This is a picture of my laminate floor. I'll post a pic of my old linoleum which was actually really nice.

Here is the linoleum that I replaced, but it is still in our mud room. NOTHING shows on this floor and people used to tell me they liked it in my kitchen.

Did you mean real linoleum? If so I can post it next weekend. We have ordered Marmoleum Dual Tile in shell and coffee in a 4:1 ratio and will be installing it next week.

Linoleum is a wood and linseed oil product made by Forbo (Marmoleum), Armstrong and someone else.

Vinyl is made by many manufacturers in many grades.

Which are you talking about?

Marcolo, yes, I'm aware that they are different products. I'm hoping to go for real linoleum, provided there isn't something that would keep me from doing so. (Like exorbitant cost or some installation issue with my space...)

If not, then I guess it would be vinyl, or I could go back to looking at cork (but like I said, I have concerns about how it would look against the hardwoods that are everywhere else throughout the house.)

I love cork flooring and the owner of the flooring shop that I use says it is very comfortable flooring. I would use it in my kitchen if I didn't have such an open floor plan.

Holly-kay, I originally really wanted cork because of the comfort issue (and because you can install the floating version over my hideous 1960 lino). However, again, I'm just worried about getting it to look right with the hardwoods that will be right up next to it from three different rooms.

Here is mine

Here is a link that might be useful:

There are several shots of my linoleum if you scroll down in my "almost done" thread. I did forest ground 13x13 tiles with a dark bistre stripe around the perimeter of the room. I love the floor. I used linoleum rather than cork for the same reasons as you expressed. We have walnut cabinets and darkish red oak floors in the dining room which opens to the kitchen. I didn't want to bring the oak into the kitchen. Cork just wouldn't work with the walnut and oak, so linoleum was the logical choice for flooring that was easy on the back.

Here is a picture of my Marmoleum; it is Caribbean in the sheet flooring. We needed two rolls with the seam running down the center of the kitchen as the rolls (as I recall) are only 6.5 feet wide. So far it seems to be bulletproof. The color is a warm tan with swirls--my monitor is making it look a bit pinkish which it is not at all.

Here's our Volcanic Ash marmoleum. Love it.