Hardwood floor help, please

[Spryte]

An unfortunate accident has necessitated that we will be choosing a new floor for our main level.

 

We would prefer to stick with solid hardwood, but can entertain alternate ideas.

 

We have dogs, so something that can hold up to toenails would be best.

 

Fairly open floor plan, oak cabinets in kitchen, black granite counters. Stairs are finished to match previous floor - another oak.

 

We'd prefer not to match our old floor exactly. I really like the look of wide plank hickory, but not sure how it would look with the cabinets and stairs.

 

Help?!

[StephanieZ]

I think the general opinion in decorating forums tends to be that you'd like some contrast between floors and cabinets in the kitchen (where there are so many cabinets). If the wood will go into the kitchen, that'd be the thing I'd look at to try to coordinate what looks good.

 

I think hickory would look great, but that's just my opinion. It's nice and hard and will stand up pretty well. It'll get scratched a bit, as any wood will, but hickory has such nice color variation that it hides scratches really well. It starts out looking "rustic" a bit with knots and huge color variations, so scratches won't be noticeable.

 

IMHO, wood floors get scratched, and I'm OK with that. We put natural oak (mixed plank widths, 4, 5, and 6 inch) in my entire house (except bathrooms and laundry rooms) recently, and I love it. It looks great with the medium dark cherry kitchen and dining cabinetry, and it looks fine against the medium maple cabinetry in the 2nd kitchen (long story, lol). I think the contrast with the darker kitchen cabinets looks awesome. Where it is against the closer-in-color maple cabinets in the 2nd kitchen looks fine, but not as beautiful as the contrast to the darker cherry, IMHO. 

 

Dark colors on floors are a nightmare of dust and hair and reflections of scratches. Don't go there.

 

Choose something (oak or hickory) that has lots of grain and pattern, to hide the inevitable scratches. 

 

Real solid wood can't go on a slab, so if you are on a slab, you need something else.

 

If you really want scratch-proof, a "laminate" wood floor will (very high quality only, so price comparable to real wood) will hold up better, but is impossible to refinish or repair and is more vulnerable to serious damage, IMHO. Alternatively, if you don't mind the hardness and/or are on a slab to which you are willing/able to add radiant heat, you can do wood-look porcelain tile. Done right, it is as permanent and lovely a floor as you can get. Will look great for decades and is actually impervious to dogs, moisture, etc. Radiant floor heat is great, but pricey. If i were building on a slab, I'd definitely look at it as an option -- adding area carpets for snuggle factor (TV room floor, for instance.)

 

For my house, I like real wood. To me, wood floors = home. The houses I grew up in all had wood floors. It feels right to me, so that's what i did.

 

I like the fact that in 10-20 years, when we have fewer dogs and fewer kids, we can refinish it and it'll be as perfect as new. You can do that several times with wood, so you can get 100++ years out of wood. Same cannot be said for any other wood-look floors. Plus, I like the look of old wood floors. Although the first few scratches and imperfections irritated me, I think it looks fine, and it'll look even better in 5-10 years when there are more uniformly distributed scratches, lol. You can also do a quick "screen and re-coat" that doesn't eat into the wood at all significantly, just makes a mess of very light sanding and then a new coat of polyurethane . . . for a less expensive and less reduction in the life-time of the floor. You can do this every couple/few years if you have the patience for the mess and don't mind the expense. (I don't!)

[StephanieZ]

ps. When you are considering things, do google image searches for your ideas. "Medium oak cabinets with hickory floors" and you'll find zillions of images (and opinions if you do a text search). Seeing pictures really helped me come up with ideas during our renovations. 

[Spryte]

Oh my goodness, this is so helpful! Thanks!