We chose high-traffic Dresden Sand peel-n-stick tiles from Trafficmaster, and they are wonderful. We put them in a year or two ago. My husband and a friend (who has experience with this type of thing) did ours in one day in our kitchen (including ripping up all the old floor & sub). Hubby first removed the horrid old sheet flooring, metal strip, and decrepid subfloor (that had tarpaper all over it and was full of nails along the metal strip---horrible!). They laid all brand-new plywood subfloor and no additional glue was needed for the tiles (that was not in the instructions anyway). We cannot express enough how much we love our floor. The tiles are so good-looking and tight and smooth that it all looks like one sheet. The color and texture is wonderful.

I have a friend who did this floor in her house. I am a flooring person and had to bend down and look and touch to tell it was not real. Great stuff. I like #1 best. Contrasts the best with the cabinets and seems to blend best with the doors and trim. It might make the space seem lighter. As lots of wood can darken areas somewhat. #3 is second choice as I like it better with every thing BUT your cabinets. It's ok with cabs as it has some dark areas and is a 'louder' sample. But seems more contemporary. I actually like it the best of the samples by itself. Just not with your cabs as well. Do not like any of the others. Not enough contrast with the other woodwork especially cabinets. #5 looks the most dated and unreal. Others seem too dark. I would keep the doors wood stained as they are but paint the trim. It looks like it needs sprucing up and with all other finishes changed will look more like it needs it. I'm doing stained doors and painted trim in our new house but realize others may not care for the look. I do like the vinyl planks though.

The dark charcoal vinyl in the inspiration photo is shown using white on white on white. Everything is white, with MASSIVE amounts of natural lighting and a very well lit studio (photo studio lighting is roughly 10 times as bright as home lighting). Oh, yah...and NO window coverings. Looks stunning but unless you have ALL the same features (white on white on white with 3 windows per every 100sf of floor space + studio grade lighting) the dark charcoal will look black most of the time. In your current photo of your home, the amount of natural light is limited with plenty of nooks and crannies without windows. The depth of the floor you already have is about as dark as I would want to go in your home. If you have a fantastic open floor plan condo with 12ft ceilings and floor to ceiling windows on 3 of 4 walls, then I would say you could have the darkest floor imaginable - because it wouldn't matter. The amount of light coming in would eradicate the "darkness" of the floor. If you go super dark, I suggest getting all white or very light (silver wood toned) furniture. It would REALLY help set the super modern tone. And lots of white area rugs. And a bit more lighting. Oh...and you will want to get SS or white appliances because the black appliances will simply disappear with an almost black floor. Whew. Lots to think about when making a dramatic colour change isn't there?

Worst decision: Hiring our builder. If you're looking for a GC or builder, check references but also check how long they've been in business. The longer (more than 10 years) the better. Also check how long their subs have been working with them. Turns out our builder goes through subs like water through a sieve, whereas the GC who gutted my condo back in 2010 still works with his same subs. Unfortunately we were spoiled after him. (And he was very easy on the eyes too. LOL) Making sure the floor is perfectly level before putting down wood or any flooring. Because ours was off by over 1" in 17' we wound up having to wait well over 5 months to get more flooring in to redo our living room. No one thought to take a level to the floor before starting to put down our engineered wood flooring. Best decisions: My kitchen cabinets and all my cabinets made by the Mennonites. My gorgeous quartzite and how the colors in my house were picked based on the quartzite colors. Drawers for lower cabinets. Not doors. Saving the expensive tile for accents. My stained glass windows. Our absolute BEST decision was to make sure our drawings and plans were completed exactly as we wanted the rooms to be BEFORE we started our build. Almost nothing was left to chance or change orders. And picking all your selections with plenty of lead time.