No to wood look floors and wood floors. Why not put wood in and have the existing hardwood refinished to match?

That's really expensive. Also, the old hardwood is small 2 inch planks. Hard to find today

You didn't list a budget. Pretty sure you can get 2" wide hardwood installed. If you don't want wood, then get a slate or stone look flooring.

Yes, what your neighbor did is terrible, whether you like gray or not. You may not be able to buy 2" wood flooring prefinished, but you want it unfinished so it can be finished on site to match the existing. I had a flooring company match my existing pretty sucessfully in my previous house. If the old wood floor is still in good shape you can try to match it first before having all of it (re)finished. If the existing is red oak that is much less expensive than white oak. Before you decide you can't do it you should at least get a quote for the work.

If that doesn't pan out for you, look at the slate imitations either in vinyl or tile. Slate has been used for flooring for centuries, so it doesn't have as short a shelf-life as other types of gray flooring IMO. Even if you don't like gray it does go with wood floors and a lot of other things. I am not a fan of gray in general, but I put slate look porcelain tile in my MB last year and I am very happy with it. It doesn't show dirt! :-)

@kandrewspa Thanks for the suggestions! Do you think slate look flooring could be pulled off if I'm gonig for a lighter vibe? I was thinking greenish wall color and white cabinets in the kitchen. It just seems kind of dark and regal rather than warm.

@P Banos I am doing everything myeslf so the less cost the better. Matching the hardwood floor is an iffy proposition for me mostly because the tools to refinish floors are so expensive and I would need to do some experimentation which would take longer than a rental.

If wod floor is the only thing then so be it, but it would be nice to consider other options first. Thanks for the ideas.

Look at luxury vinyl tiles. Softer on the joints than a hard tile.

Forget matching unless you spring for real hardwood.

Instead, go for a contrasting but complementary floor. (Though I agree - certainly not gray.)

Some type of tile, wider than your 2” hardwood. Have you considered bamboo or cork?

I had a similar issue, old gross chipped tile in the back of the house, and older strip prefinished wood in need of a refinish. I decided to pull everything up and put in lvp. Having one flooring makes my non open floorplan home look less choppy. Read wood for everything was cost prohibitive for me. And my old engineered floors couldn’t be refinished anyway.

I’ve seen some LVP and LVT that looks like stone - that’s probably a better option than trying to find a complementary wood-look tile.

I think you could do a nice slate look vinyl tile in those space you mention since the LR and DR are wood often those other spaces would be tiled .

@Patricia Colwell Consulting Thanks for the ideas. I looked at some LVT but they were all grey and black. Are there any LVT that would go well in a brighter style kitchen/entryway?