Yes, lino would be period appropriate for your 1880s kitchen. And sheet lino (in a solid marbled pattern) would be more 1880s than the checkerboard patterns produced with the 13 x 13 tiles offered by Forbo Marmoleum. My ID just attended a Forbo training seminar, where she reports Forbo rolled out their new patterns for 2005 and announced the retirement of others. "Granada" is still in the mix--that's the sheet flooring I used in my kitchen. You can see all the products at Forbo Marmoleum.

On that site, you can get to all the color collections as well. Granada is in the Neutral Collaborations collection, but there are also intensely saturated primaries, grays, borders, tiles, and so on.

In any event, there are companies that are making vinyl flooring with reproduction lino patterns.

I'm replacing old lino w/ new lino in my 1914 bungalow but I like it so much I'd put it in a new house if I were building fresh.

Solid marble color would warm your tiny kitchen -- and if it's tiny enough you won't have seams!

Now, isn't this something? Just think, I destroyed all that beautiful vintage lino! That's what someone else may say, because that is what was fashionable in those earlier times. So, you see, a house does go through changes; and we don't understand "how could the previous PO have done this".
It's all a part of the life of the house, good times and bad. Oh, I can't put what I mean into words.

I love the old lino, but I prefer my wood floors. I need three or four houses to decorate!

Have you decided what you'll do for your kitchen floor?

My lino went down in the new construction part of a whole house remodel/addition. I'll post pics.

BTW, we also have a Tudor Revival, but of more recent vintage, 1928/29.

A belated chuckle, AtHomeDad! Lmarks, I'm one of the big lino fans around here...I don't think I've heard of a residential customer regretting his/her choice in the more than two years I've been lurking and posting.

Speaking of two years...that's about how long we've had our kitchen sheet lino. It's Armstrong's Marmorette in Cream, bought at a discount flooring warehouse place that has a mostly commercial customer base, and it does not get babied one whit. We have a mutt of a kitchen (e.g. not a period reno) and lino is our little black dress--it goes with all the elements. Additionally, it's easy on the joints, bare feet-friendly, antistatic, hypoallergenic and just plain fun.

Now, I had to *seriously* restrain myself from going with a vibrant shade, but there are so many fantastic neutrals that it wasn't too much of a hardship. Even though I have one of the lightest shades out there, it doesn't have that dirty/grimy look my various light/white vinyls always seemed to have. [It helps that one of my "swirl" colors is a medium brown, of course!]

In short, I'd definitely consider lino for your place. If your budget allows, installers can do amazing things with contrasting insets/borders (ours is just the one color).

I'll link to photos, but I swear lino is rather bland looking in 2-D. [Event the manufacturer sites don't do this product justice unless we're talking about the close-ups.] Best of luck in your search.

Do the new linoleum's have to be waxed and stripped like the old type? I just read recently an article about a building built in 1928 that has had constant residents and use and whose main hallway was lino. Said it had been waxed regularly, but very seldom stripped. They stripped it all this past year and rewaxed and, except for a few small chips or dents, said it looks like new! Would hope the new stuff would be that good.