No, this isn't a post about how to make amends with your kitchen floors. It is, however, a brief look at a few kitchen flooring options that are easy on the feet (and dropped dishware):
Cork: Cork floors can be laid in tiles or sheets, as a thin glue-down material or thicker click-together floating floor. It comes pre-finished or is finished with several coats of polyurethane after installation, which helps it stand up to wear and cleaning. We love this material for the kitchen because it's got a little give underfoot and its natural color variation helps to camouflage imperfections or the need to sweep.
Rubber: Like cork, rubber can be installed in tiles or rolls. Rolls can come in quite long lengths at 36-48" widths, making for few joints (thus fewer places for potential problems). Just imagine - a roll of rubber flooring could be laid with no joints at all in a galley kitchen! Rubber can also provide additional traction in the kitchen - especially with raised dot rubber floors as shown in image 3 above.
Linoleum: One more forgiving flooring material is good old traditional linoleum. Linoleum is a natural material, made of linseed oil, pine rosin, ground cork dust, and wood flour. It is a flexible material that dates back to the 1800's and, like cork and rubber, comes in tiles and rolls. It is often pigmented to allow for decorative patterning as seen in image 4 above.
A terrific, high-quality resource for cork and rubber floors is Expanko Inc. And if you're looking for linoleum, the go-to source is Marmorette by Armstrong.
Related: Rubber Floors In the Kitchen
(Images: Expanko Inc, Living Etc., kitchenideas.com.au, Country Living)
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We just put in Marmoleum click planks (linoleum.) It was pretty easy to install (though hard to get started, but once you get going it's easier.) And it's very gentle on the feet, attractive and durable. The one thing I don't like about it is how quickly it shows dirt (our main color is Silver Shadow, mixed with a yellowish color called Natural Corn.) It needs to be mopped almost every day to stay attractive. If I had to do over, I would have gone with a charcoal grey color or any color that would hide dirt a little better. (Not that I want to let my kitchen get filthy, but I don't want to mop every day either.)
The first flooring manufacturer to market a line of elegant neutrals with colors keyed to different regions' local dirt will make a mint.
If one actually cooks in one's kitchen, there's something to be said for not having every speck show.
I'm working on a dog footprint pattern....probably have to be in linoleum.
We just put chocolatey brown cork floating floor in our kitchen. We're loving them! Warm on the feet, easy to clean. The only thing is they kind of show dust a lot... footprints, paw prints, dirt that's dragged in from outside.
cork can turn black with water exposure. i would advise against doing light colored cork in areas that have high potential for wet traffic or spills...
We have reztec (by Expanko) rubber sheet flooring, and find it very comfortable. Another great thing that rubber and true linoleum have in common is that they have antibacterial properties.
does anyone know where the sink is from in the last photo!!
We have put Marmoleum (by Forbo) in our last two kitchens (one we were in for three years; the current kitchen we are going on seven). The colors are better than the Armstrong product (IMHO) and it wears really well, even, as in our case, with multiple cats in the house. As coldgreentea said, you do need to think about the color(s) you choose: we have used desert sand (or something like that) in both kitchens and it hides messes really well and looks great.