I too am in the same boat. My house has a territorial style exterior but the interior is transitional. My ongoing kitchen remodel will result in things leaning towards the contemporary side. Part of the project is to replace the tile flooring in the kitchen and main hallway off of it and the carpet in the family room (which is off of the kitchen), dining room, and living room all with wood. I am debating whether to put in a handscraped as well. My designer thinks it may be a bit on the fad side and is recommending more of a traditional wood flooring since he feels it will be "timeless". My home is in an upscale neighborhood so I definitely want to put in something that is applicable and will keep the value in line.

aggietexan, if you send me pictures to my email address, I can set them up in one of the two photo sites I belong to that I have not used in a long time. I would add pictures and send the link here and clicking the link would allow the pictures to show. I do not know how to place pictures inside a post but I do know how to do links. I would love to see pictures. Just click my lynn2006 page and you will see a link to click my email. I am glad you are happy with your new floors. Do they have some red in them? I would love to see some close up of the knots since maybe they are tiny and will not bother me. I do love the pics of the Amendoim floors on the BR-111 website. How long have you had the floors? What color change can you see if you have a carpet on the floor?

When working with gold and orange wood tones you can work in the blue/green range of tones. I prefer blue range but some prefer the green-tones (ick). Slate (Welsh Black Slate, etc) is blue based. You can bring in Golden Slate (has up to 15 different colours in it) to give a lighter floor with plenty of colour options. Golden Slate has both green (deep olive tones) and blue (soap stone) in it.

Now that you have lived in the house for two years, you will have figured out if the kitchen foot print is usable. As soon as you start renovating this kitchen, you will be tempted to change things. Little things. Things that have bothered you for 2 years but could do nothing about. Once you do that, you have a new foot print. And then saving the boxes will be irrelevant or impossible (depending on how much of a change you make). Because change is inevitable, you will want to plan this out CAREFULLY. You will need to figure out your floor plan FIRST. Then you can look into whether or not it makes sense to keep old boxes vs. starting new for a full upgrade. If a bigger change is going to happen, you should get a certified Kitchen Designer on board. S/he will save you plenty of money with her/his designs and abilities. The KD will put together a package for you, including colour palette, flooring and counter top materials. Which you will direct the KD to order for you OR you can source yourself and then have installed. At which point, the flooring is decided WELL before the kitchen is touched. As you can see, you have a few more steps to go before you worry about flooring colour. To decide now, before you have a full idea of colour/materials would be putting the cart before the horse. Floors go in last (and can be chosen last). It is an important thing to work with. As tempted as you are to get rid of the red vinyl, you will be very upset to pay for a floor TWICE (which is often the case if flooring is changed before the kitchen is renovated). Because you have vinyl that is EVEN with the hardwood (same floor height) I would look at very thin product. It will prevent a large 'lip' from occurring through the doorways. But that's a decision that can come LATER. Right now you want to figure out the kitchen's footprint.