. With the transitional/modern bent to our kitchen, we don't have a lot of color, so I really wanted to bring in some sage green-ish color. I love the idea of recycled glass tile, but think the mosaics are too much stimulation for my injured brain, so I've been learning to a solid color. Niels doesn't care for the 1x1s, so we've been looking at subways and straight sets.

Last week, I got Niels hooked on these tiles:

Solistone Mardi Gras Carrollton. Those little lines in the tile give a little bit of color variance, but it's nice and subtle. 

Carrollton in context. Our kitchen will also have espresso cabs, white quartz counters, and stainless steel appliances. I just love it.

Unfortunately, Bob & Pete's didn't have this in stock, but the person we met with saw why we loved it and will try to track it down for us. We found this one, which is available in subway, as a distant second choice. I do like that it really looks like recycled glass bottles and is a just a little messier than most clean cut glass.

American Olean Solare Brooke

 Compilations:

Canyon Cork and Maple Espresso Cabs

Maple espresso cabs, Canyon cork, Cambria Whitney quartz and AO Solare Brook.

Daltile Gris Linen (top left, for foyer and mudroom), transitioning to great room carpet, transitioning to kitchen and dinette Canyon cork with maple espresso cabs. White Creme linen title (bottom left) for suite baths.