Our Hallmark Wood Floors: My Three Year Later Review!

Sharing an honest review of the Hallmark wood floors we installed in our kitchen

Ever since we remodeled our kitchen in our previous home (check out my kitchen remodel “before” and “after” if you missed it), I can’t tell you how many questions I’ve gotten about the new Hallmark wood flooring that we installed as part of our remodel. I’ve absolutely loved the look of it since day one but didn’t feel like I could give an opinion about much else having to do with our floors until I had lived with them for a while and put them to the test.

After having them for three years, I’m ready to do just that and share my three-year-later review including details on staining, scratching, cost, and whether I’d choose them again. (post includes commissionable links; for more information, see my full disclosure statement {here})

What Brand and Style Are Your Kitchen Floors?

Our floors are from Hallmark Floors’ Alta Vista Collection – it’s their Malibu Oak Hardwood. They are engineered hardwoods which means that they’re constructed of layers of hardwood and plywood (as compared to traditional hardwood floors that are solid hardwood throughout). The boards are ⅝″ thick, 7.5″ wide, and vary in length.

The finish is beautiful – they are French White Oak with saw-cut grain patterns and wire brushed by hand. There’s quite a bit of variation from board to board in color, graining, knots, and natural imperfections:

Why Did You Choose Hallmark’s Malibu Oak?

When choosing flooring for our kitchen renovation, my first decision was whether to go with traditional hardwoods or engineered hardwoods. I chose engineered hardwoods because (1) installation is so much simpler – you don’t have to go through the whole sanding and polyurethaning process that involves staying off the floors for long periods of time while they dry and (2) there are lots of gorgeous finish options available that are extremely difficult to replicate with traditional hardwoods. Interestingly our installer said that five years ago he was installing almost all traditional hardwoods but now 95% of his installs are engineered flooring so the use of engineered hardwoods has increased dramatically.

Once I decided on engineered hardwoods, I landed on Hallmark’s Malibu Oak because I liked the look of it better than any other flooring I looked at (I checked out a LOT of samples from several different brands). The wide planks, variation from plank to plank, and gorgeous saw-cut grain patterns are right up my alley.

I also did a lot of research on the Hallmark brand and these specific floors. I had two design friends who had both used this same flooring and had very positive things to say and the specs on it indicated a quality product, including the fact that the top hardwood layer is quite thick (much thicker than many other engineered floors) which means they can be refinished like traditional hardwoods in the future if needed.

The only things in my “con” column when debating about getting these floors were that they’re not cheap and that my installer told me that oil finished floors (which is what these are) tend to stain easier than traditional hardwoods (more on that later).  Overall, I’m super happy with my choice. They are truly stunning – everyone who comes to our house comments on them:

Do Your Hallmark Floors Scratch?

I’m been really impressed with how well my Hallmark floors have held up in terms of scratching. Our kitchen is a busy place, not only because it’s a room that we use a lot but also because you have to cross through it to get to our laundry room (which also has these same floors) and our garage so there’s a lot of foot traffic. And of course there’s Hope who used to run around with her toys, skidding to a stop on the floor when chasing her ball. If I get down on my hands and knees and really examine my floors, I can see some faint surface scratches but that’s about it.

With that said, while we spend a ton of time on these floors, we’re fairly easy on them. We don’t wear shoes in the house, I keep felt pads on the bottom of the chair legs, we don’t have little kids, and I sweep in here pretty frequently. It’s not because I’m babying our floors, it’s just how we live. So I can’t give you the perspective of a family that is super hard on their floors and is putting them to the major test with 100 pound dogs, little kids constantly dropping heavy toys on the floor, high heeled shoes being worn, etc.

Do Your Hallmark Floors Stain?

I’ve never had any issues with staining for spills that were cleaned up right after they happened and we’ve had plenty (including Jeff dropping an entire open thermos of coffee on them). But I have had some areas of discoloration due to water left standing on the floor for a prolonged period. Hard water (which is what we have) and oil can both leave surface stains when left sitting on an oil finished floor (which is what Malibu Oak floors are).

Twice I’ve had pooling of water on my kitchen hardwoods that was there for hours before I noticed it and both times, once I wiped up the water there was some gray discoloration in the area where the water stood. I used the Nu Oil Cleaner and after several days that gray discoloration faded but the area where the water once was turned lighter in color than the surrounding hardwood. If I had taken a photo two weeks after it happened, you would have been able to see those spots but over time both spots have become less and less noticeable and now you have to look REALLY hard to see them (the arrow is pointing at the bottom edge of the “stain” where you can see the wood’s a bit lighter):

I’ve also read some reviews of people complaining of oil stains from cooking oil splatter on these floors and other oil finished floors but I can’t really comment on this. When I cook with oil I use my back burners so really haven’t had any splattering on the floor that I’m aware of. Hallmark does sell a Restoration Oil that they recommend for removing stubborn mineral stains and oil stains but I haven’t felt the need to try it since my issues have been minor. Overall, staining hasn’t been a big issue for me but I do feel like my Malibu floors are more likely to stain than my traditional hardwoods.

Why Are Your Floors So Much Lighter/Darker than Other Photos I See of Hallmark Malibu Flooring?

This confused me too when I was looking online at floor options! Some photos make Malibu Oak look quite dark and others make it look fairly light. One factor that’s always at play is that different light levels in a room can make a huge difference in the appearance of flooring. If you look at this photo, the flooring on the left is receiving a lot of light, the flooring in the middle by the island is shadowed, and the flooring to the right is receiving moderate light – the different light levels make the floor look quite different in color from one side of the room to the other:

There are also a few other factors at play. One is that not only is there a lot of variation within each box of Malibu Oak flooring, but there’s also variation from batch to batch. They are fumed floors, which means that a fuming process is used to enhance the natural colors and highlight the contrast of the wood planks without the use of stain. Fuming produces a lot of variation because every region, grove, and tree produces slightly different results based on how the tannins in the wood react to the natural oxidizing agent used in this process.

Also, the floors lighten over time so your neighbor’s five year old Malibu Oak floors are probably going to look lighter than Malibu Oak flooring that you’re currently installing.

How Do You Clean Your Hallmark Floors?

According to Hallmark’s maintenance guide, their approved maintenance products for cleaning their Malibu floors include WOCA Natural Soap Spray, WOCA Natural Soap Concentrate, and Bona Pro Series Natural Oil Floor Cleaner. Other cleaners will invalidate the finish warranty so using one of these is a must.

For deep cleaning I use {this spray mop} with refillable bottles that I fill with my oil floor cleaner. It’s similar to a Swiffer Wet Jet but you can use your own cleaner and the microfiber mop pads can be washed and reused.

Between deeper cleanings, I use my Dyson cordless vac or dry mop the floor with {a microfiber floor mop} and push any floor debris over to the vacuum built into the toe kick of our kitchen island:

How Much Do Hallmark Malibu Floors Cost?

Hallmark doesn’t sell their flooring directly so costs are going to vary to some degree from dealer to dealer. Also, dealers will often give you a better price the more that you buy so your price per square foot will be lower if you’re buying 50 boxes of it versus 20. I called three local dealers right before posting this to ask about pricing so I could give you a good estimate (this was in 2018).

Back in 2018 (prices are definitely higher now), for a 200 square foot room, you were looking at approximately $1600-$1800 for the amount you’d need to cover the floor plus an additional box (you always want to get at least one extra box in case you need a future repair or underestimate your needs). For installation, prices ranged from about $2 – $3.50 per square foot (this doesn’t include demo of the old flooring) so you’d be looking at maybe $400-$700 for that. And you might need a matching reducer/transition strip or two and have a delivery fee.  So putting that all together, for a 200 square foot room, a gross estimate at the time was $2000 – $2700. Definitely call your own local dealers and installers to get the most accurate pricing for your area. You can find Hallmark’s dealer list {here}.

I also wanted to make a note about installation. Not all installers are equal with their experience and the materials they use for installation. It’s especially important to have a good installer with flooring like Malibu Oak that has a lot of variation from plank to plank because they will pay attention to the mix of boards in each box and pull from multiple boxes of flooring during installation to ensure that there’s a consistent color mix of boards.

Also, if your floors are being glued down (installation differs depending on the situation) some of the best adhesives are pretty expensive. Some installers who charge less might use less adhesive (mine did “full coverage trowel glued”) or a cheaper adhesive to keep installation costs down. So in addition to asking about experience, ask potential installers for details of how they would install your floors and what materials they would use.

Do You Recommend Hallmark’s Malibu Floors?

Let me start by saying that I LOVE mine, am so happy that I chose them, and would make the same decision if I had to do it all over again. For most people and situations, yes I would absolutely recommend them. But these are a few situations where I would say to consider other options too.

For one, with the issues I’ve had with floor discoloration due to standing water, they may not be the best choice for spaces that are going to be exposed to a lot of water (for example, a mudroom in a New England home where kids come in and out and leave their snowy boots and clothes on the floor). Also, there’s probably a better choice for a laundry room IF that’s the only room you’re doing since there’s such a high chance of water exposure.

One thing I would really encourage you to do once you’ve narrowed down your choices of engineered hardwoods is to get samples of each of your final contenders and put them to your own test! Expose them to whatever your most common spills or stains are in the space you’ll be using them in and see what you think. You might even want to order the recommended cleaners to see how they work for you with the spills. Flooring is expensive and a major decision so taking some time and spending a little money on cleaners to test your samples is well worth it to make sure you’re making the best choice for you.

I hope that answered all of your questions but if not, ask away in the comments! I’m off to enjoy the rest of the weekend and hope you all do too! For those of you who are new here and missed my kitchen remodel makeover, you can check out that post {here} for more pictures of our kitchen and detailed sources for everything in the space from our cabinets to our appliances, cabinet hardware, lighting, and more:

XO,