"Are you suggesting I paint the fireplace mantel, staircase, etc a totally different color like blue or green? " Yes,as appossed to re-staining because (A) re-staining is so difficult to do a lastng job,and (B) paint offer's unlimited shades and tones to work with. Matching colors is far easier than coordinating them,stain make's it even more difficult. Frankly I'm not certain what I'd do after seeing the home in person. I suggested blue and/or green based on your discription(which I believe is accurate) of red floors and orange elsewhere. Call major paint distributors to see if they have a consultant in your area. If not,consider asking a paid consultant to have a look or taking actual samples of wall paint,floor and other woodwork to their office. Alternatly,use a camera with higher color resolution. After hearing you are already pleased with blue gray in another area I'm confident you can hit a double or triple useing it again. A color pro might turn it to a home run or grand slam. In the interest of full disclosure,this is not my field of expertise,it's just something I injoy messing around with. I may also be underestimating your eye for color and your desire to accomplish decorating without consulting decorators. I do it all the time simply because I like the satisfaction of "making it my own" rather than doing it "according to the book".

If I’m understanding this correctly, the area between the two sets of stairs is this discontinued floor, the both sets of stairs are carpeted and the main living area (up the stairs) is also the discontinued flooring. Is this correct? If so, eliminate the discontinued flooring in between the two sets of stairs and replace it with whatever you choose to do for the stairs. You can keep the flooring upstairs as it is, but changing the floor at the entry to match the stairs will make it less disjointed and more intentional. Do not try to match it too hard or it will look just like you tried to match it. I would purposely contrast, but it needs to compliment. If you pull a color from the current floor, I would lean more toward light (although hard to tell, I can make out some very subtle light streaks). I would steer clear of the darker tones as dark floors tend to show everything and these sets of stairs happen to be an integral and unavoidable part of the house, which will make the high traffic very conspicuous on dark floors. I also suggest rugs!

First of all, using the same flooring upstairs and in the basement greatly simplifies and unifies the interior of your house. And it allows you to select one of the colors in this flooring to use on your stairs. This, of course, raises the question of your choice of flooring for the first floor, which you have not discussed. As for using your preconception of a dark flooring for your office only in the basement, of course you could do this. Keep in mind, however, that in the photos you posted above the hue bias for the Syndey Silver Maple is yellow, while the hue bias for the dark flooring sample is either orange or red. That's just a way of saying that the two samples in the photo aren't really harmonious together. If you want a dark valued floor in your office you really need to pick a flooring much closer to the hue bias of Syndey Silver Maple. That shouldn't be hard to do. Good luck on your project.

@jag1929, you are overthinking this. Sawn (cut) does not matter. Oh, and 2-1/4" is too narrow. That's perceived as bargain basement cheapo wherever I've been. The only time you see that narrow is super exotic where wider planks simply do not exist.