Today, I saw a wood stain made by Old Masters, called Carbon Black. Their gel stains are made for soft woods, but you can also stain over stain because the gel sits on top of the wood. You have to sand a little, but not completely. The picture of the black island made me think of it. This is wood stained Carbon Black. It is not painted, so you can see the wood grain.

There will not be a kitchen reno other than new paint & flooring. The carpeting in the living room needed to go 5 years ago & there was a plan in place that got sidelined, due to unforseen financial issues followed by needing a new HVAC unit and a new roof, but such is life. The unmatched kitchen floor & dining room makes me nuts for a small space & since we are doing the lv rm, we want to do all of it. The waterproof flooring is cheaper than tile & real wood. & it will serve the purpose of grand central station in living room during our winter months. The laminate in our dining room now is fake wood & it doesn't bother me at all but that & the kitchen tile is showing wear...it's 20 plus years old. Other flooring for living room can be wood or wall to wall -ugh-and kitchen /dining room tile but I am not sold on sheet vinyl flooring. I love the new patterned kitchen floor prints but I will still to classic. I cna do trendy with disposable items.

Where are you shopping for the new flooring?...if possible doing it in person would be more productive...just take off a cabinet door...bring it with you and get as close as you can...if you need to go a little further to visit a warehouse flooring store which will have more choices ...if you take your measurements you may even find mark down prices on the limited amount of flooring you need...as you know this will be for many years so the extra effort will be worth it...we had our installer recommend the source he used and we also got a discount from his referral...it was a trip but the people there were very helpful ....we were able to buy flooring in stock to avoid shipping charges and potential mistakes and complications ....we got luxury vinyl so it was not cheap but they had several quality levels...if price matters

The designer recommended sample looks very good with your cabinets ..what is your objection to that choice?

btydrvy...those were just examples, not desiged for me. I can't find something that works. I did take a cab door with me to match.

I am not a pro but have had experience with helping friends with "undertones". The OP has been very good in expressing her objectives as well as limitations. When I look at the photos of the existing space I see a number of different undertones and textures and styles...all wanting to live together in harmony...from the honey oak cabinetry to the somewhat rustic trim to a taupe sectional. For some reason I think that the flooring I suggested with the varied colors...or something similar....would do the trick by bringing everything together. The attached photo is of a friend's place where we had to find something that worked with the existing tile...and we found some wide plank laminate which also ties in with the cabinetry so the end product is not matchy matchy but gives a feeling of cohesiveness. Having said that an important step in the process was being able to take a bigger sample home so that it could be moved around to see how it would work with the different "givens" that were not going to change. Hope this helps.

Eventually the sofa will go & the coffee tables...but yes, I do have different pieces and I like mixing stuff up

Go to a flooring store (Not big box store, but an actual flooring store). Take your cabinet sample and have them assist you with picking options.

Since you have exhausted the possibilities..and if you are settled on a match...you may have to pick a color you like and change the cabinet color a little...get something close...and try a tinted coat of varnish on the cabinets...sanding and re-finishing is feasible in a kitchen this size....an other option is a patterned flooring as shown in the previous post...looks like tile but is laminate with all the positives that laminate comes with...or...go with a much paler golden color

Freedomplace…I don’t hate the warm honey oak at all even though people say it is dated. It’s throughout the house & to paint it all would be a lot of work & expense. Much of the trim is rustic knots in it, painting it would not improve anything, it would have to be replaced & that isn’t in the budget or plans. I like the warmth of it.

Design Girl- RE: You are not going to "match" that honey oak. Don’t I know this! For anything laminate or vinyl, truth! But for Real hardwood, I found many matches.

SJ McCarthy-I know I don’t want cork or bamboo. I have been doing what you suggested with bringing either large boards home as I said there will not be a major renovate anytime soon, keeping cabinets as they are in great shape. All main floor walls will be painted. A new fridge is in order! It will be black to match the other black appliances. My stove, microwave & dishwasher are in good shape. IF they weren't, I would also replace ALL with stainless. The cabinet hardware WILL be replaced. the only thing that will be updated down the line are the counters & new sink-in the same exact color family. And, adding subway tile back splash.

Jennifer Hogan, I have considered a stone look LVT throughout entire space but on the fence. If it waterproof & tough....yes, but what would look best? I took one of my cab doors with me-even they had a hard time finding laminate or vinyl wood look floor.

I don’t know, maybe this will help. My style leans on traditional, country, I like mixing antiques but minimalist. And more neutral. I tried some samples outside of my comfort zone, I know I really don’t like anything with lots of variation or exotic. I like a timeless clean look. Rustic is ok, as long as it doesn’t get too crazy. Also, I plan on having an area rug in living room. Painting all of the kitchen cabinets is out, but I would consider paint the island.

I am really starting to think I am going to be forced to do tile in kitchen and real wood in living room, not what I wanted for flow in such a small space. Do you think it will be ok to do this? Maybe it will be better to break up all of the oak in the kitchen? There is a wall separating kitchen/ dining room from the living room.

This has been a struggle & I am exhausted with this project. Thank you all for trying to help.

I would replace 'like with like'. The vinyl floor in the kitchen is in the ideal colour range for the counters. The wood-look product outside the kitchen is a nice wood tone. I would simply replace like with like. You don't have to find something new. You simply have to find a decent replacement for the stuff you have...and you already have the colours sitting right there on your floor.

And remember: country kitchens often had floors that are different from the rest of the home. You can unite the dining and living areas with the wood-look tones. Let the kitchen stand on it's own. The set up of the home works well with a separate kitchen floor.

We ordered 2 boxes of waterproof flooring to get a better idea color. The River's Edge Oak-an engineered real wood floor with a waterproof coating, worked really well with existing trim & I loved it, almost a perfect match, but the product itself seems troublesome. Alot of broken edges in the box, splintering in the wood itself in almost every piece in the box.

The other is Burbank Oak-vinyl. Boy it looks different in these online pics as well as it does in the store.

I love the color and more muted variations. Putting the kitchen aside (as that may be done in waterproof tile) & doing wood look in dining/living room...we have honey oak baseboard and window trim & one closet door. I just want to make sure it doesn't clash.

And just to get an idea IF it would also go in kitchen.

More pictures to come...I have another flooring to unpack & lay out yet.

I'm seeing colour clashes already. Your cabinets are a 'bright' yellow compared to your beige planks. The planks appear to have some gray and possibly (darn monitor) some green it them as well as wheat tones. All of which are big clashes with bright yellow.

This is where getting fake wood to look like real wood is tough. The bright gold tones are coming from the wood grain AND the glint of the photo flash. That glint comes from the wood+finish sitting on top. There is a DEPTH to wood = changes as you move around the space.

A fake-wood product cannot replicate this. It is a photograph. Photographs don't get this level of depth (they can but you would be spending $100/sf not $3/sf). The clash is coming from the STRONG yellow/orange in the doors (trim is fine...there isn't much of it to see = you can get away with it) and the 'flat' beige/wheat colours of the floors.

If you are not going to change the cabinets, then you will be forcing yourself into a colour that is MUCH STRONGER than the soft wheat tones you are hoping for. The easiest way to get BOTH the soft beige floor AND a floor that looks good with your cabinets = different flooring in the kitchen.

If you put in a floor, like the one in your photo, in the kitchen you will need to be prepared to be upset enough to want new cabinet colour.

You need to go darker - or go light, incorporating some of the tone that is in your cabinets. I showed some pictures in my previous comment.

I used a wood look tile here to demonstrate. It is not the best example of the dark wood approach, but hopefully gives you the general idea.

I started a new thread....with four of the best, even they aren't great, choices.

SJ McCarthy- Top left #1 was what I loved & you are so right about fake vs real & color, top left is real wood-treated with a waterproof coating, so it seemed like a great possibility, but not a good product -lots of splintering in the pieces. Broken edges on all the corners. After research saying it is a VERY thin engineered wood fused to the waterproof board & very prone to dents & scratches with inability to sand it out...it was back to square one.

The "wheat" tone #2 in the store had much more gold mixed in, enough so that when we put cabinet next to it, it was a possibility. Ordered a box & when we took out the planks, my husband who is color blind & can't really see shades or tones, or really care about shades or tones...said this can't be the same floor.

Bottom left #3 looks awful in the pictures not as bad in person, but the grey in it looked greenish to me & I wasn't a fan of the variations in it.

I really did not want to go darker BUT freedomplace1 was onto something. Maybe #4 is it. I still may do a different floor, just in kitchen, but the tone will work with the trim & other woodwork on first floor: dining room & living room. During the day it looks a lot warmer, at night it looks more brown, like Freedomplace's mock up.

Thank you both for sticking with me on this...it has been sheer frustration & I appreciate your help!

You are doing EVERYTHING right! I know it is super frustrating but it looks like you have found a winner.

I too like #4. It would be my choice throughout the space...but I'm still a fan of the different floor in the kitchen. It is your home. You have to do you.

We are here to help with guidance (aka. colours, floor structure, etc) but it is your space and you are the one who needs to be happy.

What you *can do is order enough of the wood flooring to install the kitchen as well...and then wait for a while once you install the rest of the house FIRST. I know. That might mean lacing in the kitchen floor at a later date. I get that. It's a hassle.

What waiting does for you is to LIVE with #4 for a few months. You will see what the floor looks like against the OUTSIDE of the cabinets that facing the dining area. If something 'bugs' you about that interface, you will have time to recognise it and then plan for another floor in the kitchen.

If you like what you are seeing (it can be tough to live with a cabinet/floor choice that is identical. In the dark it is hard to see where one finish starts (cabinets) and where the other one ends (flooring). White counter tops help...but some things are just toe-stubbers.

Besides...the darker floors will REALLY darken your kitchen. You may not like that idea. Leaving the kitchen for another day may just give you the time to get used to a darker kitchen.

Just a thought.

I let a long sample plank of the dark floor LVT lay in kitchen a few days & it is showing every speck of dust/dirt & water marks. Although my original plan was lighter floors, I was willing to compromise to work with the honey oak, but I don’t want to deal with constant upkeep on top of compromise.

I went to 2 mom & pop shops, going this route would add at least $1500 to my project as they do charge more & I get that. I brought one of my cabinet doors & thought for sure I would have more choices. They told me they have many people coming in with same issue with honey oak. We came up with 3 choices from one place & 2 choices from the other & when we got home & looked at the floors in our home lighting, it was a no on 4 of them & 1 was sort of ok, but newer product by Beauflor, which I could not find many reviews & of the one thread on here it was mixed reviews. I am willing to go extra $ IF I don’t settle.

As suggested-I may as well go with box store solid in living/dining & waterproof in kitchen, or just go all hardwood everywhere. My sister installed hardwood entire first floor including kitchen & powder room 20 yrs ago without issue.

When I look online & here on Houzz many of the lighter wood floors people chose to go with honey oak, are not in same tone family. I am not a designer, but the look clashes to me.

The other thing I found and/or was suggested, the whitewash look. I am definitely into farmhouse look but I was shying away from trendy ideas. At this point if I love it, then trendy it is & when the next people buy this house, they can poke fun at the dated floors.

Here is picture of counters, cabinets & appliance. I am open to ideas-other than dark or anything with a lot of variance in colors.

Some of MY new ideas, which may not be great ideas.

Yes, this is the exact tone of what I am going for, in waterproof floor. I have a large sample of the from Home Depot. It looks so pretty in photos but in real life, you can tell right away it's laminate because the surface is completely smooth & a bit shiny. It is not waterproof. If you look at my pics, you can see we already have something similar in dining room, which really held up well for almost 20 yrs. This is Lowes version-Glenwood Oak, not waterproof either. Thank you so much for trying to help this crazy woman.

PS....when I went to the mom & pop store, my cabinet next to their expertise choices looked so nice, until I got home. It amazes me how different it can look.

This is from Home Depot-waterproof- but off a little for the tone.

If you have no plans on painting the cabinets, this might work. I love grey floors at this moment, but I think this would work well with the current cabinet color.

Can you get this product? It looks like real hardwood and the color works well with honey oak cabinets. Have seen it installed in several places.

http://www.eurostyleflooring.ca/laminate-flooring/eurostyle-appalachian-hickory-handscraped-laminate/

I’m looking at LVP right now too. You might want to check out the Flooret Modin line on their website. I looked at three lighter colored options and thought this one looked best with your cabinets. Samples are easily ordered from Amazon.

Hmmmm. The cabs are orange and the floor is peach. I would have a desperate need to refinish my cabinets if I put down peach floors in an orange kitchen.

If you are leaving the cabinets alone for 15 years, you will want to pick floors with ++ yellow. Or go with a white product (not wood) that matches the counter tops.

Thought I was seeing some honey in the darker tones of the Soho floor, but maybe not? Monitors being what they are, it might be worth a sample... Here’s another idea, but something feels off to me with this one.

Just checked back in the photos and it looks like you also have honey oak baseboards so that is another consideration....would suggest that you keep looking until you find the "right" one. Do you have a preferred product and/or supplier so people could check out the color options?

Went back to another thread with the same challenge and they ended up going with this which looks very good with the golden oak cabinets.

https://coretecfloors.com/en-us/products/coretec-plus-7-plank/marsh-oak-vv024-00714

I feel for you. While building we struggled. I hate gray flooring and it felt like every flooring store only carried lvp with gray tones to them. I waited and waited on new shipments and was so glad I did. Don't be shy about finding products online and asking a store to bring in samples. CoreTec has a lot of options.

Went to another non box flooring store today. I swear it's just more choices of the same issue for me. Also tried Lumbar Liquidators.

This is something much lighter in LVP from Home Depot. It was suggested by one of the workers a while back but I wasn't sure if I was going on the right direction. Online their pictures of this floor looks peachy pink. In person, it does not look this way, & the floor isn't quite as light as it looks in my photo below.

The woman at Lowes suggested Brunswick Maple for my liv/dn room & a stone for kitchen & since same product it can have seamless finish. Brunswick was one of my choices for the entire floor, it almost matches my cupboards but the tone was slightly off in some light

If you had a product or two or three that you were interested in (including price point) we could probably help with the color by reviewing what is available for that particular selection, e.g. Home Depot, Product (e.g. LVP or laminate), Name of Manufacturer. I just checked out the Brunswick one but didn't find anything colorwise that seems to work with your cabinets and trim.

These are some color options for LVP from HD that could work....

When are you planning on resurfacing the kitchen? Is it in the next 5 years? Or is it in the next 15?

Remember: these cabinets have a finish on them. The finish does not last forever. In fact, if they are older than 20 years old, then the finish is already on it's last legs.

You are welcome to choose flooring for something that matches a 'limited lifespan' item; or you can go ahead and get what you think is pretty and plan for the resurface 'sooner than later'.

If you really do not want to touch the cabs (as in "No Way! I ain't doin' it and you CAN'T MAKE ME!") then pick two different floors. One for the kitchen and one for the rest of the house.

This is very similar to what I got for my house.

Simple, not much pattern, goes with everything. Large format tile (18x36). I am 59 years old and installing myself. Made by Coretec. Comes in several colors.

Jenn...can you tell me more about this....is it tile or woodlook? It has a subtle look. Can you provide a more specific name. What color did you go with?

I purchased my flooring last year from Flooring America.

It was being marketed as an "Exclusive" in house brand, but was made by Coretec.

I found the same flooring at Carpet One, The Floor Trader Outlet, Pro Source and Flooring America, each selling the same product under their own "Exclusive" brand name.

It has been discontinued through Flooring America (they have new "exclusive" offerings), but it is available on the Coretec site under Coretec Stone.

https://coretecfloors.com/en-us/products?productlength=36%22

I absolutely love the large format and I was specifically looking for something without a lot of pattern and without texture that would catch dirt. I loved some of the linen looks, but thought about sitting on my hands and knees with a toothbrush to get all the dirt out of the little grooves.

I have not gotten laid through all the rooms (had a heart attack shortly after my purchase), but am very happy with the rooms where I have gotten it laid down and it wasn't hard to install.

Just saw this

https://www.bestlaminate.com/coretec-plus-enhanced-tile-corvus-50lvte1859-wpc-vinyl-flooring/

For those still following. I got one of the boxes I ordered of a lighter flooring. I laid it out but I didn't stagger them so they probably aren't laid the correct way. But it gives an idea of what it will look like.

IMO this is the best one yet as far a complementing instead of competing with your kitchen cabinets. How does it look in the other areas such as the living room? Would you consider staggering a few boards and sending another picture?

The colour match is darn near perfect. The floor will be busy (the two toned planks will give you a lot of stripes in your floor). Just be prepared for the 'zebra stripe' on your floor.

I really like the number 4 from above. It looks great to me!

Ok, the above true cherry does not have a good MIL wear. I was told the wrong thing. So it's off the table & off the floor. The other box , Brunswick Maple came today. Less Variation, not as busy.

The below is from another poster on the board here at Houzz

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/2814008/has-anyone-used-smartcore-floors-from-lowes

You may want to check out Supercore. The usual vinyl planks have problems due to temperature, so we can't use Smartcore planks in our upstairs bathroom. The AC/heater doesn't run year round upstairs. Just enough heat to keep the pipes from freezing.

The good news...they have 58 colors.

The bad news...they have 58 colors.

I have not gotten a sample from them yet.

A few Supercore colors. We Ship Floors sells Supercore. They usually respond to questions on Houzz.

These 4 colors are on sale right now.

Another sample , recommended by a Flooring Store. Does the tone work with existing trim/woodwork?

I just went through all the pictures again and although it's difficult to judge colors online this one seems like it has good tones that work with your cabinets and other wood trim and it is very natural looking. If you put it beside the photo with your countertop, cabinet door and black appliances that you posted earlier in the discussion I think you might see that you possibly have a winner. Also you have looked at enough samples to know what doesn't work and understand the reasons that this one does. Hope this helps.

PS Just to confirm you are planning on doing the living room, dining room and kitchen so it's all in harmony.

Yes, entire first floor. And yes many samples. I woke holding a small floor sample once. lol.

aunt_chelle, I'm going through the same dilemma now too. Have you made a decision? Care to show photos and what you decided? I appreciate the help!

l_powers63...We have not picked a floor yet. When it got close to holidays...I took a break. And now it's 2.5 months post holidays. I have not had any time to work on it. Are you trying to work with oak trim & cabinets?

Yes, I won the honey oak lottery! I have honey oak cabinets, baseboards, trim, doors, and windows. Right now I'm trying to figure out flooring for our bedroom so just dealing with the baseboard/trim, doors, and windows. I don't want to deal with painting everything. I'm considering swapping out baseboards to match the flooring but then I would have mismatched baseboards/trim and that might drive my crazy. (I just posted a question tonight asking folks to show pics of how they handled different baseboards/trims...hoping photos will help me make up my mind on that part.)

I haven't started looking at samples a ton in person but am headed to the flooring store tomorrow. Here are screenshots of a few I'm thinking about (ignore the piles, work in process 😄). I can't decide if I should be trying to match the trim as close as I can or pick something that has some markings that match.

l_powers63....have you made any updates? Find your floor?