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Help -which direction should I run wood floors in open kitchen/FR

15 years ago

Any advice would be appreciated! We are doing a kitchen family room addition. There are no floor joists underneath (it's on a slab) so that's not relevant for purposes of our decision. Existing wood floors in the foyer, hallway, LR and DR. Open doorways to the new space will be a five foot opening at the foyer/hallway space, and the wood planks in the foyer/hallway runs left to right as you are facing the kitchen. Same thing with the dining room - wood floors there are oriented parallel to the new addition.

A large island is running perpendicular to the direction of the current floors. Family room with fireplace focal point runs in a direction parallel to current floors. I'm going to try to stain all floors the same color, however there will have to be thresholds due to the floor heights and our builder feels that we ought to go perpendicular to the orientation of current floors, to "define the space" and alert people to the threshold rather than continue in the same direction.

That would look fine in the kitchen (I like the look of a floor parallel to a long island) but in the family room part the boards would be parallel to the fireplace, which is a focal point of the room.

Are the thresholds a real issue in this situation? Does the island or fireplace issue enter into the decision?

Which way would you run the floors under these circumstances? THANKS.

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Comments (6)

organic_nick
15 years ago
What is the height difference ?
eastcoastmom
Original Author
15 years ago
I think it's about 3/4". In any event, small enough to be covered by a threshold strip. The issue with matching up the floors exactly is an existing stone floor that would have cost a fortune to remove.
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I have a hearth room off of our kitchen, we use it for our kitchen table, and it's off at a weird angle to the rest of the house. Our area is more open than your hallways situation, and from one perspective the floors look laid straight and the walls look angled, and from another perspective the walls look straight and the floors look diagonal. I recall that the diagonal floors initially made me take a second look... felt off initially as we didn't lay these floors, they were like that when we bought the house... but I grew accustomed to it rather quickly and I even appreciate the diagonal direction now. It's unique. I think the fact that it's a large enough space to pull it off helps, a skinny hallway might feel a little overwhelming with a diagonal direction. So for that reason, I'm more drawn to your second option. I'll include two photos of my space from different directions. But I also think just changing the direction at the hallway could be a very viable option as well.
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eastcoastmom
Original Author
15 years ago
I forgot to add that the new space will have to have engineered wood floors(since they are on a slab) but the existing floors are solid (Mirage prefinished) if that makes a difference. It's also possible that the new floors will differ in not having the same microbevel as existing floors. I don't know if I should avoid a microbevel in the kitchen or match the other floors.

Thanks.
organic_nick
15 years ago
I assume the Mirage is installed over a wood sub floor .
You can float 3/4 " plywood in the addition and nail the same wood to it. both floors would be at the same level . I can explain how to do that if you decide to go that rout .
eastcoastmom
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks organic nick - the addition is the room with the preexisting stone floors is already higher, so I think adding plywood would take me in the opposite direction. Or am I off base?

Any thoughts on which direction to run the floors?
luvnlife_09
15 years ago
I posted a lengthy descption of what we have going on in our home over in the kitchen forum....Short story? Our floors run perpendicular to each other....to define the space if you will.
Check your other thread for details. We have friends in the hardwood floor business for generations, and trust their judgement. :)

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