The first pic is my main flooring, and this second pic is very similar to the vinyl flooring I chose.

Kitchen flooring (it's not in yet so I can still change it)

I recommend against mixing the two. Even mixing wood and tile in an open concept tends to break the lines of the floor in a bad way. Mixing woods is likely to make your house look unplanned and piecemeal.

I have the same issue with tile after a back tumor. We had wanted real wood floors but our former house was not really worth the expense. So we ran laminate wood through the kitchen and living room and down the hallway because there wasn't a good way to break it up. The installers were questioning putting it in the kitchen and told us (in jest I'm sure) if we ever had a leak to open the floodgates and make sure the whole kitchen flooded so insurance would replace it all. In other words, the didn't think it was a good idea. But it held up well for about 4 years and is still going if the new homeowners haven't had any issues. It was the best thing for our house and my inability to stand on tile.

All that to say- don't mix products, just do the wood throughout or a laminate throughout. It will look much bigger to have all one flooring anyway (or it did in our house when we finally didn't have 40 years worth of choppy floor replacements by several owners. Then when we painted the whole floor of the house the same color and updated the hardware on all the doors it looked so much bigger and more cohesive.

Btw this is the room. First room is dinette and further room is kitchen. I already bought all the real wood flooring and cannot return it so I'm hoping to come up with a solution where I can only buy extra flooring for the kitchen. :-0 (the dinette flows into the hallway as well. So it's a lot of flooring space that we would lose $ on if we do decide to do all vinyl, also the opposite side is open to the family room which isn't as wide of a opening but will have real wood flooring as well)

We have a hardwood kitchen floor. It's fine. I recommend you spend the extra $$ and use hardwood. It can be refinished later. Laminate can't.

Besides unless you leave spills for hours you can actually live with hardwood there. I was anxious but I've lived here now for a while and don't find it an issue. I usually clean the kitchen floor in my family.

I cook huge meals and do all day cooking marathons and I'm so messy(!!!) I totally need vinyl flooring or tile, something that can stand up to abuse. Is there any way, exception to the rule where woods can be mixed or is it an overall no no?

I suggest that you not put fake wood in the kitchen, rather instead choose a closely related color in the vinyl or whatever you need for your feet and back, The idea is to make the space look as continuous as possible.

Use the same wood throughout. If it's prefinished, it is likely to be pretty durable.

Left is vinyl and right is our hard wood flooring. I'm thinking since the hard wood will be going horizontal , to put the kitchen flooring vertical. I hear what everyone is saying about keeping the spaces flowing , but in this case of two separate floors does it make sense to try to differentiate between the two? Will it look mismatched? I can't get anymore of the hardwood, it was a close out and they had just enough for our first floor. The second floor is a similar tone but different wood.

I don't see anyway where doing a "wood look" vinyl is going to look good against your real wood floors. What style is the space going to be? What color will the kitchen cabinets be? The problem (in my mind) with vinyl flooring is that most of it tries to look like something it isn't...it mimics wood, or it mimics tile, and just comes off as fake and cheap. Would you consider a marmoleum floor? It would function as you want it to, and has an honesty and uniqueness that could make it a real feature.

My top cabinets are white, bottom are dark stain (peppercorn) oak. These floors will get tons of abuse including water sitting and everything dropped on them (I have little kids and my oldest is starting to help a lot in the kitchen, I need something that I won't "worry" about) marmoleum ... What's that???

And I would say my space will be more traditional with s touch of eclectic...?

When you say "real wood" is it engineered pre-finished wood or wood that will need to be stained after it's installed?

If it's engineered wood then you're right to have reservations about the kitchen....but if it's the real thing then you'll be fine to use in the kitchen. I've had mine for almost 20 years. You'll need several good coats of polyurethane but you won't have to tip-toe around or worry about it. Water won't hurt it and neither will spills.

I totally agree with you about tile floors.

I had the same situation. I put vinyl in my kitchen - to me it's the perfect flooring for kitchens and baths. I have wood flooring in the connected family and dining rooms. It looks great and I get many complements. I think the trick is not to try to fake a match. Wood looking vinyl would be not be a good choice. It would look mismatched and you would see that everyday. I choose a vinyl flooring that does not have a pattern. if anything, it looks a bit like grey stained cement. It goes with the look of my house. I love it. And, people can't believe it's vinyl.

I don't have any more of the wood flooring as we bought out all that there was and not enough for the kitchen , it is real wood but just not enough. I'd yesmean I'd love to see a pic of your floor:) I really wanted a wood look floor bc I wanted to soften the dark cabinets I chose. But maybe a marmoleum pattern as someone had suggested marmoleum.

It sounds like you are committed to vinyl in the kitchen--you want the softness and durability and besides you can't buy more of the wood. So do vinyl, but not in a wood grain finish. That will look terrible. Look at a solid colored sheet vinyl that blends with the color of your lower cabinets.

What about something like this? Marmoleum floor that kinda has the wood tones but is not wood. Wood that go with a white and dark kitchen? Or will that color clash?

I really am disliking the plain vinyl tiles. The wood look plank I got actually looks awesome, I don't think anyone would tell. My idea is maybe to put a pattern tile like this one around the perimeter to it separates the two "woods". Do you think that will be forgiving enough?

I love Marmoleum. The colors and options are beautiful. Would make a real statement. I would have preferred to go that route - but price was a factor. My friend who did it, has not regrets. check out some of the photos on Houzz to see what might work.

I would rather see you do that patterned tile in the entirety of the kitchen. Doing it just as a border with the fake wood in the center is just going to be too much going on.

Best option is to continue the real wood into the kitchen. The finishes are so good now that you shouldn't have any issue with maintenance. The second option would be an entirely different choice, like marmoleum, but not in a wood look - it has to be something different. Otherwise you will end up with something choppy that looks like you tried to match and failed.

I just checked out the Marmoleum online as Yesmean suggested. They have a few options with a bit of brown that could complement your wood floors. My other thought since you seem to REALLY want a wood look in kitchen is to lay out the boards in the kitchen in a totally different pattern. A herringbone or on the diagonal. I would also look for a color that was a bit different so that it doesn't look like you were trying to match and missed.

So here is one other idea because the marmoleum is way more expensive than the vinyl flooring. What if I did real wood but a different yet similar wood as I can longer get more of the first wood.

I might be able to get this wood for the kitchen which is the same price as the vinyl. My husband won't go for the marmoleum pricing.

Can you take a picture of the 2 samples side by side? Also, have you exhausted all your sources for more of the wood floor you already have?

Armstrong (and probably other vinyl flooring makers) has some lines that I think would give you the same feel as the marmoleum with a lower price point. http://www.armstrong.com/flooring/products/vinyl-sheet/overall-patterns/_/N-67sZ6wc?showFilter=true#skipHero

That said, if you're committed to wood, could you border the kitchen in a narrow band of the wood you are doing elsewhere, and then inlay within that border a contrasting wood, perhaps laid in a herringbone or other pattern, as they did in this photo?

Wow I love that! I probably could do are enough wood for a border and use vinyl on an angle. Will it have the same effect with an island in the middle? Also how will they know where to make the border before the cabinets are in? I guess they would just need the cabinet dimensions? My other thought was this vinyl tile perhaps? Which woods did you want to see side by side? The two real woods?

Btw this is more or less the idea of my kitchen. Although my counters are wine river granite and I'm hoping to warm up the look maybe with gold hardware.

Look at sheet vinyl flooring. I put it in my last kitchen. It held up great the 7 years we lived there and the last time I was there the new owners were still happy with it.

And no I cannot get anymore of the wood. We bought every last piece. It was from a building materials outlet. Nothing left :(

Dev18. I was looking for a pic of your wood flooring next to the piece of wood you posted about an hour ago. Wanted to see if they complement one another.

dev18: in regards to the picture I posted above, I would do the border of the kitchen with the same wood you are doing in the rest of the house...they would know where to do the border once you had your cabinet dimensions set. And just do the center in a real wood in a contrasting finish, not vinyl. (For a number of reasons...top of the list being that vinyl will not be as thick as wood and you will end up with either an installation nightmare to flush them out with each other or a "dip" all around the edges)

Just saw these pictures. Your leftover wood with tile!

So here are my two real wood floors. The left is the upstairs flooring which I can probably get more of, the left is the first floor which I cannot. The second photo is vinyl tile that had great reviews online for use in high traffic areas and was said to look like real wood. What if I use this light wood parquet next to my exiting wood floor? It seems different enough to mix without looking mismatched. Does that make sense?:-0

Llkrdh I love it but it still will be hard on my back :(

What about a cork floor in the same colour as your wood. Cork is one of the most forgiving flooring for your back. I'm not a professional, but I agree to not mix wood floors (Old owners of a previous house did that and it drove me crazy for the 4 years that I lived there). It looked bad and totally chopped up the space.

Water resistant?

I've never had cork floors but this is water the Internet had to say:
"While cork floors are not waterproof, they are water resistant -- perfect for a bathroom. A polyurethane topcoat will protect the floors from minor spills. It's best to use a mat or area rug near the sink and bathtub, however, to protect the floors from potentially damaging amounts of water. Regular sweeping and dry mopping can help protect the finish, which typically needs to be reapplied every 5 to 10 years."

I'm gonna look into it. Sounds interesting and would be nice to have that extra soft floor to stand on