Chisue: Exactly! I don't like a lot of the "faux stone" patterns -- too complicated, and I don't want to take away from the wood floor. I want something that is just "there." Hit on 4 more options today (at 2 different stores) -- two are Mannington sheet vinyls, the others are a sheet vinyl from a company I've not heard of. Have samples of the first 2 being mailed. (Plus today I got my first estimate, based on my I-wouldn't-bet-my-paycheck-on-it measurements. Yikes! It's been a while since I replaced the carpeting and installed the wood floor in my place, so I've forgotten that all the basics of a home just don't come cheap! Even with vinyl!)

The darker tile looks like it could work. Please make sure that none of what you pick has yellow tones. Yellow is the worst choice for honey oak cabinets. The tile on the floor now, seems to look nice with the cabinets, so something similar in color.

Right now you have the PERFECT floor for your kitchen. Sigh. I know. You didn't want to hear that but it is true. Everything in your kitchen is tone on tone on tone on tone. The Saltillo floor needs a good clean (the grout lines are looking a bit dingy) and they need their polish/sealant added. If you do BOTH of these things, you will feel like you have a BRAND NEW FLOOR! Yes. All for the very affordable price of "very little per square foot". I'm going to make a statement about your kitchen that is meant kindly...nothing nasty behind it. You have a kitchen that is tone-on-tone-on-tone. What I like to call the "Brown Blahs". When a kitchen (or any space) is too "matchy-matchy" people get bored of it and have a need to change. Change what? Don't know. Just "change". And that leads to a situation where the homeowner changes ONE THING. And that one thing leads to an entire kitchen renovation in a very short amount of time (like 2-3 years). Why? Because once the new floor (or whatever) is put in, the tone-on-tone balance is disturbed. And suddenly the whole "matchy-matchy" scheme falls flat. Now NOTHING matches. Or more to the point, the new floor makes everything else look out of place. All of that being said, if you MUST change the floors I suggest you go with a WONDERFUL match to your counter tops. Yep. You will CONTINUE the matchy-matchy presentation. That way you will not disturb the balance of the space. If you want to get away from matchy-matchy, then I suggest you change the counter tops and backsplash. Those two items will give you the most 'umph' visually without disturbing the 'bones' of the kitchen. Everything else can stay in place. Or....go ahead and get your Saltillo professionally cleaned and properly sealed (they really should have a lovely glossy finish to them). And then decide on your flooring from there. You might find the refurbishing of the high-end Saltillo is all that is needed.

Great questions, thank you all! Yes, in my mind the kitchen and the dinette are the same room. The transition in the photograph is the only transition in the house. On the hardwood side, the hardwood extends throughout the entire house. Here, it bumps up against the kitchen/dinette area, which has this vinyl glued onto plywood, which floats a half centimeter above the hardwood, creating a small trip hazard. Our style is definitely mid century modern with fun bohemian touches. We have a lot of artwork that’s fun and whimsical, and it’s a pretty small house. So while I’m open to a bold flooring choice, I also don’t want it to feel cluttered or busy. I love our hardwood and really wish it extended into the kitchen! But I’m worried if we got new hardwood installed in the kitchen/dinette area, it wouldn’t match and it would look weird. And I don’t want to pay to refinish the old hardwood, because it’s in good shape and it extends all through the house! That would be a lot of refinishing! So it seems like the best option would be...something else that’s not this horrible vinyl. Cork titles? A more updated vinyl? Having never had glued-on vinyl before, will I have to replace the subfloor when we pull it up? Should we get something installed on top of the vinyl that’s already there, or will that just further heighten the trip hazard?