Have you looked at cork? We love our cork, and there are a number of posters here that have used it including several in recent projects. Not cold, and nice to standpoint on while cooking. Same basic care as wood.

If you like the wood laminate, why not put it in the kitchen? If the rooms are adjacent to one another it would probably look best to have the same flooring in both.

Cork is nice, linoleum (real stuff--like Marmoleum and not vinyl, although vinyl gets a bad rap) comes in warm colors and feels really cozy under foot, and of course, more wood laminate if you can find it!

I'm thinking I wouldn't be able to exactly match the laminate and you would see a line,I would like to have a continuous floor, but I also haven't tried. I'm thinking same thing with cork but again I'm not sure would have to look.

What exactly is Marmeleum?

Marmoleum is linoleum--the real stuff, not vinyl. I have it in my master bath and like it a lot. I would definitely consider it for a kitchen.

I will second taking a look at cork. It would not match your laminate, but nothing but the same laminate would. Cork would be a different pattern and can be any color. I assume you are going for a completely different look rather than a close but not quite match. Cork would work for that. I have used cork in two kitchens immediately adjacent to hard wood and was very pleased with the look.

Marmoleum is a brand of linoleum. The word "linoleum" has come to be used for any sheet flooring (including vinyl), but real linoleum is made from natural materials including linseed oil.

Depending on resale value in your neighborhood (or on how much you care about that), you could also use sheet vinyl. The good quality ones are flexible and relatively cushy. The sheet vinyl we put in our basement came from a flooring store; it's different than what you find in the big box stores. It hasn't got the cachet of hardwood or other natural materials, even though they now call it "resilient flooring" instead of "sheet vinyl," but it can be a reasonable choice (no seams, easy to clean, not break-the-bank expensive). I looked for real linoleum but couldn't easily find a distributor/installer locally so this was much easier.

I love my cork. Every morning while I stand there making coffee and school lunches I think about how I love the way it feels. So warm and soft.

And yes, it comes in SO many colors/choices - from whites to dark browns/blacks. Mine happens to be plank, but there are large format tiles, small tiles, ones where you see the grain others where it isn't very obvious.

Nyrgirl35, if the laminate has been working for you, then I would use that in your kitchen. I am a huge fan of continuous flooring on a single level because it creates a feeling of flow. I would guess that it would not be that hard to match the laminate that you have. If you can't find out the exact brand and model, then you could bring home samples until you get something that is super close.

If you can't find out the exact brand and model, then you could bring home samples until you get something that is super close

When we redid the kitchen and FR in our last house, we put in bamboo, and then had the old oak floors in the rest of the downstairs redone to match the color. Worked great.

I agree with the others re: laminate, but since you're looking for ideas, here's a great one - vinyl plank flooring, or what manufacturers call luxury plank vinyl flooring. It looks great irl. I'm thinking of using it in the basement if I ever get the kitchen done...

I also have Luxury vinyl plank on my main floor (have laminate on my 2nd). Was convinced to go with it because I wanted something warm and soft like hardwood, but more durable (dog, kids, kitchen spills, 3 entrances to a deck with hottub, dirty boots, etc).

So far I'm really loving the LVT. Even with all the water and dirt and gravel that gets tracked in (country farm home) it always mops back to its original shine! It does occassionally get really fine scratches on the surface layer, which are strange since they come from the vacuume but not from traipsing across it in gravel-covered boots or the dogs nails...)

All that said, since it's directly atop the plywood subfloor, it feels soft under the feet, stays warm and has a beautiful "wood" grain that looks more believable than my laminate (folks have mistaken it for hardwood, since it has a texture hand-scraped look).

I love it!

Thanks for all the advice.

This is the laminate wood in DR and that's about the size of opening into kitchen (it's 10') the wall on the left is coming down along with the curve at top, so the kitchen will continue down.

Do you think the best option would be to try and match it and have one continuos floor?

If you can match it, it will be great, but you're right in that it's gotta be the exact same product--a near miss will be too obvious unless you've got an island or peninsula filling in a lot of the connection.

I would really try to match that existing laminate. Have you tried lifting it to look for the manufacturer name?

Have you considered moving the light switch to the right on the Adar wall and widening the opening to the kitchen? Now would be the time to do it.

We have cork and hard wood in our house. I feel the cork is more durable. I recommend staying away from the Chinese cork. We bough We Cork. We picked wide rectangular planks. Its buts up to our hardwood and looks great. Ours is a floating floor that did not require glue. Love it!!

Here is a link that might be useful: Link to the floor

Your home looks really lovely.

Am I seeing three different types of flooring in that photo? I would really recommend getting some quotes to get new flooring to replace all three. Sometimes it doesn't cost much more to do adjacent areas because the installer's costs are largely ordering/getting there/setting up. Find out what the cost really would be for cork or laminate. I think it could make all the difference to creating a cohesive look and unifying the spaces.

I wasn't planning to deal with flooring in my initial reno, but I ended up spending 25% of the budget on getting the kitchen flooring to match the living/dining/hall. I am so glad I did. In the end, the floors are at least as important as the cabinets and counters, and I'd rather go budget on the latter two as well.

The photo right side up: