hi kate. do you have any photos of the space? could a large area rug get you by until you are ready to take on the hardwood floor project?

It's a good idea, but knowing my time and financial constraints I think it's less likely to happen if a project spans different rooms. That said, another option would be to just paint all the trim in white, and then if it has to happen in phases it won't bug me so much. ;) (There just really isn't a single room that doesn't share a wall directly or visually, and even the kitchen cabinets and counters have the medium oak trim. It's a HUGE undertaking to change that all out.) I could do something like this, though, one room at a time. http://emilyaclark.blogspot.com/2011/08/from-brown-to-bright-story-of-painted.html

Thank you everyone for your thoughtful advice and suggestions - it is greatly appreciated and has resparked some hope in the task before us. We agree the wall panelling doesn't look right, and especially when the floor will no longer match. We have no idea why the previous owner/builder/designer decided to put the flooring on the wall as well.(perhaps they thought the room would look bigger (?), it did cross our mind whether there was something they were trying to hide around the perimeter of the room. We don't have the courage to try to rip off the panelling as we are not handy at all and would need to hire someone to do it. We are not sure if there is gyprock behind the floor panelling. There is wall panelling around the perimeter of the room and it is a much larger space than can be seen in the photo. Here are the closest matching sample flooring I was able to find....this was before I read gnujt36's post regarding tying the floor colour to the door and window trim. What do you think of these? 1. The larger sample (square sample) seems to be more yellow toned compared to existing floor/wall which has some rose/cherry tones).. 2. The small sample is a more honey coloured and appears will make the room darker? Again, any thoughts will be very gratefully received!

Ok - so you've got strip oak flooring - very common in older houses. I would vote "no" on the laminate - for all the reasons stated by Michelle Scott. It will look cheap (and sound cheap - I hate the clacky slightly hollow sound of the stuff...) and won't last the way other options will. If you don't want tile or stone, which can be hard on your feet, have you considered either linoleum or a high quality vinyl? There is some pretty amazing stuff out there these days. Friends of mine installed "luxury" vinyl in their kitchen in their condo recently and it's hard to tell by just looking at it that it's not stone. I'd do that over laminate...way more durable and if you get tired of it it's not such a huge investment that you can't change it. Do you have kids? Pets? All considerations. My choices would be 1. Porcelain tile (maybe a "stone" look - there are some amazing ones out there) 2. Natural stone (more upkeep than porcelain and more expensive usually) 3. Luxury vinyl 4. Linoleum - more upkeep than vinyl but good choice if you want either a vintage look or to have fun with colour on the floor 5. Laminate.