Flooring and Interior Panels

So I've started looking at a few options for changing out the interior of my ride. One thing I know for sure is that I've got to get rid of that blue carpet in the galley area. Carpet and my usage patterns just don't mix. In fact, I'm tempted to get rid of the carpet entirely and go with some other material. The problem is that I'm not sure what material I want to go with. Allison (my wife and architect) suggested that I look into rubber. Its easy to clean, eco-friendly, durable, and comes in all sorts of finishes. She was thinking either that or linoleum. Originally, I was thinking I'd go with some sort of pretend hardwood but now that I've had the van for a bit I just don't think that stuff would end up wearing well. I was originally thinking that the rubber option would suck because the only rubber floors I knew about were from gyms and that kind of rubber just didn't feel like what I was looking for.

However, today I was looking at http://www.airstream.com/ (in my opinion the only good looking mobile home off the line) to see what they were doing with some of their interiors. Sure enough, their big trailers all use hardwood BUT their smaller use and abuse kind of trailers were using rubber flooring that looked perfect for the Vanagon. Huh, Allison was right once again. I guess that's what I get for doubting an architect when it comes to building materials. I'm thinking I'll go with a mocha colored rubber flooring with the raised circles. I think it'll look slick. Now I've just got to figure out where to get some. Sounds like a job for Allison.



Next I have to figure out what to cover the walls with. The Vanagon has several plywood panels coated with a weave fabric attached with spray adhesive. The fabric is dirty, brittle, and not especially exciting that is on there now so eventually I'd like to replace it. The trouble is that I'm not sure what I want to replace it with. I found a source for more of the original fabric but the cream is just a little on the boring side. Then again I'm a little nervous about going totally nuts with the fabric. Especially if I get a chocolate brown floor and then keep the cream and brown cabinets I want to avoid making it too dark. But it might also be nice to have something other than brown in there. Ah decisions...