tavolla, yes, I would gut that entire kitchen, so I'd be putting in new white cabinets, lighter countertops and probably an island. I am getting stuck on whether I should continue the dark parquet floors into the kitchen to continue with the flow of the other rooms, or if I should do something different in the kitchen.

Not a fan of parquet - I'd rip it all out and put in new hardwood throughout the space.

Rachel H - I'm not the biggest fan of parquet either, but there are other projects I'd like to tackle in the house first and part of me thinks that they add character.

Almost 90% done working through a similar dilemma. A few questions we asked ourselves:
- If you are indeed planning to replace the parquet, what would be going in next throughout the house?
- Would the new floor make sense in a kitchen, based on your lifestyle?
- Will you open up the kitchen to other rooms with current parquet / projected new flooring?
- When will new whole-house flooring be accomplished (are you sure)?
- Would it be easy to match whole-house flooring to kitchen, if you only tackle kitchen now?
Regarding the latter point, letting your contractor know about your future flooring plans may inform how s/he installs cabinets.

Our answers generally pointed to getting a different, lifestyle-appropriate floor for kitchen now, and the rest of the house will bide its time for hardwoods.

Cork is a wonderful product adjacent to wood floors that you keep - you can match the tone and cork is very forgiving and easy to clean in a kitchen (glasses bounce a bit).

Big fan of cork as well with the wood. Just make sure it has a good finish. Wicanders is a great brand of cork, with quite a few colour choices

Thank you, libradesigneye and Rebecca! I had not thought of cork -- what finish would you suggest? My taste is more contemporary/traditional, which is why I'm a little bit hesitant about the parquet...

automatikj, what floor did you go with in your kitchen?

Do you like this design?

I was thinking something more along these lines...

Magda, I love the dream kitchen you posted. If it were me, I would simply continue the parquet floor into the kitchen. I know others will disagree, but my reasons are these: (1) first, parquet is classic and can be used with traditional design elements, transitional, or modern; (2) it is cost effective, requiring only the demo of the existing tile and prep and laying of the parquet floor; (3) because of the savings, you will have more money for the demands of putting in new cabinetry. High quality millwork is expensive. Putting in new floors throughout the house is also expensive. If you plan to stay in your house for enough years to warrant ripping out all the flooring and replacing it, then that's a personal choice. However, if your replacement choice would be wood flooring, you already have that! :o) Good luck with your decision. It's obvious you have the taste to work this out for yourself, in any case.

Belletriste, we must have similar taste! :)

I would continue with the same flooring. I went through the same process in another house. It just seems to flow better.

Thanks dacandy and mOna1isa! I will definitely be doing granite countertops in the kitchen. I have read a little about parquet floors and it looks like old parquet floors are quite durable but new parquet is not...anyone have any experience in putting in new parquet? Also, would you keep the pattern the same, or do something like herringbone in the kitchen?

I think the only reason to continue parquet is to have it be continuous in pattern too. And, stained just a tad darker, it would be amazing with your style choices. Though I'm a big herringbone fan, if you are opening up the house to each other, then . . . why not. Price it against cork though because cork will wear better in the kitchen.

I love herringbone myself - just a thought since I feel herringbone seems a bit more contemporary than the parquet in the rest of the house but I don't want to disrupt the flow...I will price out both options, never would have considered cork, but I like it.

I haven't actually made my final decision yet. I narrowed it to "does not need to be maple [like the rest of the house some day]" and compiling a list of samples to procudre.

Tile is currently in the lead because we're slobs (!), live in an unpaved rural area, and the kitchen is also our main entry / mudroom. Snow, gravel and dirt get tracked across the room, and coffee/water spills seem to got unattended.

My knees want cork. My eyes want maple. Our lifestyle says we can't have nice things (kidding!). Tile or marmoleum will probably win.

I have been selling flooring for years and the cork from Wicanders is a beautiful and very durable floor. See the attachment for a color suggestion

automatikj - i hear you. we have two kids under the age of 4 so spills happen every 5 minutes at our house! I just want something that is easy but that looks good. We're used to hardwood floors so if we go with parquet, I'm sure it'll be fine. I don't know if I'm 100% on the cork, although the above looks great! I just don't know if putting a light floor in with those darker parquet floors will make it look too choppy.

How about slate or bluestone, or a look-alike - I love a herringbone pattern too:

I love the floors in the second picture, Rachel. Such a cool floor.

I think if you are opening up the walls between the rooms you should run the same floor throughout. Depending on the style there are many options. My 1st choice would be a porcelain tile. If you want a wood look there are some amazing porcelain tile that look like real wood giving you all the benefits of porcelain.

i'm also struggling with the same decision and we just spent a lot of money taking down the walls so it's hard to swallow another big expense but.... i would love one floor through our main floor of our house. people keep suggesting white oak but i haven't fallen in love with anything and am worried that tile in baltimore would feel hard and cold on my feet. thoughts?