Our basement has a little natural light from 2 small windows. Had leveling compound poured and then installed laminate flooring (a very light natural oak color) over the concrete. Huge difference. Huge. Made the room much seem much brighter and twice as spacious.

We have stained hickory, installed over 15 years ago, and I would do it again in a heartbeat! I love these floors, they’ve stood up to three active dogs, visiting grandchildren and active homeowners. I’m posting photos, yet IRL, the darkest one is how they look normally, the two lighter shots are due to the flash. IRL the floors appear to be darker than in the photos. They are Mannington, and the stain color was Nutmeg. Hickory is very high on the hardness rating, so there are only a few minute scratches, even after all our activity. My son installed Brazilian cherry in his house and was distressed at how easily it shows scratching from their dog.

I worry that the white vanity may look off with all of the biscuit colored items in the room. I would go with a darker brown vanity that looks good with the undertones of both the countertop and the biscuit, and then go very light (off white) with the walls and floor to keep the room from going too dark.

I am not a huge fan of vinyl plank flooring. It feels very fad'y. Ten years from now, it'll be the one thing that lets you date when you did the remodel. Having said that, they do have pretty decent designs these days. They come really close to fooling you into thinking it's the real thing. And while some of the hype seems to be just that, they reportedly do stand up to abuse much better than older man-made materials. The nice thing about real hardwood though is that you can relatively easily refinish it. Or you can pick a material that looks great even when it is distressed. Neither one is really an option with vinyl planks. On the whole, I do agree with you though. The much better flooring material in the kitchen is tile. No need to stress if you spill something. And if you install radiant floor heating, it feels really nice on your feet, too. And if you carry if through the rest of the house, you can use area rugs in select locations. But that's going to be more expensive than putting down LVP. So, it's a bit of "you get what you pay for". On the other hand, if you plan on living in the house for the long run, it might make sense to do things right once, rather than replacing the cheaper flooring every couple of years.