"HeyWake and vintage linoleum"
As many of you know, I am now living in an old house built in 1875. This little hunting lodge has been built onto and "updated" in various ways over the decades. However, by no means has it been gutted and modernized. It is still quirky, charming, and a headache at times. There is still lots to do and fix in this "diamond in the rough." Yes that's right, we are still mostly in the rough! Because the house still has a non-touched state, it has charming surprises to offer up as we keep working on fixing it's old bones. Just so you know, I prefer pleasant surprises versus those "oh shit, wtf do we do now" surprises. Finding an original linoleum floor under the old, dirty shag rug in my work room was a pleasant one. I don't know much about old linoleum flooring, but my guess is that this floor might be 1930's or older. The floor is in really good condition considering it's age. Eventually, down the road sometime, we plan on renovating the spare bedrooms and putting in hardwood floors. At that time, I plan on carefully removing the linoleum. As luck would have it, the floor is not glued down. Instead it is tacked down along the edges and a metal strip is used to hold it into place across the center of the room. In the mean time, I'm hoping to research and find some information on the best way to clean and preserve the floor. After all, an old linoleum floor is much easier for me to live with than dirty, tan shag carpeting.
"A corner of the chaos"
"Metal seam"
Wow, that is really neat! Why someone would put carpet over that is beyond me.
ReplyDeleteWell, I guess most people want the updated look and not the old and really dated look! hahaha This house has passed through many hands from what I understand and the owners would do a shitty little update and move along. They never fixed any problems, they just did a cover up and moved! :)
DeleteOH my gosh. That is QUITE the find, that stuff is rare these days. I researched it a couple years ago after I believe Pam @ Retro Renovation did a post on it. Turns out the heritage village in my city has a linoleum rug in one of its homes. I can't find it now, but there's a bit here on linoleum rugs (http://retrorenovation.com/2010/01/21/nates-vintage-painted-rug/) and as far as I know, they are worth a bit of money. I don't know about full flooring vs rug but still. Here's the post I was thinking of! It was Etsy I guess: http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2009/theres-no-place-like-here-retro-renovation-at-luxton-lake-wi/
ReplyDeleteOh wow thanks for the heads up! I am off to check those links out!
DeleteThat floor is AMAZING! Looks to me that the design is 20's or 30's. Just spectacular.
ReplyDeleteWhat's even more amazing is that between the linoleum and the wood floor planks is a layer of newspaper! Apparently when they installed the linoleum floor, they put done a base of newspaper first. I can't wait for the day when I get to have a look at those newspapers!
DeleteWow that is beautiful.Any plans for the linoleum after you remove it?That is such a pretty pattern.Good luck.x
ReplyDeleteThats how my green and white checkerboard Leno is in the Kitchenof the casablanca. Tacked down with those strips but BOY is it BRITTLE! thats really neat yours is in such great condition!
ReplyDeleteAhh! It's gorgeous! When we pulled up the carpet in a closet in our old house, it had similar lino. It was like Christmas morning seeing that stuff. I wished I could have stayed there and enjoyed it. When you pull it up, even if it's in one piece, be sure and take precautions as it's often full of asbestos and you don't want that dust in your pretty lungs.
ReplyDeleteThat flooring is so lovely! What a plesant surprise for you. Good luck :)
ReplyDeletex Molly
Oh wow. That linoleum is gorgeous. That was definitely a nice surprise!
ReplyDelete-Andi x
I would love to find something like that~the great news is, you can move it! When it was glued down, it crumbled when it was taken up-from what a friend told me. Love it!
ReplyDeleteGosh that's just lovely! What a great surprise, I would be living with that quite easily for some time to come!
ReplyDeletewow or, if you do not you wrote the word linoleum, I immediately thought of upholstery or wallpaper.is a rarity that you have discovered, and is in perfect condition.
ReplyDeleteDebora
Amazing how it is patterened to look like a woven carpet.
ReplyDeleteIt's beautiful, I'd say to leave it as is! Who needs hardwood floors!
ReplyDeleteI had a roll of linoleum, a beautiful floral of pinks and mauves, I found at an estate sale, still in the original tube for $5. I found similar patterns to mine in an old Sears catalog. It was by Armstrong. Eventually, I pulled up the carpet and put it down in my old bedroom. It was SUPER brittle, I would recommend using a heat gun or hair dryer to warm it up before you try and pull on it. Mine was awful trying to unroll and put down from being in the tube for 60 years...a friend told me after the fact to crank the heat up in the house too and let it warm up. There has to be a better way of maneuvering the stuff...but mine cracked and tore super easy. It's now rolled up in our garage, and I fear that it's too damaged to ever be reused. :(
very cool!
ReplyDeleteI just love the patterns of the old lino it is like wrapping paper compared to now where you get recreated tile, recreated stone, recreated wood. I love vinyl sheet flooring (lino) because it easy on my feet (compared to ceramic tile and laminate other inexpensive flooring) and I feel like saying telling the manufactures be proud of what you are stop trying to be something else. One of the houses I looked at this summer was showing off their vintage lino and everyone who saw it was in love :) Great post!
ReplyDeleteHi Mary Deluxe, LOVE the floor! I would love to show it on my blog. Can you email me??? Many thanks, Pam from Retro Renovation
ReplyDeleteHi. I remember my grandma having such flooring in the living room of her old frame farmhouse, way back in the early 60s. But as I remember it, the color scheme was the opposite of yours -- gray background with red on the leaves. We had wall-to-wall carpeting at our house, which made me wonder why she had what I considered "kitchen" flooring in her living room. But, she heated with a coal-burning stove, and it made a bit of a mess, which probably was much easier to sweep up off of the linoleum flooring.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I understand, carpet was at one time very expensive and the linoleum flooring made to resemble carpet was a solution for those that didn't want to plunk down money to have carpet installed.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely beautiful!!
ReplyDeleteIf you haven't already, check out Jane Powell's book on linoleum. She tells you how to restore it, how to peel it up, etc. A really good book with great pix of cool lino, and I think she has a chapter on the type you have (the tack-down kind).
ReplyDeleteThere's a beautiful vintage linoleum rug for sale on Ebay right now http://www.ebay.com/itm/290797890032
ReplyDeleteThere's a beautiful linoleum rug on Ebay right now http://www.ebay.com/itm/290797890032
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