So we are going to lay our floor next week, BR 111 engineered Brazilian Cherry.

We are putting it in 3 adjoining rooms - living room, kitchen and step down family room.

There is a 42" opening between the kitchen and living room, so do we have to lay the boards the same direction in each of those two rooms so they meet up properly?

I know this is hard to explain, I wish I could draw a picture.

But when you walk in our house, you step into the living room - so I would think it would look best for the floors to run the length of the room.

Then the kitchen flows into the family room so rather than run the floor the length of the kitchen, I thought it would look better to run the floor across the kitchen and have it flow into the family room so it all flows in one long visual span.

THe problem - how to join the floor between the living room and kitchen? Or should we just run it widthwise across the living room (would that shrink the space too much?) The room is small, about 14 x 18.

Thanks, I know that was probably not very clear. Maybe I can take a digital picture and post it later.