Thanks for your input @herbflavor, it's red oak floors and they have yellowed over time. I'll be sanding and refinishing the wood with water based finish which should make them a lot less yellow but I'll decide if I'll end up staining once I see how it looks sanded down.

I'd continue the wood into the hallway and do the terrazzo in the kitchen. If that's not feasible (probably needs lacing and refinishing to match up), then terrazzo there too.

Take a look at some high design modern kitchens from mid century for inspiration - these can look elegant and surprisingly current.

Wood in kitchen. Terrazzo in front hall

Wood.

Wood in the kitchen to be finished to match the other wood or all the wood stained a more walnut color and I would o wood in the entry too .great house BTW I have a MCM ranch and I love it.I find flat doors cabinets work very well in that style house and depending on budget Ikea has some great high gloss doors which I love . I mixed mine with stainless cabinets too .Another nice mix is walnut and white cabinets with awalnut floor.Make sure all the light bulbs are in the 3500-4000K range before deciding colors for wood , cabinets and paint This could be a nice combo

What do you mean by opening up the floor plan? What might seem to work or not with the current photos may turn out to be something different depending on what you plan on opening up.

@beesneeds, I'm removing the doorway from both ends of the kitchen. So front hallway would open up to the kitchen and there is a doorway from living room to kitchen on the other side of the fireplace.

I was going to say wood for the kitchen floor BUT now that I read that you are going to remove the wall between the front foyer and the kitchen, that begs the question of whether you might want to continue the stone flooring into the kitchen. From the one photo, it looks like a classic slate tile pattern, so it might not be as hard to match as one might think. I'd ask around & find an experienced stone mason to come see it and give you an estimate/feasibility feedback.

Since you are using wood cabinets in the kitchen, I would use one stone look tile for the entryway and the kitchen. You could use terrazzo, but a slate look or other stone look tile would work. The matte white hexagon tile would be very hard to keep looking clean. I think a medium gray tile would look great with the brick, wood cabinets, and white countertops. I like the example above, but with darker gray grout.

It's hard to tell from the one photo showing the hallway, but the slate in the foyer (which we might assume is original to the house & that's why the OP might want to retain it) might be the multicolor slate that was popular back in the day...tho maybe not with such exaggerated color variations as these photos!

BTW there is a great website for anyone seeking inspiration about renovations of mid-century houses: https://retrorenovation.com/

New door fronts & countertops. Remove the door molding for new. And wallpaper remove.

Keep the slate. Wonderful symmetry with door. Cle has some nice terrazzo tile, if interested.

Slate in entry is fabulous, whatever else you do- don’t touch that!

@karenmo, yes you're right. It is the multicolored slate. Here's a better picture.

Even though it's "original" I know I couldn't live with that multi-colored slate. The accordion doors were probably original too! You have a great house that will be transformed with the right finishes.

It looks like someone tried to select the slate mix so the reddish pieces coordinate with the brick, which is a nice thing. I can totally see why you want to remove that wall with the accordian door, tho you might need to keep a channel at the ceiling for the HVAC vent.

If you live in a development, other neighbors likely have the same foyer flooring....it might be worth putting out some feelers to see if anyone has tried to expand on it and found a good source so you aren't reinventing the wheel....

Ah, a quick search on that RR webpage revealed this:

https://retrorenovation.com/2017/11/27/10-styles-mosaic-slate-flooring-including-random-multi-color-great-source/

It's a fifth generation slate quarrier!!! Maybe they are not the original source for your floors, but they have been around since 1917, so there is a decent chance. And it looks like they can supply just about whatever you want in slate, with nice finishes. Quarried in the US.

Why do you not want an entryway? One dilemma I see from time to time is people complaining their front door opens up right in the living room.

@emmarene9, I like airy/ open concept styles. I don't mind that my home will open right up to the living space, although I'm not sure if I can open up the wall without replacing the entire ceiling. Maybe I'll just make the door entry wider and remove the accordion doors.

And then there is the louvered door (to a utility closet of some kind?) interrupting the brick wall and begging for a solution!

!

Ohhhh, that other shot of the dining area into the entryway and understanding what you mean by opening up better...

And just because I'm kind of more in love with the entryway floor even more than I was originally. The first pic shows up as a rather monotone greyish thing, but the second one from across the dining area shows it's true lovely.

I'm tempted to go with wood in the kitchen/dining and leaving that lovely entryway floor as it's own showcase. I know wood floors aren't the most practical in a kitchen.

By any chance do you have any idea what might be lurking under the current kitchen/dining room floor? I am guessing that it's newer than the enteryway and living room floors.

And just saying for right now.. take that folding door thing down. Ugh. It will immediately help open that doorway up.

Yep, de-accordionizing might be all you need. It looks like the existing eat-in area doorway balances the stairwell opening on the opposite side of the foyer. But who can be sure just from a few photos!!

When I was a kid, my folks bought a turn of the century house with one of those accordion things between the living room and dining rooms; evidently the seller's husband had an office set up somewhere so it was a functional divider. But it was Ugly. My mother was so delighted to remove it and appreciate the lovely proportions of the two rooms as originally planned.

We just had to make a similar decision re: entirely removing the wall between our kitchen and dining room vs. widening the doorway a bit. The domino effect of removing an entire wall meant we'd be looking at drywall repair where the wall used to be, and repainting the dining room ceiling....and the hallway and the livingroom ceilings since they all flow into one another without a break. And then...for the sake of continuity, we'd have to be extra thoughtful about the divide between the flooring in the dining area (yellowed red oak like yours, I know *exactly* what you've got there) and the kitchen (we are also doing tile, probably plain inexpensive hex) since the transition between the two spaces would be pretty distinct without a wall. Matching the wood (well) was out of the question. It would take an act of god to make it possible to weave and match. So....yeah. Removing a wall instead of widening the entry would've caused more problems than it solved. So we are widening the door instead. We're going to lose the very cool circa 1958 pocket door, but will get a little more light in our small kitchen.

What is ur vision?

@Karenmo and @beesneeds, yes I appreciate the idea of making small changes first to see if it works with the space before changing things up permanently. I'll try removing the doors first, but I'll have to make my decision early if I want to put in wood floors. Can't rip out the wall after floors in the kitchen are done.

About that door in the middle of the brick... Here's a photo of the layout. It is a shallow pantry. I wish it did not exist but I'm planning on keeping it as a panty if I need the extra space. Another option could be taking out the doors and making it a built in bookshelf?

@Lisa G I'd love to see pictures of the complete renovation! I get you on all the fixes you would need to make when taking down a wall. In my situation, I haven't moved in yet so walls will get painted and floors sanded down anyway. I probably would have made the same choice as you though if I were already living in my home and just wanted to renovate the kitchen.

@happyleg, I'm visioning a modern home with mid century touches. I lean more towards modern, but at the same time I like character. Still deciding on all the details, but I'm soaking in all the ideas and opinions!

It looks like you have a bathroom just off the foyer, opposite the eat in kitchen. That will be an issue if you open up the wall in the foyer/kitchen. I had to rerethink my redesign because of this same issue.

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@ Jill, I didn't think of that! I figured it was far away enough but I don't want any funky smells lurking to the kitchen/ dining area. Hmmm...

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I thought of it as a privacy issue, rather than a smell issue. if the kitchen/eat in area is in use by more than one or two people, folks will likely search out a more private bathroom.

I'm with you again on the smells thing, midreno. I'm NOT an open concept plan person. Not one bit. I don't want to cook pancakes in my livingroom, you know? I can't stand cooking smells finding their way into the other rooms of the house. I have no idea how folks who do open concept layouts can relax while staring at every stick of furniture they own in one place, a sink full of dirty dishes and the same paint color or wall finishes all over the place. No wonder "all white" is so popular. Open floor plans are popular and I don't think folks are willing to paint their now 1100 sq ft living/dining/kitchen/foyer in anything darker or more complicated than white (not that white ISN'T complicated, but you know what I mean.) Dark teal on your dining rooms could be chic. Dark teal on EVERY wall in your main living area would probably feel like a lot more of a risk. I just can't do open floor plans, I love my door, walls and unique individual, non-smelly living areas.

Why put wood floors in your kitchen, like so many others do because they don't have many better alternatives (given the way their open concept worked out), when you have a better alternative?! (Yes, I am on about the stone floor again!) I haven't seen your foyer floors up close and personal, but if they are what I think, how spectacular it would be to use that in the kitchen with its eat-in area! More practical than wood, more distinctive, so enduring, in addition to period-related.

I think the doorway with the accordian has already been enlarged. It looks like it is half the length of the wall, whereas the original floorplan shows a much smaller opening.

Hopefully a good solution to the pantry door situation will present itself....do others in your development have the same floorplan so you can gently query the neighbors about any other approaches?

Finally, if this is a split level without a bedroom level above the kitchen, consider a skylight or solatube to bring more light into the kitchen.