What can I do to make my kitchen floor look better?

[Heartsease]

It's got ancient 1960s type beige tiles (lino type stuff), but the units and so on are all quite new and good and we have to keep them in the hopes that (employment permitting) we'll be able to build a new kitchen in a few years.

We can't afford to rip everything out and up but a cosmetic improvement would really help. The units are nice enough birch effect and dark worktops and we're repainting the walls, but then there's this minging floor dragging it all down. Is vinyl over tiles always a disaster? The interweb suggests so. I'm pretty sure it's concrete underneath.

Can't you just take the beige tiles up and put smart new lino down on the concrete? I'm sure my parents did this and it was very successful and hard wearing.

or just bung down some coir runners or rugs

Do you think they can cut it round the units? I suppose so (am a bit dim about all this, have never done it before). There is dark stuff underneath though which seems to be the glue, and somewhere I read said you needed to blast all that off or you'd see lumps through the vinyl. I am not really up for that. I don't mind if it's not perfect though, just needs to look vaguely OK.

SEA, wouldn't that get full of peas and stuff? It's a v. small space.

i have one in my kitchen it doesn't seem to attract peas

yes and maybe a swish new underlay for yer lino?

Glad to hear no peas, I will look into it -- I hadn't thought of free range rug type things, so thanks. I just feel like I tend to drop a lot of stuff on the floor.

Underlay might stop the floor beneath showing through, right? Good. Taking notes. Thanks all!

They can definitely cut them round the units, but I do remember that something had to be done to the concrete floor before the lino was put down - I think it had to be sealed or something of the sort (sorry, this must have been 10 years ago). You could try phoning the John Lewis flooring Department for advice.

I had forgotten that JL had a flooring department -- what heresy. My mum would be appalled. Thanks GrendelsMum, I will definitely speak to them.