Forget men – I fantasize about flooring. My dream floor? Cork, of course. Cork flooring used to be hard to find and outrageously expensive. But now, it is not only more widely available but also competitive with tile or hardwood in pricing. Cork choices go beyond that bulletin-board tan; check out the stunning installation photo gallery from Duro Design, and you’ll see why I’m floored by the beauty of cork. Cork is durable (lasting 30 to 50 years), easy on the feet, and sound-absorbing. Best of all, it’s Earth-friendly, since cork is bark shaved from the cork oak tree, which re-grows the bark after harvesting. Frank Lloyd Wright was onto this in the 1920s; he used cork flooring in many of his houses. Cork comes in tiles or planks and can be either glueless or glue-down. For a basic no-glue cork tile, see APC Cork’s Apollo Blend at Fast Floors (sale priced at $1.99 per tile). Da Vinci’s collection of glue-down tiles at Black River Flooring shows cork’s versatility in color, pattern, and price ($1.99 to $3.60 per square foot); check out the striated Evora tile. You’ll be floating over the price of the glue-down Lisbon Cork planks from Lumber Liquidators ($1.19). For convenience, Black River offers an amazing array of glueless floating-floor options that don’t even look like cork, such as DaVinci’s zebra-striped Tigris ($5.05; pictured above), the confetti-like Arguim ($5.65), and the marbled Lunar ($5.95) or APC’s geographical Cronus Night ($5.19; pictured right) and Odysseus Rose ($5.19). The most unusual take on cork is the Jelinek mosaic made from recycled wine corks; it can be stained in whatever color matches your décor and can even be used in showers and saunas ($20 at CorkStore.com). Cork comes unfinished (which may require waxing) or sealed with various finishes; for a primer on cork, visit Globus Cork Floors. That does it; let’s rip out the carpet!