While personal preference is a factor the direction in which you run hardwood flooring boards is governed by visual and structural guidelines.
Changing wood floor direction.
Designer karen sealy has great tips when it comes to transitioning your floors and introducing new panels.
Yet another exception if you have solid wood floors not engineered on a pier and beam foundation then you don t have a lot of choice as far as which direction to run the flooring it would best be run perpendicular to the joists.
You can install your wood planks lengthwise into your kitchen butted against the boards running in the other direction in the adjacent room.
Visual congruity usually requires the boards to run.
The traditional way to run a hardwood floor whether you are working with a nailed down or floating format is to have the planks running parallel with the longest most visible wall in the room.
We have mostly slab foundations in this area and with engineered floors you have more flexibility.