I've seen it done. My dh loves it but I couldn't handle it. I'm really anal about things being linear.

No. Personally, I would hate this. Running the wood floor diagonally doesn't seem like a good idea, and more a throwback to the late '70's. The first question everyone will ask when you sell your house is, ''Why did they do that?'' The trick is not to make it seem obvious there is a problem, but turn it into a feature.

Our floor joists ran two different directions (old house floor and new addition), and I think we solved the problem very nicely by running a darker band of walnut between the two floors, and using an inset border of walnut around the island and in the garage entry. Look for an example on the pictures in My Page. It seemed a bit of a trick since I had four different types of wood in my kitchen (cherry, pine, walnut and oak) but most people don't even notice. The contrasts are all very nice and an understated feature of the kitchen.

Someone on here has hardwoods on the diagonal. I really like the look. We strongly considered it for our kitchen as it has odd angles, but decided it would be just a bit too tricky for a DIY project. I may just have it done in our dining room or great room, though.

I have hardwoods on the diagonal in both my master suite and I'm adding it in the family room. We ran it to point to the view (lake) and everyone who sees it raves about it. I'll completely argue against that "throwback to the 70's" issue. Done well, with quality wood, it's a design detail that adds interest. If I were redoing the kitchen level, we'd have done it down there as well. It's gorgeous.

I'll take a few pics tomorrow when I'm on th job site of the master suite floor. It's partially covered in dust and sheeting, but I think I can get enough for you to see how lovely it is.

Our master has some odd angles...and it was tricky even for experienced contractors...so as pb mentions...it might not be a diy type job if your room isn't perfectly square or rectangular (we have bay windows etc).

My hardwood runs throughout the ground floor of my house, with no thresholds between rooms. The main entrance to the kitchen is at a 45 degree angle to the hardwood, and the main appliance run wall is on a 45 degree angle to the hardwood. It's a nice look, and since the hardwood runs in the same direction throughout the ground floor, the house feels very open and connected. The new hardwood would run in the same direction as the old hardwood, right? I think it would be a good look, though I guess you would still have a threshold at the kitchen door to connect the old flooring to the new. It sounds like structurally, you may not have a choice. As I said, I think it will look nice, particularly since it sounds like you will have a large space.

igloochic, you obviously made the point (for me).

We ran it to point to the view (lake) and everyone who sees it raves about it.

Because you ran the diagonal wood floor to bring your focus to the lake, it made perfect sense to use this as a feature in your home. In that particular application, it makes perfect sense.

From what mrpandy described (a diagonal floor in the kitchen starting at a door from the hallway) I maintain (still) that I would personally hate it. Now if there is a reason (a particular focal point besides a doorway) that would cause this to make sense in any way, I could perhaps be persuaded...but from the minimal amount of information we have here, it doesn't actually make sense to me from a design standpoint. I realize this is JMO of course. These things are very subjective, but mrpandy did ask!

Thanks for all of the advice. My worry is that the kitchen is very linear - shaker-style cabinets (Showplace Pendleton II) with all right angles in the kitchen except the doorway from the hall and nothing that is architecturally significant. The floors are golden oak, and they have to stay that way thanks to multiple railings adjacent to the floor. The old cabinets were golden oak and the new ones are cherry with a pretty dark stain - merlot or some other red wine. It was a bold step for us to mix woods like that!

I'm afraid that diagonal floors will be very distracting. MrsPandy loved having hardwood in her kitchen and has never been a fan of tile, but I think she may be reconsidering that view since she's not happy with this latest development.

You can still keep those hardwoods, and have them look very nice by running the boards the opposite direction instead of on a diagonal. I know a wood floor is much easier on my knees/back/feet than tile. You can see the wood floors running opposite in this picture, with the darker band of wood in-between toward the back of the floors:

Mixing a band of dark cherry between your oak wood floors would make the transition for you, if you wanted to keep the wood floors. (Since your cabinets are cherry, it makes sense to keep the hardwoods relating to each other.) I was a little concerned about doing this in my kitchen in the beginning, but think it worked out and looks intentional from a design standpoint. There's a lot of wood in my kitchen, so that was a big consideration for me. Knowing the chairs and some of my dining room pieces were walnut, helped me make the transition between the kitchen (cherry) and the dining room (walnut).

You know, contractors/builders often have good ideas, but they're not designers. Tying it all together takes a certain amount of finesse, which is often times hard to achieve. I hope this helps mrpandy; it's just an option to consider amongst all the opinions, while you figure it out. Good luck with your remodel!

Claire, I'm going to try the band of cherry between the sections idea with MrsPandy. Having it match the cabinets really would make it look like we know what we are doing - nobody would have to know the truth!

By the way, your kitchen looks great with all of that wood. After seeing that, I really want to try to keep as much as we can in ours.

Thank You! It helps when you can find someone who has had to deal with the same issues that you're having. I hope this is something both of you can solve/agree on. The question seemed more like you needed a practical solution you could live with, rather than needing an ''opinion''. Please, let us know what you decide to do when you've made your decision!

Another thought: we used natural cork in our kitchen to get the soft feel underfoot and something that would blend with the oak in the rest of the house rather than contrast. That might be an option for you. Ours (Wicanders 1000 series, which has a pretty touch vinyl finish) came in 12" by 36" boards that could be installed in any direction. There are also cork floors that you finish on-site just like wood.