OMG your wood floors are lovely, put them in the kitchen, stain them to match and save yourself the headache. I wouldn't put laminate in any home I live in - they give off formaldehyde fumes.

Concerns about formaldehyde wouldn't keep me from buying laminate if the floors are CARB2 complaint and/or floorscore certified (or greenguard), and purchased from a reputable source. Engineered hardwoods off gas formaldehyde fumes, too, as do your kitchen cabinets, subfloors, insulation, caulk, carpeting, and countless other things in your home.

All that said, your hardwood floors are beautiful, and I would continue with those if your budget allows. I agree that gray laminate is trendy, but I view laminate as a temporary flooring (like carpet).....if you love it, it wouldn't be crazy to replace it with something else when the gray trend is over. But yes, the transition in the hallway with your hardwood won't be very appealing......I don't see any way around that.

Yes.....continue the beautiful wood throughout.

Hi gayleyamaguchi: My name is Danni Graham and I am a member of the Customer Outreach Team here at Metroflor. I just wanted to pop in and say thank you for choosing Metroflor Engage Genesis! It looks wonderful in your home.

I also wanted to see if you would be interested in participating in a cool project that we are working on.

Here at Metroflor we like to do special features with a few select customers called “TransFLORmation Stories.” With these features, we share success stories from our customers that have had Metroflor installed in their home/work place.

Here is an example of a TransFLORmation Story we featured a few months ago: http://blog.metroflorusa.com/metroflor-review-kaylor-little-transflormation-project/

Is this something you would be interested in participating in? We would really love to learn more about your Metroflor Engage Genesis installation!

If so, shoot us a message via Houzz by going to our profile and clicking on the green “Contact Me” button on the right hand side.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

~ Danni

Metroflor Customer Outreach Team

You should extend the oak flooring throughout and re stain to match. You could sand down and stain to a color that you're happy with, that way the transition is seamless.

I cannot afford to purchase the same wood for large area. I am putting in new kitchen with white shaker cabinets and black peninsula. I thought about extending the kitchen floor around the peninsula but thought that might look awkward too. Now wondering how bad the light gray would look from kitchen to family room that leads to patio. Thanks for the suggestions.