Remember Betsy from Tuesday’s post? To catch you up, Betsy is remodeling the Kitchen in her 95 year old house. Yesterday her workers prepared the floor for her gorgeous green penny round tile. They had to scrape through 5 layers to get to the original wood floor. One layer was particularly fabulous.

Unfortunately, this linoleum beauty is too far gone to be restored. Betsy said it just peeled away like cardboard. What I would give for an original floor like this. It is hard to see from her photos, but Betsy said the floor has silver and gold flecks, and all sorts of funky mod colors. I can see my signature olive and teal in there. Excuse me while I swoon.

Please don’t confuse linoleum with vinyl. I have heard many people refer to the vinyl flooring that rolls out in sheets as linoleum, but the two are as different as chocolate and carob coating. Both are categorized as Resilient, but genuine linoleum, while still available, was popular from 1900-1950. Linoleum is a natural product made from linseed oil, pine resins, ground wood and ground limestone. Strong, healthy, vibrant and colorfast, linoleum combines durability with style. It is naturally antimicrobic and outgases very little VOCs.

Vintage floors were often stylized, bold, graphic, detailed and colorful. I found these on flickr, from JAVA1888, a world and 50 years from today’s beige tile.

I wish I knew why in the United States linoleum was replaced by vinyl. The last US factory closed in 1975. The manufactures that still carry it obtain it from Europe. Here are some photos from Marmoleum.

The linoleum floor was a work of art. And later, the linoleum floor again becomes a work of art. Bill Miller uses salvaged pieces of former floors to create incredible collage paintings.