Hootie hooo! The cork floor in both the kitchen and the laundry room is complete!
Well, except if you count the fact that we still have to add shoe molding, thresholds, and seal it all. Details, details. The point is, we at last get to see the whole picture. Huzzah!
The annoying part is that we still have not figured out how to photograph it as true to life as we can (it is a rich mocha color, and in fact looks more like brown leather in person, so the pattern is more like soft movement and less like any sort of obvious shapes or anything) – but the two videos from the last post truly are the most accurate depictions of it, although we hope today’s photos are closer to real life than last week’s were. The one above is getting there. We will learn the trick someday I am sure! When it came to finishing things off in the corner of the kitchen and our compact laundry room, it was fairly much exactly the same method that we outlined in our kitchen corking post, although we were getting worried that we were running low on cork, so we in fact used some remnant planks all along the left wall (leftover cuts from the kitchen) to ensure that we would not run out.
Thankfully we wrapped up up with about four planks to spare. Not kidding. It was crazy close. So we are at least thankful to have those as extras, and plan to seal the heck out of these to protect them. Cork can even be sanded, restained, and resealed down the line if it gets worse for wear, so 40+ year old cork floors exist (which is pleasant to know since cork sounds like such a new-age material). Heck, we have even heard from folks who have 100+ year old cork floors that still look strong, so here is hoping! It is kind of remarkable how much of a difference the new floors make in the laundry room. I mean, we truly liked it before since we did so much work on it already (more on the rest of the room’s transformation here), but here is that room before it got the ol’ cork treatment:
And after:
We enter the house through the door in the laundry room and it is so pleasant to walk in and see the rich cork floors whispering “welcome home.” Oh and for those wondering where the laundry basket is, it is simply in the bedroom full of a pile of “flu clothes” that have been washed and have yet to be put away.
Since we already blogged all about where/why we purchased our floor here, and how we installed it (video included) here, this post is more of a big sigh of relief that the last big kitchen undertaking is winding down. Other than polishing off those last few floor tasks on the list, all that is left are smaller things like adding some decorative wood molding to the back of the peninsula, deciding if we will be adding a window treatment over the sink or painting our stools, potentially doing something lively to the side of the pantry, bringing in a chair and a rug in the fireplace side of the room, etc. And of course we will share a ton of before and after pics along with a budget and time breakdown when we at last get to stick a fork in this kitchen (which we have been working on in stages since October 5th!). And remember when we moved in and it looked like this in here?
This shot is a little further back, and a slightly distinct angle, but it is semi-comparable. Is there anything better than making a room that feels nothing like you, at last feel like home?
As for our plan with the variety of mismatched wood floors that surround our freshly corked kitchen and laundry room, we are large fans of flooring that looks seamless (we upgraded our first house to have the same dark mocha wood throughout the layout for a pleasant open flow). And sure sufficient, we plan to eventually refinish the rest of the wood floors in this house in the same rich mocha color as the cork for a much more straightforward and open look. Although it’ll still be cork in some rooms and hardwoods in others, the same rich tone should truly tie things together and not make any of the spaces feel as choppy or broken up. When it comes to a usability/function update, we have been truly glad with it so far. The rich deep color adds so much to the formerly white-washed space, there are no scratches/dings where Burger runs around from his nails, no dents where we drop things, it is quite soft and straightforward on the back/knees, it should be even more durable once we seal it, it is eco-friendly, and it is quiet. We will certainly keep you posted as we live with it (and add shoe molding, thresholds, and a few coats of protective sealer). What did you folks do this weekend? We were fairly much laid up on the sofa fighting our little flu battle after at last squeezing in those last few cork boards, but we are getting a lot closer to feeling like ourselves again! And the wrapped up cork floors certainly have our spirits up. Onward!
More Flooring Projects
If you would like to read about other flooring projects we have done, please check out the posts below:
