This set of observations was triggered by an interior designer who suggested replacing 30 year old linoleum flooring with those fake (but realistic) plastic wood planks you see in new construction today.

Linoleum sold on the roll has always been a cheap substitute for tiles. No one uses it anymore. But if you have linoleum and it's easy to clean and STILL in good shape after years?

Why would you rip it out for what is just the new version linoleum?

That's a downgrade.

@futurebird
My kitchen had cheap vinyl tiles badly stuck on top of an older lino/vinyl floor. The vinyl tiles were both horrible and very damaged. Unfortunately the lino under was also damaged quite badly partly from the glue used for the vinyl tiles.

One day I got annoyed with it and just ripped it all up, and underneath were the original (probably, 1920s) dark floortiles, the type that contain asbestos but which are fine as long as you don't go breaking them apart. They look *so much* better!

@futurebird I don't know if it counts as durable (I was not there for this conversation) but when my brother was redoing our bathroom he was asked what color he wanted the linoleum to be.

He said purple.

It turned out there was no purple, and frankly there weren't a lot of color choices other than gray.

To this day I wonder why we were asked about color choice

@lapis

I thought this was due to landlords, but interior design has been VERY bland for a long time now. Even in single family homes where people ought to feel more free to have some colors without freaking about about "resale value"

Unless one is a "flipper" I think all the focus on resale value is a bit silly. And limiting.

@futurebird have you noticed this trend in like, restaurants and fast casual and such that they've got to redo their buildings to look like gray bland office complexes that don't look like they serve food?

Like I have not been to a panera in years partially because I forget they exist, because all our paneras look like they should be law firms or architectural firms or something.

Are we re-creating the giver? Are we recreating the story beat on neopets I didn't follow that took the color out of everyone and everything?

In 30 years someone will be saying you need to tear out your "wood effect" planks for ... whatever they are on to next.

I guess not everyone can see that these are the same thing but from different eras. I will take the older one, please. Because real tile, real wood are not on the table in either case at this price point.

@futurebird
We need to replace our Marmoleum floor soon. It’s gotten so rough it doesn’t look clean even when it is. It’s about 20 yrs old.
I looked into vinyl. It’s tougher than Marmoleum. That fake wood was the only way vinyl was sold, though. To get an actually interesting floor, we’ll have to put in Marmoleum again.

@ohmu

cork?

@futurebird
Cork had pretty awful sustainabily and exploitation issues last I checked...
I really wish Marmoleum was tougher. It's pretty and it is pretty much a sustainable product.

In 30 years someone will be saying you need to tear out your "wood effect" planks for ... whatever they are on to next.

I guess not everyone can see that these are the same thing but from different eras. I will take the older one, please. Because real tile, real wood are not on the table in either case at this price point.

There is a furniture shop in the Bronx that has always baffled me.

But, recently? I had a revelation.

I was baffled because the stuff in their window is so showy and colorful. It’s just not what I’ve been taught to think of as “good design.”

But m, then, I stepped back and considered their prices, the build quality of the furniture— and in that light it’s not that different than IKEA.

In terms of price or functionality or materials.

It just has a very different design agenda.

There is a furniture shop in the Bronx that has always baffled me.

But, recently? I had a revelation.

I was baffled because the stuff in their window is so showy and colorful. It’s just not what I’ve been taught to think of as “good design.”

But m, then, I stepped back and considered their prices, the build quality of the furniture— and in that light it’s not that different than IKEA.

In terms of price or functionality or materials.

It just has a very different design agenda.

@futurebird

there are definitely other companies trying to be IKEA but with their air of being for a higher class than those filthy poor IKEA customers.

This stuff isn’t *my* style at all but I decided to reevaluate my initial impression that it was nonsensical and impractical.

As a western mass producer, IKEA often copies western designer items in wood laminate and plastic. Since I understand what they are trying to do it can sort of make sense— but, I have never seen what *this^ furniture is trying to copy. I am missing the context.

Both places make furniture for middle class people— both are aspirational in their own strange way.

@futurebird Uh, I may be misreading you, but IKEA *is* western.

@datarama

Yes IKEA copies western designer items because they are a western furniture mass producer. And the stuff in the the Bronx imports shop is also mass produced copies but of … something where I have not encountered the “real” version —

@futurebird Right, then I just misunderstood what you meant.

(A while ago, I pondered that "Nordic cyberpunk dystopia" would probably visually look like "The entire world was designed by IKEA".)

@datarama
Do not utter such horrors …for by describing them, by naming them, we may speak them into being.

@MisuseCase real linoleum is plastic-free https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linoleum @futurebird

@NatureMC @MisuseCase @futurebird
Marmoleum...