I am going with a similar look and am doing a carrara & nero marble basketweave faux rug for the floor. I will probably have darker bardiglio tiles around the edges of the room and there will be a cararra twisted rope border (and nero liner tiles on each side of the rope) to delineate the "rug". This way, the pattern does not overwhelm the room and it is a very pretty look in and of itself. I wish I had a mock up of it because even dh has not seen what I chose (other than the basketweave middle), lol. Oh... and am using dark gray grout because white would be just plain suicidal in our house. Maybe Bill V has done similar and has a pic?

Flooring is not my trade, but I did the floors in my house. Typical appears to be baseboards first, raised about the height of the finished floor, then shoe mold to cover the gap between flooring and the baseboard. I did the flooring and then installed the baseboards. That was for the tile and hardwood. We knew that if we wanted shoe mold, it could be easily added later. For the limited area of vinyl, the baseboards were first and then the shoe mold. We like the whole plan and have made no changes. I sprinkled the roachpruf in the perimeter gap just before installing the baseboards and shoe mold.

Currently the floor can receive sheet goods - that's it. Carpet, sheet lino or sheet vinyl. The wonkiness of the concrete prevents everything else. To correct the wonkiness, you need to have the paint removed = abatement. Which is something you don't want to do. Mind you, once the abatement has occurred, you can go ahead and have the concrete flattened/dealt with and then you can have ANY FLOOR you want. Whenever you want. For as long as you want. Until then, you can work with "sheet" materials like carpet, lino or vinyl.

IF you want to leave the wood floor in place you will: 1. Pop off ALL trim Including bottom of the door jams. 2. Pop off all doors: Cost = $50/hour 3. Lay new subfloor over top of old wood. Cost = $1.50/sf to purchase/lay 1/2" plywood. 4. Install new wood floor in the original direction. 5. Find 1" - 1.5" reducers at all flooring transitions (like into bathrooms and/or kitchen if need be): cost $15/linear foot 6. Trim all doors (exterior and interior...hopefully you don't have glass doors of any sort) 7. Add trim and pay $50/hour for doors and trim once again Or...pay $2/sf to remove old hardwood and reinstall a new wood floor. Add 1/4 round or shoe molding. Done.