I'm really torn on new flooring decisions we have to make. We have a vacation rental home on the beach. It has floor to ceiling wood on the walls - I believe it is juniper which is common here. We are replacing all of the old carpet in the house. We want to put some type of hard floor down, especially in the main "great room" pictured here with the fire place.

The other "gotcha" is that our house is pet friendly so the flooring has to be durable to both scratches, and moisture.

If I go with some type of wood-look plank, my first dilemma is what color given the color of the walls? Should I go light or dark, or something closer to the tone of the walls? I tried various options in visualizers on line and really hard to tell - nothing has sold me one way or the other. I feel like a darker color will give it the more cottagey feel that goes with the rest of the house.

Second is the type of flooring. Considering pets I figure it has to be laminate or Luxury Vinyl Tile. I really want it to look like wood though and not cheap. I've seen some great laminate especially the hand scraped stuff and from my own experience with Pergo, I know some of this stuff is bullet proof. My installer is recommended LVT but I'm worried about repeat patterns and having it look cheap. Ideally I'd put real or engineered wood but it won't last with dogs.

I have considered tile which isn't out of the question but given there is tile in the kitchen and wanting to keep a more cozy feel, I think I'm leaning away from tile.

Any suggestions, advice, photos, would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Scott