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monkeymo_gw

8 different floor types - How to solve (lots of photos)

monkeymo
13 years ago

We are getting ready to do a kitchen plus more remodel and will be replacing flooring in breakfast room, kitchen, and den (which is becoming library and laundry room). Not sure what what to do based on the floors we have now that we are not planning on replacing.

Does anyone have any ideas on what to put in the breakfast room, kitchen, and library? Laundry room will be tile.

Here is what we are dealing with...(oh, and please do not pay attention to the messy house!)

Walking into our home we have an oak coffered ceiling -
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In the foyer is creme marble
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To the left it butts up to living room with creme colored carpet (no pic) and then also a hallway to the bedrooms which is tigerwood. We just put in the tigerwood a few years ago and love them.

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Straight forward is the family room which has wide Peg and Plank medium oak floors. These are original and we had them refinished 7 years ago. DH loves these and does not want to remove.

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To the right is the dining room with narrow strip medium oak floors
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Through the family room is the breakfast area that has carpet right now (ugly green vinyl underneath).
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Then there is the kitchen which currently has ugly white tile. It butts up to the dining room as well and the staircase with oak banister and oak ceiling above it.
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And the soon to be library which currently has red oak floors but we are going to replace.
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The library will lead to laundry room (which we will put in tile) and to the garden room which has tile now.
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Our new kitchen cabinets are Kraftmaid cherry with medium to dark finish called autumn blush. Our library bookcases and cabinets are cherry with almost black stain called peppercorn.

I would love to bring the tigerwood throughout the rest of the house, but as I said husband does not want to take up peg and plank flooring, plus we do have a lot of oak molding including the banisters on the steps.

Any ideas on how to tie this all together? Is it possible to do wood in kitchen and breakfast area with all the other wood or is it best to stick to tile? We are planning on changing flooring in breakfast room, kitchen, and library.

Comments (10)

  • newdawn1895
    13 years ago

    I don't blame your husband I love those P&P wood oak floors too, beautiful.

  • Sujafr
    13 years ago

    You home looks like it must have quite a history with that amazing ceiling! While I think the tigerwood floors are very pretty, it seems like they don't quite blend with the hues of the other wood flooring and trim--but perhaps that's just my monitor.

    We had to re-finish and add on to the wood flooring in our current home, and were able to do it so no one can even tell where the addition began--even though we changed the stain color of it all. You have to play around with stains on the type of wood you have to create the final color you want. Unfortunately right now the original wood is looking rather bland next to the tigerwood reddish hue. So if you're keeping the tigerwood, I think the rest of the wood needs to be darkened a lot to blend together.

    If you don't want to re-stain all the other wood, I'd definitely stick with either a wood or tile (I'd choose wood) that would match the original woods you have.

    For laundry room tile, I'd try to find one in the same family as the existing garden room tile unless you're planning to replace it. At least for me, that would seem more cohesive.

    Sometimes we re-do areas of a home that we'll never get the value back out of. Personally unless this is your forever home (and most people can't say that with certainty), for potential resale, I'd just refinish the existing hardwood in a stain I liked and not rip up the oak.

  • monkeymo
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Newdawn - yes I like the peg and plank too but am not sure how it fits with everything now. But we will keep it I am sure.

    sujafr - yes, the tigrewood does not really go.... we loved it so we used it in the bedroom side of the home. Now looking back we should have probably done something a bit more cohesive...but I do get a big smile on my face when I walk back into the bedrooms. When you walk in the front you can hardly see it. We were thinking of using it in the library, but now I am thinking we should use a medium oak like the rest of the oak and do tile in the breakfast room and kitchen.

    There is a thread on the kitchen forum here where there is a slate kitchen floor that is beautiful but think it might be too dark...and in the family room where the peg and plank oak flooring is we have a stone fireplace. The other thought was perhaps the scabo travertine pictured in the same link.

    I like the idea of perhaps staining all the oak a bit darker, but not sure how that would go with the oak coffered ceiling, molding, and banisters.

  • pricklypearcactus
    13 years ago

    Can you do a matching creme marble in your kitchen and breakfast area? Your foyer is so lovely and seems to go well with both the tigerwood and the original plank and peg wood.

  • monkeymo
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    We thought of that but were worried it might be too slippery. Anyone reading this have marble on their kitchen floor?

  • dash3108
    13 years ago

    I have to agree with a previous poster who talked about "if this is your 'forever' house." If it is, then hey, do whatever you want. But as a realtor, I'm looking at it from a resale point-of-view. You are setting yourself up for disaster if you introduce yet another type of flooring. Unless your home is enormous (like 5,000+ square feet), 8 different types of flooring is really quite a lot. Whatever you do, I would select something that matches one of the floors you already have down. Having that many types of flooring in a house really makes it look smaller because it "chops" it up. In terms of wood floors in a kitchen -- I would use an engineered floor (I'm thinking the Tigerwood you used is engineered) as opposed to solid wood.

  • monkeymo
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Yes, I agree I need to decrease the number of floor types. I think this will be our home until we are older or we win the lottery. The main floor is 3800 sq. ft.

    If we use the marble from the foyer in the kitchen and the tile from the garden room in the laundry room and do something like the medium oak in the dining room in the library then that would give us 6 types of flooring.

    I also found a place that can duplicate our peg and plank oak flooring, but we are thinking it doesn't really go with the look of our kitchen with the cherry/autumn blush cabinets.

  • live_wire_oak
    13 years ago

    The oddball player in this is the tigerwood. If you used an oak that matched your newly refinished oak and just refinished the oak floors that you are considering changing, and put a tile in a color close to the oak in the laundry room and garden room, it would seem a lot more cohesive. I'd rip up the tigerwood and the foyer marble and do the oak in as many rooms as I could. Yes, oak floors look just fine with Autumn Blush or Peppercorn. It's the tigerwood and the marble that are the major players in the disjointed look.

  • htnspz
    13 years ago

    Yes, marble is not good for the flooring in a kitchen because it is slippery. I suggest putting tile in and maybe you could stay in the same color family as the foyer flooring. Down the road, maybe consider changing some of the flooring (not the peg wood) because it might not flow through the house so well and feel disjointed.

  • susanelewis
    13 years ago

    OMG that tigerwood took my breath away! I'm not a fan of oak but it does appear that the tigerwood is a large departure from your other flooring. It sounds like your new cabinets go better with the tigerwood than the oak. So you really do have a quandry.

    I guess it would be helpful to know (or perhaps I missed it) what your decorating style is. If you have a very casual country look, the oak is the deal. But if you are starting to renovate with a more contemporary (not modern) feel then the new cabinets and tigerwood go better.

    Personally, I agree with previous posts that all the floors need to be the same TONE...not necessarily the same wood. Oak is very hard to stain as it is a hard wood, but I'm sure it can be roughed up enough to darken. I would definitely stain your oak floors to match the tigerwood. The busy grain of oak is not so noticeable with a darker stain.

    If you love your tigerwood, then keep it...OMG it would be a travesty to rip that floor up. I'm sure it cost you a bundle. No marble in the kitchen due to water issues and OMG marble scratches so badly. Keep with the same tile that you already have in the garden room and just use it again in the kitchen. The eye will appreciate the smooth transition between rooms.

    Your house needs continuity with similar wood tones and similar tile. Sorry, I think the wide plank floor is distracting and most likely cannot blend with the other floors once they are brought to the same color tone. Those would be the floors I would rip out (sorry hubby!)

    Again, though it's the look you are shooting for and how you want to decorate.

    P.S. if you rip out those tigerwood floors, I'll bring a UHaul to get them!!!

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