I drew a brief sketch so everyone can get an idea of how the rooms are laid out. The thing in the center is a wall and you can walk all the way around it. The lines coming out of both sides of the center wall show where the flooring changes. The 3 top rooms flow together in terms of flooring, the living room is entirely laminate.

If I do planks, I heard that in the entry, they should go long way (going forward), to invite people to move forward. Is this true?

Thank you for your response, Patrick! It is definitely a little lighter and I want it a different color, it's just hard to find a color that doesn't clash (too brown, too red, etc). My husband hates the white washed look and calls it "hen house" color, so unfortunately, it's not an option. Some of the pieces of this particular color are whitish though.

Here's a piece laying on the laminate.

Here's the company's photo for the color (I know the actual color is never like the professional photo, this makes it look brown when it's definitely more gray):

I think you will notice the color difference once and never see it again, they are very similar. If you're okay with it just do it! because no one else is going to notice the small difference :)

Personally I would skip the wood look vinyl and start looking at the "tile" or "stone" look vinyl products. That way you can have your cake (the colour) and eat it too (install it and make it look good)!

Go ahead and look at vinyl products that mimic STONE or TILE in the colours you want. That way you have a GREAT match (gray stone + gray wood = awesome match) without having to worry about "faux wood products clash".

You have a great eye for getting grays to work (not everyone can do that) so go ahead and take your natural talent shopping for a vinyl that looks like stone or tiles. I bet you will get a beautiful floor that way.

Why not just use the same laminate throughout?

My opinion on flooring is ... large connected spaces should have the same one. So my first suggestion would be to continue what you've already started and just continue it throughout. If for some reason that is not an option, then I would get two different floorings that compliment each other but are clearly not the same (example = tile and some type of wood product). Make the difference distinct so it doesn't look like you were trying to match and failed.

Thank you for all of the replies! The main reason we're not using laminate throughout is I don't want it to get water damage in the kitchen. I constantly spill things and don't want to risk it warping. We also keep our cat water bowls in the dining room and they've spilled the water before. We live in a place with lots of snow and rain, so it would get damaged in the entry easily. I want something that's more waterproof, like tile or vinyl. I'm going to go look at floors today.