Flooring open plan dilemma

[mattab]

I have a quandary and need advice to save my poor wee mind looping over and over.

Currently having a small extension to back of house, extending from lounge which has solid wood. We are opening up kitchen diner too so bigger room runs both directions from solid floor. Now I love the wood floor, but, and seems insane to suggest this, but would you remove it and have lvt throughout? The kitchen would be better with wood effect tiles (casmere cabinets, whiteish quartz worktop), and this will run through to wc and utility, all potential water areas, so not keen on engineered. No ufh so lvt would be better than tiles for warmth. Teenage kids, cat, generally normal messy living.

Is it a design no no to try and match solid to lvt and run through?

Should I go for a warm stone lvt in kitchen/wc/utility? Even if wood effect would look better to save the solid floor?

Builder said he can find a goodish match for solid wood and run through lounge into extension with a bar across the two flooring types, this keeps the wood but breaks up the flow.

I like consistency and the flow of one flooring, but also feel mad to rip up solid and replace with lvt.

Any advice? I just need to settle on a decision before 5th or may get throttled by indecision police. Thanks

I have wood and LVT in my house and I think you'd struggle to get them to match without it looking odd (though my wood is original Victorian flooring so pretty old). I personally would keep the wood, then do LVT throughout. We have just put stone effect Amtico in the original kitchen (wanted something warmer than tiles) then wood effect in the new extension that's attached to it, so the kitchen floor is a break from the old wood to the LVT wood effect.

I'm really pleased with it. I can't quite tell from your drawing if something like that would work.

I have a path of least resistance rule when I'm procrastinating, and I think in this instance it would be the right decision. The rule isn't just about doing what is most straightforward, it's also about best bang for buck and minimising the potential for regretting expensive decisions.

I'd keep the existing wood and select an lvt that I really like for the new space. Match it tonally if you like the options, or pick a stone look, I think both would look great with a cashmere kitchen. I'm a big fan of lvt. I prefer floors to fade into the background a little, design wise, so would be steering away from the wood look ones that can appear very stripey.

I'm finding it a little difficult to understand from the plan how the different rooms are linked. If they are truly open plan with no doors between any of them, or if you want them to feel open plan, then I think all the flooring needs to be the same. I think it's probably ok to have different style flooring in the kitchen than the living areas, but different styles will visually separate the areas.

Personally, I would probably go for tile-effect lvt in the kitchen but I think getting the same flooring running through from the living room will look better, annoying though it might be to lose the solid wood. Could you get unfinished wood of the same plank size for the extension and then sand the existing floor back and have it all refinished/finished together so that it looks seamless? Although tbh it might actually be more expensive to do this than just fit new flooring!

Thanks for advice, I think I will go with brown-ish stone lvt in kitchen, wc, utility. Then keep the wood and run it on with a bar into new room. I may have spent all of my money on doors and windows to procrastinate any longer. Just ordered more Amtico tiles, although they seem guarded with their pricing so that's reassuring...

I'd personally run lvt all the way through, it'll look much better. I love real wood but I think it'll look better to all be the same throughout.

Yes, I love the look of continuous flooring, but ripping up wood to replace with laminate feels wrong. I also suspect the floors would be all over the place so levelling it all out would probably be an additional cost that isn't necessary when there's a floor already there. I think I'll call it a compromise and move on to the next procrastination

I wouldn't rip up solid wood, couldn't do it.

Matching is pretty much guaranteed to end up looking wrong.

So I'd go for a contrast - if the wood in the living room is dark then go for a pale wood effect elsewhere, and vice versa.