It’s been a little quiet here on the blog because we’ve been so busy doing this and that at our new house. And today I bring you the first post in a new series: Our 1954 Home, where I’ll be sharing our various home projects and our home in general. Except holiday decor posts, those will still be in the Holidays category. Today I bring you our process in changing some of our floors.

This house originally featuring hardwood floors, and the hardwood is still underneath everything. However, I’m a carpet and linoleum kind of girl, so we decided to keep the carpet. The entry, hallway, both bathrooms, kitchen, and laundry room were all done with new peel-and-stick vinyl floor tiles in a faux marble. One of the first things we decided to do was the floors in the kitchen, laundry room, and master bathroom. Doing the kitchen and laundry room first were top priorities because we had to install appliances, and it made most sense to redo those before installing appliances. We also decided to go ahead and do the master bathroom as well. The hallway and guest bath currently still have the peel-and-stick, but will change one day. I think the biggest tip I can give new homeowners so far, is don’t drain your bank account immediately with every project under the sun! As much as you want to do everything at once, it’s important to pace yourself, and your budget.

I knew I wanted to go with the classic linoleum you think of, with the brush stroke fleck look. But where to go? Do people even make that stuff anymore? Well, on a recommendation from the Ambassador of Americana himself, Charles Phoenix, we went to Linoleum City in LA.

Our kitchen features cream and pale salmon tile on the counters, and I wanted to find tile that matched. However, I could not find that pale salmon color! So we went with a green that complimented tile. When it came to the actual terminology, I learned what I wanted is called VCT, or vinyl composition tile. This stuff is mostly used in offices, schools, and other commercial type buildings. Like, seriously, this floor is commercial grade. We also then went through Linoleum City to get an installer. And when it came time for the install I got a chance to see the original floors!

I love the above photo because you can see the layers of time, original hardwood, vintage linoleum, and the new stuff that was put on when we bought the house.

I simply adored the red border, and we gave thought to doing something along those lines, but knew it would cost more, and once the appliances were in, there isn’t too much floor visible, so a boarder or design would have been lost. We opted for a checkerboard look, as it would be the easiest to incorporate two different colors.

Four our master bath we chose a blue VCT and we were lucky enough to find a darn near perfect match to the tile! Like with the kitchen floors, we got to see the original flooring when the tore out the new stuff, and Patrick snapped a quick picture. The master bath floors were less exciting than the kitchen, but it was still a treat to see them.

Since I knew I would be putting in a bathmat, we decided to go with one solid color for the bathroom.

Both the kitchen and the bathroom are from the Azrock Collection by Johnsonite. The kitchen is done with “Lamb’s Wool” and “Ryegrass” while the master bathroom is done in “Riptide.”

I hope you enjoyed this first installment of Our 1954 Home! And let me know if there are any home topics you really are interested in! Currently we are working on our sliding glass door curtains and getting rid of those pesky vertical blinds.