Can you refinish the existing wood floor?

One traditional method of dealing with two colors of hardwood flooring is to use one color wood as an inlay or border (at the doorways) with the other color. I suggest keeping the wood you have and looking at a different color for the four rooms that need new flooring. A hardwood flooring installer can make the inlay.

Cut in Border with feature strips · More Info

Your next step can be to get samples to see in your space and light.

Monarch Plank.

Vellichor.

Hurst Hardwoods. unfinished.

Hakwood.

No to herringbone

I would have a hard time replacing a perfectly good hardwood floor (that seems very wasteful of resources to me).

How do the carpeted rooms relate to the existing hardwood? Are they separate rooms with doors? If so, I see no problem with putting a different color hardwood in those rooms (you already have a completely different floor type, and presumably color, in those rooms).

Four rooms, and what rooms, and where if anywhere do they abut this kitchen flooring which is also where else and how much?: )

Another approach could be to go for a mixed style: keep the dark cabinets, use slightly lighter wood floors, and add some area rugs where you want extra warmth and coziness. It can help balance out the contrast and make the space feel more inviting without clashing with the kitchen’s existing look. I also recommend reading this.

I like the lighter option shown! It shows contrast with your cabinets, which I think is a plus!

Still not sure you want to go lighter? You could explore wood-look-tile! My daughter has it through her first floor and is its been indesctructible--previous owner had it for years with four LARGE dogs ;)

RE: Staining the same. My existing floor is actually several two inch pieces laminated together to make an 8" wide plank. There are light and dark pieces but stained overall dark. I could use acacia or walnut. Something to think about. Thanks

All four rooms butt up against the existing wood floor. 3 are bedrooms and one is a den. Leaning towards simply replacing carpet in 2 bedrooms and the den and doing a different wood in my room. That's where the dogs sleep and hang out when not in the rest of the house.

Given your description, and as long as the dogs sleep only in your bedroom? Board width is going to be irrelevant.

Dogs sleeping on carpet, hanging around on carpet, leave body oils behind that will grab any dust in the air, and quickly become GRIME ground in. Any carpet installer can tell in a blink where the dog hangs out: ) I might include the den.

Even Hickory ( select ) 5"

Your cabinets are beautiful and substantial, dark cabinetry can look really high-end with a lighter wood floor. The contrast can feel ‘wrong’ at first as you’re used to dark-on-dark.

I love these floors. used them in my own home

this is the Mediterranean collection. they have tons of shades, colors all French Oak

https://californiaclassicsfloors.com/hardwood-flooring/landing.aspx?action=mediterranean

Engineered wood flooring isn't even close to the quality of real wood planks. I'd steer clear of it; it's an inferior product that won't hold up or last like solid wood.

You could use new 1x6, 1x8, or 1x10 pine boards, then stain to darken.

First - if you have any interest in "quality", DO NOT go with engineered wood - it is so fake looking and is plastic over fiberboard/OSB based and dissolves when wet.

Use real wood, or real plastic - plastic fake wood is ugly and stupid. The kitchen can be different from rooms nearby. Do what kind of wood YOU like, not what others say. If it is a mobile home/trailer, then fake wood is OK, else use real wood of some sort.

Carpet is a stupid thing to have in ANY house. It is like living on an upside down dust mop! So unhealthy. Get rid of the carpet and use real wood in the entire house, or even VCT with high gloss finish.

terrib962- fake plastic as you’re describing sounds more like you’re talking about LVP, not engineered wood.

Have you had a vetted local flooring contractor out to assess your situation. It may not be hard at all to get a product that you can stain on site to match the color of your existing floors. Plank width(s) and transitions per the pro’s advice based on your existing conditions.

Bamboo can give you a nice dark rich color with natural wood hardness and finish.

So I see that your current floors have a lot of variation and wavy texture to them, so you should definitely talk with a professional to see if you refinished them if they would have the look you want with a lighter stain. I am thinking that sanding will smooth out the texture, but am not a pro.

As for the people who say engineered wood is fake plastic that falls apart, they don't know what they are talking about. We just built a house, and did a lot of research on hardwood and engineered wood. There are different qualities of engineered wood, with different thicknesses which will (or won't) allow for refinishing in the future. So spend the money to get the quality and the thickest surface. Engineered hardwood has multi layer construction that holds up better to humidity changes, and is recommended for basement and on slab rather than traditional hardwood.

We were going to do hardwood on our upper level and engineered on our lower level, but ended up doing engineered on both. We live in an area that has huge humidity changes from summer to winter. The engineered wood we chose would have one less refinishing option vs the hardwood that we were considering. We will probably never need to refinish since no dogs/kids. We bought them from a hardwood manufacturer that is about 3 hours from us. This is a family run business, and we went to see the products, and asked a ton of questions before making the decision. Just do your homework. Remember that spending more on quality now, saves money and headaches in the future. Also if you get the engineered, it still will need time to acclimate in your house before install, just like hardwood. Good luck.

Personally I prefer the light floors with your more ‘medium’ than dark cabinets.
Not the

Much prefer going with lighter floors, with dark cabinets. Your cabinets are medium dark, btw.

Here’s mine: