Hi all,

I'm trying to find a good solid prefinished hardwood for a "beachy" feel for a California beach house near the ocean, ~1000 sq ft, all rooms besides bedrooms/bathrooms.

The house has poor natural light and small rooms, so I want to go as light as possible. I've already put a very light bamboo in the bedroom which looks fantastic, but I don't want to continue the bamboo through the rest of the house.

I've considered white oak, but I feel it has a bit much "yellow" tone to feel "beachy". I'd like less yellowness and perhaps more grey tones, perhaps almost like driftwood, if that makes sense.

It will be a relatively contemporary design style overall, so a more quirky/unique choice of wood may work.

I will install it in the kitchen, so durability there is a bit of a requirement

Question: I would like both recommendations for hardwood selection & design, and reputable manufacturers from whom I should get samples and buy from.

Technicals: I intend on nailing down to an existing solid red oak floor in desperate need of refinishing and repair. The existing floor was laid directly on the 2x6 subfloor, and the subfloor has 1/2" gaps between each 2x6, so the existing red oak is directly exposed to the crawl space (and indirectly, the outside... you can imagine the problems with this). Instead of removing the existing hardwood and laying a proper plywood subfloor (which would mess with the heights of doors anyway), I want to lay down a vapor barrier over the red oak and nail new hardwood over it)

Thank you so much everyone!

If you do install over the old floor the new floor has to go the opposite direction of the old floor. Id probably look a good quality engineered floor. Being over a craw near the beach leads me to think a solid would be subject to a pretty good amount of seasonal movement.

Preferring a good quality engineered floor is a good idea.