Not sure who came up with the idea that all the floors had to match. In my experience, it’s a fairly new concept. Do the floor you love.

It is a classic choice to run a single hardwood throughout a home (with tile in the bathrooms), and your floors are lovely so I understand why you want to try to keep that look. I would choose the same wood species in a stain that matches the rest of the floors as closely as possible, and if you do a transition, do it in wood and keep it simple, a single board of the new flooring, for example.

I know it’s hard when you fall in love with something beautiful, but remember, the floors are not meant to be a room feature. You aren’t looking for counters or a backsplash that will make your look. They should help complete a visually restful background for all of your other elements to shine on.

Is there any way to lay it (or another wood) in a herringbone pattern, or some other way that makes it look deliberately different?

I would do floors in the same color but in a pattern like herringbone. That was our plan if we couldn’t get the oak to match.

In my daughter's 1927 bungalow all of the floors are original. The kitchen floors are maple whereas all of the other floors are oak. It definitely looks intentional.

Yeah I don't get the "all flooring must be the same" mantra that keeps being mentioned so often. It is quite logical to me that the kitchen floor would be quite different than other rooms. It serves a completely different purpose.

Get FIR) and stain to match. OR....... tile the kitchen in slate, and install Heating below,. Very Craftsman appropriate. That's the only way I'd "break it up : )

Yea we were considering a herribone pattern, but my wife doesn't like it. She is warming to the idea though

Jan, my concern is that the patina on the old floor would not look good in the kitchen with the current scheme. Also the old fir floors can't be refinished anymore, so someday in the next 10-20 years we will need to replace them anyway

If you're concerned about a non-intentional look and don't want to go with tile due to the coldness, you make want to use something like Marmoleum. It's period-appropriate, warm on the feet, eco-friendly. I have mid-tone ash floors in my house but a dark blue Marmoleum kitchen floors. They both make me happy every day.

How about linoleum? It would be period appropriate, easy on your feet and the transition wouldn't be an issue.

I didn't say refinish kitchen. I said REPLACE with Fir. Yes, one will look "newer" So what? They will BLEND .

Jan, so would we need to stain it? or just leave it natural/oil finish?

Also the old fir floors can't be refinished anymore, so someday in the next 10-20 years we will need to replace them anyway

If your thought that you're eventually going to have to replace the floors in the entire house, I would put a finish-in-place solid hardwood in a standard width in the kitchen, rather than a prefinished engineered floor. My concern with the prefinished is that if it's discontinued, you'll be left with the same problem of trying to coordinate two woods when you eventually replace the rest of the floors. If you put a classic, finish-in-place wood in it will be much easier for the someday-installers to match the existing floors, and they'll have the option to sand and refinish all to match if needed.

Krisitin, that is what I was thinking. Was not going with engineering Mirage makes this in solid wood so it should be easy to match with regular red oak in the future.

I also would ask your installer how difficult it would be to refinish the Mirage floors. Our experience is that the prefinished floors can be MUCH harder to refinish than finish in place. It's the flip side of the durable prefinished floors with aluminum oxide (which these have) - they're also harder to refinish.

There is no advantage to oil....unless you love maintenance. I would add that ten or twenty years is ..... A while. : )

@jupidupi cork is an interesting idea, would work in our basement too

I like Kristin's idea to put down a finishable wood. I pulled up some 80 year old 2 1/4" wide 3/4" red oak flooring out of our old farmhouse that was finished on site. Today you can still buy 2 1/4" red oak flooring unfinished. If we wanted to keep it we could have laid some new red oak and matched the stain :) Anyone that works with stain can take a sample from you current floor and match the stain so that it works with a new wood species. New fir flooring isn't going to be as hard and tightly grained as old growth fir, unless you can find some at an old millwork store. We have a company that will pull out vintage flooring and millwork for salvage and resale. Good luck with whatever you choose to do!

Can you afford to install under floor heating with tile in the kitchen? Check out warmfloor.com

underfloor heatings is out of the budget

I agree with Jan on replace the fir with new fir floors.

My 1915 craftsman has fir in the bedrooms and not-original white oak in the living and dining rooms. In my remodel I replaced the kitchen tile floor with white oak and had some of the fir patched in the bedrooms. If you look closely you can see the new vs old, but I find it unobtrusive. If the whole floor is fir, I think it would look great to replace with fir even if not a perfect match.

My second choice would be a finish-in-place hardwood, even if you don't match the fir. Like you said the doorway makes the transition simple. I just really prefer the aesthetic of site-finished hardwood and think it would look more appropriate in a craftsman.

Our house (built in 1846) has wide plank old heart pine throughout the first floor, except the previous owner had installed new pine floors in the kitchen, and we lived with that for 20 years. When we renovated the kitchen two years ago, we found a lumber company about an hour from us that refurbished heart pine floors salvaged from old warehouses in the south, and we bought our flooring from that company. Maybe there is a place near you that does the same thing with old growth fir? Just a thought. You have a beautiful home, by the way!

@Mary Leeth I second Mary's thought. Wish you lived closer to us, you could take our pine flooring since one day soon the old farmhouse will be knocked down! Hate the idea but with a field stone crumbling foundation, leaking roof, no central heat/cool and bad electrical it was too big of an expense to turn the old girl around :)

I agree that your best option is to find an installer who will install new Douglas-fir and then finish it to come as close as possible to your other floors. When it's brand new, it will look different - but then it will darken as it ages.

My 1920 bungalow also has Doug-fir floors throughout the first story. I had to replace 3 planks in the living room a few years ago but didn't want to replace the entire floor. Those 3 new planks stood out (brighter) than the rest of the floor for about 2-3 years before they darkened to match the rest of the floor. (I refinished the entire floor at the same time I replaced those planks.)

In my kitchen, the fir was shot (like in yours), and like you, I didn't want cold, hard tile. However, my situation was different because we already had underfloor radiant heat, so wood (especially fir) was not the best option. We ended up installing LVT in a warm color scheme that complements the fir in the rest of the house. It's soft, warm, and durable - I have no regrets.