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Flooring samples

Hickory wood is highly variegated. If you choose hickory flooring, it will completely dominate every other surface in the house. I suggest a far less busy wood such as red or white oak.

Hickory Wood Flooring · More Info

Modern, Bright Living Room - Piedmont Solid, Natural Red Oak Hardwood · More Info

I would simply match what's currently in the kitchen for the rest of the house. If you want the floor to be a bit darker, sand down the floor in the kitchen then stain the whole kit and kaboodle a darker color. White oak takes stain very well, so you can have your floor guys do several stain samples from which to choose.

Changing your floor to all wood (or laminate) will be the most impactful and positive thing to do for your interior. It will give you uniformity, order, and dimension, you’ll love it.
I agree with apple pie’s concern. The colors are great, the variations of your sample might be a bit too busy and it might become all about the floor, however it might be ok, and beautiful, if when in a large space ends up not being too busy. I would check out what that sample looks like in a large space, then you’ll know.
I can see why you would’ve selected a floor like this, because it is a great way of bringing in all kinds of different words together.
The photo below shows your type of flooring and in this case it’s quite nice.

I like option #2. It matches the cabinets AND the stair trim the best. Of course that means you will be living with this tone on tone wood match for 20+ years. If you are Ok with that, then go for it.

I like option #2. It matches the cabinets AND the stair trim the best. Of course that means you will be living with this tone on tone wood match for 20+ years. If you are Ok with that, then go for it. le #1. When you have a highly variated floor it can look rustic. Your home doesn't support this look (it would take a lot of work...ahem money...to get your home to take on 'rustic' with any certainty).

Your current kitchen floors look to be in good shape. You can save a few hundred dollars by adding in MORE of the wood (raw wood) and then having all of it finished/refinished at the same time. It is the easiest way (and cheapest way) to get a hardwood floor throughout the entire house. A site finished hardwood is the Gold Standard in the wood flooring world.

Now for a bit of caution: How old is this house? When was it built?

The reason I ask is the age of the slab will tell us whether or not the slab has a vapour barrier underneath. If it DOES NOT, then you will be 'capping' the entire slab. This can and WILL cause moisture issues in just a few months (possibly show up next year).

Carpet 'breaths' and that's why it was used by builders in certain eras. The breathability of carpet complimented the slabs water content. The water evaporates through the carpet - the carpet becomes the 'pressure valve' that would allow the moisture in the slab to move through it and into the air. That would leave the areas of the slab covering in RIGID (ie. non-breathable) flooring safe and dry.

If you a slab that is not sealed from below, you will have to look at sealing BEFORE you add rigid flooring (ie. non-breathable finish) over the ENTIRE slab.

Please tell us WHEN this house was built. We will tell you the likelihood that it has a moisture barrier underneath the slab.

I do think that a less variegated wood would work better now that I have seen pictures of the wood on a larger scale. It would be too distracting.

I do like the idea of keeping the kitchen floors and sanding them so I could do a different stain and match the rest of the house. A light natural stain that is not too orange would be what I could see working.

The way they installed the wood in the kitchen the boards should be going the other way if the rest of the house was to be done. It would look odd to have the boards horizontal to the front door.

SJ McCarthy the house was built in 1974. The floors were all put in in the last 15 years by the previous owners.

Yaaaaaah....That's what I was afraid of. If you 'cap' the ENTIRE floor with rigid flooring you run a VERY HIGH risk of ruining ALL OF IT. I suggest you choose some spots to leave the carpet. I know you don't want to hear that...but old slabs are ALWAYS wet. Just ASSUME it to be a "Universal Building Truth" and keep that in mind.

Do be able to cover 100% of this slab with wood and/or tile you must follow the steps bellow:

Remove ALL floor coverings (and preferably the kitchen as well); Shot blast the concrete; add 2 coats of roll-on/spray on moisture barrier (allow each to cure = 1 day each); Coat with primer (allow to cure = 1 day); pour new concrete over top to make a new concrete surface. Allow to cure (couple of days).

Once the above has been done, you can go ahead and put down any floor you want. The concrete is now PROPERLY sealed against moisture. But did you notice the instruction: Remove ALL flooring (kitchen should also get ripped out).

The reason: to PROPERLY SEAL a concrete slab you MUST SEAL ALL OF IT! You cannot leave the kitchen are unsealed and then seal everything else. The water will find the ONE spot that is not sealed and ALL THAT WATER PRESSURE will push THROUGH the wood to the point where it feels like you are walking on wet grass.

Sigh. I know. Not fun. But it is the honest truth. We've seen it dozens of times on Houzz. There are HUNDREDS of people who have tried to cover a 1974 slab with rigid flooring and it failed miserably. Tens of THOUSANDS of dollars wasted on EACH HOUSE that has this issue.

SJ McCarthy there is a basement under the first floor, so no concrete on the first level

Let me know if I’m missing something. I really know nothing about flooring but the mention of concrete has me confused

Agree with having the same flooring throughout the home - including bedroom level - and matching treads & banister for a cohesive look. I also see a lovely large 4-legged fur-baby. We have 2 Goldens and when we were installing hardwood in our home 4yrs ago the daily wear & tear from the boys was top of mind. Our flooring supplier took this into consideration when recommending the type of hardwood, stain & finish. The showroom also had all the flooring types & finishes so we could see how they faired under lots of daily foot traffic. 4yrs later (and the addition of 3yr old twins) our floors still look new. Hardwood can be a pricey investment but well worth it IMO.

Andrea - we actually have 2 greyhounds so we were looking at the different finishes and guessing what would work best. We have a designer from a hardwood flooring place coming in this week to give us a little help!

OK...so the flooring is on wood-joist. That's much easier. Go ahead and lace in new wood (that is the same species as the kitchen and keep going. Make SURE the hardwood company sends a piece of your hardwood floor away for testing. Even though professionals can guess this is red oak, it is always best to be sure. Red Oak and white oak can look alike when a stain is present. It is super important they get a species match. The species must match. The width must match. The cut (rift, quarter, etc) must match and the GRADE must match. Whew.

We went with Mercier in red oak, smokey brown in a satin finish. We had the honey colored oak stair treads & banisters stained to match. Make sure to really emphasize the large dog factor 😉 If you can get into their showroom to see how their flooring samples hold up that was really helpful for us in the decisionmaking. Good luck!

Thank you everyone for your input. I just have one other question. The boards in the kitchen are laid parallel to the front door. Would it look strange to keep all the boards going the same way throughout? I attached a picture of the kitchen where you can see the front door. It seems like the boards should be perpendicular to the front door.

My understanding is they determine "direction" based on the longest run however since it's already in the kitchen it makes sense to me to continue in the same direction in the adjoining rooms. The flooring supplier can provide input when they come to measure. On a side note, were you thinking of putting it in your entry - it looks like it is a separate space unless there's an opening into your dining room? If you live anywhere that gets lots of rain and/or snow and that is your primary point of entry I would encourage you to rethink - we had hardwood at the front door and were always in a panic to mop up even though we had a large area rug. When we reno'd we put travertine.

@L C I couldn't tell you if it's "proper" or not, but our hardwoods run the same way as yours throughout the first floor, including by the doorway. And I've never given the direction a second thought.

Andrea, thank you for your input. My husband mentioned they look like they should be running the other way, I really didn’t pay much attention to the board direction, but if it should run that way across the longest length then what we currently have does that. The front entry does open into the dining room and tile is definitely an option since we get a lot of snow here in the winters.

Chiefly, yes the board direction will likely be a non issue. Thanks!

@Andrea Morrell USDA Z5 / CAD 7B How have you liked the Mercier? We are looking at redoing most of our floors with Hickory in Roma (medium brown). We are leaning toward Matte vs. Satin. We also have a full house of kids that will put the floors to the test.

LOVE IT! We'll be moving to a "new to us" house in the fall and will be putting it there as well. We have Mercier red oak, smokey brown, satin finish - I can't comment on the hickory.

The fact that there's a dog in one of the pictures dictates several things IMO.

Assuming you allow the dog to roam free on the hardwood then you want the hardest wood species (janka scale). If you keep the dog's claws/nails trimmer it will help but not be 100% IME. You allow a dog with untrimmed claws/nails on a new floow for even 12 hours and you'll have scratches.

Keep in mind the manufacturers warranties and pets, specifically dogs.