Put a console table there

i'm confused. why doesn't the slate go all the way to the wall? or does it? where is this LVP going? where the tan tile is?

the issue is your wood color, not the LVP. your door and bannister are very reddish/orange. Paint those a soft gray, or black or the palest of neutral grays (like the grout) and it will look 10X better.

and a new light too.

See?

and if you can swing it get rid of that faux victorian style door altogether and get one like this

now paint your banister or stain it a darker walnut

more modern gray light and a 3 panel lite door w/a neutral darker wood

or a door like this would work. medium gray color. warm gray walls and white trim.

I love this color combo. a dark charcoal for the doors, white trim, a very soft neutral gray wall

The LVP is the charcoal gray stuff to the left of the slate entryway floor. There was originally a closet there, complete with two sets of bifold doors. Whoever put the slate floor in didn't bother to continue it into the closet, which still had really old carpet in it. There will be a mudroom-type built-in bench and coat hooks installed where the LVP is.

Is there anything I can do besides paint/replace the door? I agree that it looks bad but so far DH won't budge on painting it. If he does agree to paint it, would gray look ok even with cream walls and the slate floor (which is mostly browns, from reddish brown to very dark almost black brown), plus the travertine tile that starts 7 feet away from the door? He was very definite about never wanting a dark door color so black or charcoal isn't an option.

I would need a very short light fixture if that one was replaced. It's an 8' ceiling so there's not much room for the top of the door to clear a light fixture.

The rest of the house is more traditional than modern (not modern at all actually), and the only room with white trim is one bathroom. Everything else has stained trim, though thankfully nothing as orange-y as the door is.

show him the picture first. He has to see how much better it looks. There's a reason it doesn't look good. if he won't admit it's the door color, then I don't know what to tell you.

what about getting a door w/glass? maybe a light gray or even a natural wood tone that matches the brown in the slate. any of these doors would be a great improvement over the current one. look on craigslist for a used door. maybe paint that one.

these aren't that much if he can install it himself. the natural wood color works better.

. If you get a decent light w/bright bulbs, the door won't look so dark. and any flush or semi flush light fixture will work. check Lampsplusopenbox for good deals.

why didn't you just buy black slate tile and feather it in w/the other slate? it would have matched better than the lvp. Honestly, I'd take that up and do matching slate

prob cost you like $40.

those 3 different floorings so close to each other are not working. And then throw in the orange door. seriously, husband needs to compromise here.

The color of the door does bring out the browns in the stone, but that's not necessarily bad. The reason the LVP isn't working with the stone is because it is trying to ignore the color variation; the stone has a number of warmer tones, which I think actually work nicely with the color of the woodwork. The grey planks match one or two stones, but they don't match the overall feel. Furthermore,it feels like two different ideas, as on top of the change in flooring, you've also got a baseboard that ends abruptly. (Continue it up to the built-in bench, or around to the bannister if the bench doesn't have a solid base to provide the natural break.)

I would either try to match the existing stone, remove the stone and make it all the LVP, or if the current flooring needs to stay, build the bench so the LVP becomes part of that piece. The two materials (stone and LVP) aren't going to meld together, so one needs to go, or you need to own that and make the division feel intentional.

I didn't even think about using slate tiles. I just don't know enough about what all the options are. Now that the LVP is in I can't imagine DH will be willing to have it replaced. And once the built-in is in we'll be stuck with it forever. I'll ask the contractor what it would cost to put slate in instead and see if I can convince DH.

@ BlueberryBundtcake--what do you mean by "build the bench so the lvp becomes part of it"?
The trim will go up to the built-in once it's installed.

I see what you mean. The built-in is supposed to look pretty much like the first picture you posted. The only problem is that the bench is...I think 20" deep and the LVP is 27" deep. I don't know if I can change the bench depth at this point. I could probably have him add a base piece. There would still be some of the mismatch flooring showing though. Would it be better to use a charcoal gray stain color for the bench if I can't change out the LVP? Or have the bench painted and put a cushion on it?

If you can change the bench depth, making it deeper to hide all the new flooring could work nicely, and if it makes the bench feel too deep, you could add a cushion or accent pillows across the back to make the seat feel like a natural depth.

Theres a risk when trying to get stained wood and fake wood ... I'd get some samples and set them up across boxes or steps stools so you can look at different options.

Now we're considering replacing the slate floor in the entryway so it can all be the same flooring. Is there a color of LVP or laminate wood flooring that would look good with the travertine? We don't want to extend the travertine into the entryway. Here's a picture of the travertine leading up to the entryway.

Put the new LVP in the rest of the entry and get an indoor-outdoor rug with cool and warm colors to tie together your husband's beloved door stain, the new LVP and the travertine.

If you are pulling out the slate, use the opportunity to make the space more cohesive. Don't add another element.

I also played around with stuff we have to get an idea of how it would look with a deeper bench and with a rug in the entryway and shor baskets under the bench. It might not be very noticeable that way. We've talked about possibly selling this house due to the layout not being a great fit for our family so I want to make sure the entryway ends up looking decent since it's the first thing people will see when they come in the house.

@deegw--we would probably go with a different LVP/laminate entirely. We would not keep that LVP and use a different one also. I only choose that color trying to blend it in with the slate floor in the entryway. There's nothing gray at all in the house except the floor in one bathroom, and lots and lots of darker wood trim etc, so I think the charcoal gray would look more out of place for the whole entryway than a more brownish flooring.

You have way too much going on in a small space. It’s a hodgepodge. Grey LVP, slate, travertine, plus all the wood accents. Why not run the travertine throughout? If you don’t like the travertine, I’d save and replace all the flooring when you can. If not, choose the slate or LVP. Slate is a higher quality material and I’d just extend that if you could get a nice match.

If you are going to replace the grey LVP that you just installed, go get a few samples from the store and bring them home and look at them in your space. If you can't decide, post a pic here and you will get some opinions.

Do you have any hardwoods or wood-look floors visible from the entry? If you want a wood-look LVP you will need to consider how the other wood tones relate to the new entry.

There are no wood-type floors in this house. Just lots of stained trim and paneling/wainscoting.

I did find someone local who carries a match to the slate (or what looks like a match from photos anyway), so that's an option also.

I'm sorry but there is no way to "blend" patching in a completely different floor type (LVP) with another floor type (slate). I'm sorry that the bottom line is that the LVP patch looks bad because it never works to patch in a random section of flooring. No matter how close in color, it's different and weird. Out of curiosity, why did you remove the closet? An entry closet is usually a good thing.

If it were my space, I would remove the slate and LVP and replace that whole section. IF it's possible to find travertine with close enough coloration to the rest of your floors, you might be able to fill in with that same material. If needed, you could do a decorative edging around the entrance to visually delineate if you can't get a perfect travertine match. Otherwise, you might do a tile "rug" where the entrance is intended to look highly decorative with either travertine or a completely different material.

If you don't want to rip out the slate, you might be able to find more slate and try to cover the small section with the material. But there's still a possibility it will look bad.

If you simply do not have the budget to replace the flooring in the whole entrance, you can try to cover up the mismatched floors. Put an area rug that covers most of the tile. Put a cabinet on top of the LVP and try to hide it. But the bottom line is that unless you completely replace or completely cover the LVP, the problem won't go away.

It's the first impression. You would have been better off leaving the closet. Sorry but this just looks completely kluged. If I were looking to buy a house, this entry would make me wonder what other things were not done properly. Lots of advice, but ultimately the floor should be one material in such a small space.

We removed the closet to put in a built-in with a bench, shelves, and coat hooks because I like the look, and because one of the bifold doors that were on the closet interfered with the front door opening and closing when the bifold was open (and my kids always left it open). So we removed the doors, but then the closet area was just ugly. I looked into other types of doors for it but felt that an open coat hanging area would work best for us. We don't have a mudroom or room for coats in the entrance from the garage.

If you are thinking of replacing the slate flooring, replace it with travertine that matches what you have as closely as possible. As mentioned, you could do a decorative edging around the travertine in the entry, that will delineate it as the entry area, since you don't have a cased opening to separate it from the main hallway area.

As for the built-in you are wanting to do, again you are wanting to do something that has absolutely no relation to anything else in that area. Your built-in needs to be made out of stained oak that matches the stair railing, and the other oak in the living room/entry area (also around the stained glass panel in the living room). This way, everything will look like a cohesive, planned design rather than a hodgepodge of ideas that have no relation to each other.

You mentioned you're thinking of selling, so I would get a bench wide and long enough to cover that LVP and put baskets beneath. I would use a lighter color for the area rug, maybe something like seagrass or an imitation of a natural fiber rug. Don't invest in changing the entryway flooring if you're going to sell. Let the buyers decide what they want to do there.

I have absolutely no interest in having a stained oak built-in. There is more than enough stained wood in this house already. The bench top will be stained oak and that's good enough.

Well, that's a shame, since the oak is one of the first things you see in your entry area and far more attractive than the other stained wood (which can be easily painted).

Look, I sympathize with wanting a certain "look" because you like it ... but cohesive home design and working with what you're dealt is also very important. Between your and your husband's sticking points, I don't know if you'll ever be happy with the look of this house.

I wish you the best of luck.