Keeping one type of flooring throughout the house gives you a better visual flow, makes the space look larger and more put together, and eliminates thresholds. If you can replace the hall and kitchen floors with beech flooring you would have a much more cohesive look.

What is a close match to the beech wood I posted?

What is a close match to the beech wood I posted?

I have 2-1/4" Red Birch at my house, which is similar to Beech wood but more stable. Another close wood is Amendoim. Below is an Amendoim kitchen job we installed. Hope this is helpful.

Brazilian Oak Amendoim · More Info

You’ll want to google it and see what you can find, but someone in your area installed those floors at some point. This is strip beech wood flooring from Junkers Hardwood Flooring (click here). You can enter your address to see where you can source it near you. But there are probably other options as well.

How do you think white oak would look?

White Oak should work in the kitchen, but not harder than Beech wood though. Amendiom is a hard wood species from South American.

Oh. So beech and white oak are comparable in hardness? I need something that will not scratch easily.

Yee, correct. Scratching is related to the toughness of the finish, while the hardness of the wood species pertains to its resistance to denting.

What finish would you recommend to help prevent scratches and water damage?

In my opinion, factory-finished wood floors are quite durable these days. Matte and textured floor surfaces are especially good at hiding scratches.

You already own beech floors - beech is one of the hardest woods for hardwood floors. How are they holding up for you? They look great to me.