What about a plank vinyl wood look floor? I'll bet you can come close to your hardwoods and I think they are much thinner. I think they've gotten somewhat better looking than vinyl used to and might fit your need.

some of the color choices:

http://www.karndean.com/en/floors/look/wood/effect/oak

With the options you posted, I like the lighter wood floor, but I tend toward lighter woods. It also would look good with your teal sofa. However, it is probably a bad idea to choose your floor based on your sofa.

I like the cork and hear good things about it, but am afraid it would get damaged with bikes and stuff coming in and out of that room.

What about a greyed wood - kind of like weathered drift wood. Your current wood has greyed streaks in it.

Or a grey tile. You could do a sloped transition piece between the two different levels.

I was going to suggest luxury vinyl tile also . My neighbor is going through the same process and her existing wood floor is very similar in color to yours and she found a bamboo that color matched it perfectly . She found it at lowes it's a beautiful floor . I would definitely be concerned about a trip hazard with too much of a floor height difference .

Is the height issue the only reason the rest of the flooring can't be matched? Because I might go ahead and just have the height difference.

Luxury vinyl planks were looked at at the flooring store and quickly dismissed, as was laminate. They just seemed plasticy. I know I wouldn't be happy with them right next to the solid hardwood. As for tile or staining the concrete, I live in Chicago. I like to walk around my condo barefoot. No way am I having tile or bare concrete for floors. That would be good for Florida or something but not here.

Actually, the longer I have the samples here, the more I am drawn to the cork samples. They have a warmth and a natural feel even more than the engineered hardwood.

handmethathammer- what I'm worried about with cork isn't so much the bikes. The bikes have always lived in the house and I've never had any kind of mess that didn't come undone with a damp rag. I'm more worried about the other bedroom which we will also do and is used as a bedroom. I have a very heavy storage bed. I'm worried about denting the cork from the weight of it.

blfenton- that's a good idea, except I really, really hate gray. Also, it's a dark enough room that gray would look even more sad. I definitely want to bring in warm tones.

crl- every floor guy I talked to refused to do it. Said it was just too much of a height difference. Said I wouldn't be happy with the result at all.

So, all said, what kind of cork should I go for? I'm leaning towards the lightest sample at the moment.

You would adjust to the one inch difference in no time. I'd go for what you want.

Why not replace the carpet with nicer carpet? That's what I'd do until I could afford to do the entire flooring in the condo. Otherwise, you end up with the same problem in the future when you can do the entire condo. Can't find matching flooring for the new stuff either, so it all has to be ripped out anyway.

I actually came back here to see if anyone had suggested just putting in a close weave carpet, something more durable, yet nice looking. I think that would be your best bet. There are some really great ones and like some that Tibb posted.

I would find out out exactly what the height difference would be. It's not unusual at all to have threshold transitions between rooms. Unless the difference is huge neither you nor anyone else will notice it at all.

I do really like that last carpet tibbrix posted though!

I appreciate the thoughts and work that went into posting the comments but I'm not sure how replacing the beige carpet with different, perhaps nicer beige carpet gets me any closer to my goal of not having beige carpeting. Well, actually, I guess it's closer to a taupe. Either way, I don't want wall to wall carpet of any kind or color.

I think I'm pretty set on cork of some kind now.

I like this one but I still need to get a sample. Below is the room view from the Home Depot website.

We recently replaced carpet in a master bath area which has vanities and closets. After a great deal of deliberation I chose a floating cork floor from US Floors. We've only had it three weeks, but so far I really like it. It is soft and quiet underfoot.