I'd call in a reputable hardwood floor installer/refinisher to determine the wood species (oak, cherry, pine, etc.). Then lay a new floor in the same species and width/length. Have him refinish both floors in the same stain. Unless the wood is antique it should look very good.

Old wood floors are hard to match, but not impossible. We just redid our kitchen flooring and I wanted it to flow freely with the hardwood already installed in the living room, which is lovely. I went to home improvement stores and picked up the small 3 x 3 inch squares they have pre-cut as samples for flooring and brought home the ones that looked the closest to my living room floor. Once I had the best option I used that to shop the home improvement stores and Lumber Liquidators to find the hardwood that would match the best. Kind of like matching paint colors, but you have pieces of wood instead.

To me the key (if you are trying hard to match closely) is getting the same width planks. My living room planks are 2 1/4 inches wide, and the kitchen floor we installed is similar. What we couldn't fix was that the hardwood in the living room was original to the house (built in the 1960's), and the kitchen floor had no original hardwood. The new floor had to be placed on top of the subfloor. There is a height difference of about 1/2 inch where they meet and we had the flooring installers use a matching transition/curved piece between the two rooms. The difference between the rooms is minimal, but it's obvious one was done later.

The other option is to get the best match, and later if you want, sand them both down and use the same stain.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for your help. I'll keep you posted! :)

what I would do is make it a bit evident that it's a renovation, it will be way too difficult to match so instead embrace the situation.
I would put a different stain wood plank like a threshold (where the partition was) and put a new floor in the kitchen, it could be wood or not but with the same colour or stain, get my drift?
I did this in my kitchen and we had like mowtownmom a difference in height so the wood plank "hides" the difference, no funny extra things and everything is somewhat flat....
hope it helps :)

The woods will be difficult to match- old wood floors will take the stain very differently. We recently did a job with this problem. We matched the wood- the difficult part for us was the width and thickness of the existing floors, they were an odd size compared to the new wood. Then we took the new wood and did a bit of distressing on it to give it an old look. We did not stain them, instead used a water based poly in a satin finish and they came out gorgeous- cannot tell the difference between them. We were dealing with maple flooring on our reno.

Hi Diboyer,

You can trick the eye when trying to 'match' existing flooring by changing the direction/orientation. In other words, where your existing hardwood runs across the room, the new flooring that replaces your vinyl would run perpendicular to the existing.

Sometimes you can separate the old floor from new floor by creating a flush threshold type change (a narrow strip of flooring that runs perpendicular between the existing hardwood and the new hardwood). Using hardwood for your specific scenario wouldn't work well because your existing flooring runs across the room change instead of through it, but I mention this option for others faced with a similar conundrum. You could possibly create a flush threshold using a stone material, probably granite to match some new granite kitchen counters. Each home is different, as are local stone fabricators, so this may or may not be an option for you. I've seen it done and it can work well and helps to compliment the space, while also allowing the spaces to be differentiated but remaining connected.

Alternatively, I've had clients with floor height differences as well as the floor changes themselves. In these scenarios, a sloped transition/threshold that sits on top of the flooring between the rooms. These transitions can be made from a matching or complimenting hardwood, but I've also had clients make them from granite to match the countertops in their new kitchens.This can also work on floors that are even, but I view it as a less attractive option since it creates an unnecessary bump/hump between the two floors.

If you do decide to 'match' the existing and have the new flooring laid right against it, it's important to try to weave the new floor into the old to help soften the transition. Again not as easy in your specific scenario as it would be if the hardwood was running in the other direction, but still important.

I hope this info helps you (and others) in some small way and wish you good luck in your remodeling endeavors.
Sincerely,
Thomas Richard
TRS Designs, Inc.

This homeowner faced the same dilemma:

https://www.houzz.com/magazine/kitchen-of-the-week-grandmas-kitchen-gets-a-modern-twist-stsetivw-vs~9760585

A colored stain may not fit your style but I think it's a beautiful and brilliant solution. Good luck!

Maybe you can remove a small piece of your old wood flooring and take it to a wood mill or have a professional installer look at it. You can have the same width and thickness custom milled at smaller wood mills. They are still around. A trusted installer, comfortable with unfinished flooring, can install your new wood planks (yours looks like strip flooring) and at the same time sand down your old flooring and seal it all. You might see a bit of a difference but not much. You might also be surprised how inexpensive it can be to have a wood floor custom milled.

We lived in all houses and had wood floors refinished and they turned out to be show stoppers. We are now building a new house and put an unfinished wood floor in, which needs to be sanded and sealed on site. Yes, it is messy and yes, it smells, but the finished product is so much worth it.

I don't think you will find a match at a home depot or similar or at a flooring store.

We did the same thing in our small ranch. We love it! Instead of matching the living room floor surface we installed a beautiful porcelain tile that compliments it. Variety is the spice of life! I love the porcelain for ease of cleaning and the solid feel. Some say it is too hard but if you tend to stand in one place for a long time you can always use a gel mat. Ours imitates river stones and has texture like the real thing.

Matching should not be that hard. Just get the same size and type of wood. Stain will take a little trial and error but is very easy to get a color that blends. Since the individual pieces of any floor vary, the look will flow. We had hardwoods put in the kitchen that butted up to 30 year old floors and the look is seamless.

It is easier to use a transition piece instead of matching the old wood. Just simply make the whole transition spot even and use a transition piece that can be blended to the both sides.