How to Plan and Design a Kitchen Vinyl Flooring Project Posted: Wednesday, February 23, 2011
If you're one of those do-it-yourselfers, and you're ready to lay your talents down on a new kitchen floor, there are a few things you want to consider and plan for before yanking up your existing floor. (We never can seem to side-step that planning and measuring phase, can we?) But it can also be fun, and you'll certainly learn a lot as you go, if this is your first time.
First, if you've decided on vinyl, good decision. It's a fabulous choice for kitchen floors because of its durability and ease of installation and maintenance. And these days with the artistry and variety manufacturers put into their vinyl products, it's certainly no longer an aesthetically mediocre choice — this ain't your grandma's kitchen floor.
The most enjoyable part of the planning is deciding on the type of vinyl to go with (unless tons of choices make you crazy!). There are literally hundreds if not thousands of design variations for vinyl out there. You can go with the look of hardwood, tile, stone, flat color, floral or architectural designs, on and on. And you can choose colors and textures that contrast with your cabinetry or ones that seamlessly blend. The choices are literally endless.
Basically vinyl flooring comes in either sheets, tiles, or planks. Again, no matter which you choose, vinyl is pretty easy to install, so just go with your vision and budget and get a good installation guide.
So now you've decided on your product. Everyone's situation is different. You might have a new construction or be gutting your existing kitchen, or you might be replacing only the flooring and leaving the rest of the kitchen as is.
But whichever scenario applies you to, measuring is key. You basically need to get a full measurement of the floor from wall surface to wall surface and around any existing fixtures or items that won't be moved.
"Wall" here can mean to the edge of cabinets or wall extensions or fixed pieces. Your best bet is to, with your measurements, use graph paper and draw out a schematic of your floor, using each square on the graph paper to represent one square foot of floor space.
You can take your measurements and/or picture to a home improvement store to have them help you decide on the amount of vinyl flooring you'll need, or check out some great online tools out there. And after quality prepping, vinyl can be installed over just about any subfloor, so just get your tape measure and your utility knife, and get to it.
