We are perpetually renovating our 1914 craftsman-bungalow home and are looking for your opinions on what flooring to use in our upstairs attic bedroom and den, and on the stairs leading to it.

When we bought our house the main floor (living room, dining room, entrance, kitchen) had been covered with brand new Kempas (a hardwood similar to Jatoba - see the pictures). The two bedrooms on the main floor were in the original fir (see pictures). We weren't thrilled about the Kempas (not in keeping with the era of the house) but it would be silly to rip out this very expensive ($10/sq ft), very beautiful flooring just to try to refinish the fir underneath. So we have left the floors as-is.

We'd like to gut and refinish the attic space - which contains an open bedroom, den, and soon a bathroom. But what to put on the floors? There is cheap berber carpet up there now - and it smells of our dog and dogs that lived there previously very badly. Wall-to-wall carpet is really not a good choice for our dirty, doggie family members.

We need to finish the stairs and attic rooms in something much, much more budget friendly than the kempas - under $5/sq ft or cheaper, hopefully. As you can see the stairs lead into the living room and are easily viewable from many angles - so they need to be nice too.

My question is regarding hardwood - how many different woods in a house are too many? If we put a dark hardwood upstairs, finished the stairs in kempas (with a runner) and left the main floor bedrooms in the original fir - would this be silly?

Any other recommendations would be very helpful! We are open to all options, really.

Thanks!

How are your stairs constructed and from what wood?

Wood usually looks good with other wood, unless it is colored to look unnatural. What wood you choose and what color you go for is your decorating decision. Good luck.

Do whatever you want in the upper floor.