Looking to lay a hardwood floor (probably 3/4" hickory) in my MBR- see image below for layout of room.

The floor will run perpendicular to the joists but I'm not sure which end of the room to start- any suggestions?

 

I haven't done a lot of flooring, but personally I would start in the middle of the room (ensure that first board is reasonably parallel to the end walls) and then create a spline on that first piece so that you can work outward in both directions from it.

 

I would go from left to right, the first board would be in front of the door then use splines to go back into the closets.

When you end at the right you will just have fit pieces at the walls,

 

 

Not a lot of experience here either, but I would probably go left to right as well, essentially anyway, starting at the door and working back only into the closets, because you're most likely going to wander at least a wee bit at some point, and this way you could assure yourself of a straight line as you enter the room. But because your room is not perfectly square (none of them are), don't just pick any point to start. Figure a starting point that will leave you as close as possible to the center of the board when you reach the opposing walls, rather than figuring a full board on one wall and whatever it takes at the opposite wall. That way when you're a little tight or a little loose on a board here and there it won't be as obvious on the ripped pieces on the last rows. Even a two inch wide tapered strip along a wall is going to show less than say a 3/4" strip. This part is a lot more tedious than actually laying the boards, but I think it's where you can make a difference. I have used bricks and mason line on initial layouts like this, so that you can move them around a bit until you're satisfied, rather than having a bunch of extra chalk marks on the floor.

 

You ill not have a trim piece at the door so if it was the last piece and the angle was off you would have a gap that you could not hide.

Use that surface as the starting point and you will have a nice even gap, 1/8" that can be caulked depending on the threshold, will look the best.

 

Here is a link to an informative page that helps explain why I suggested you measure carefully and start in the middle of a large room.

https://www.signatureflooringinc.com...-It-Needed.pdf

 

If it were not for the door then there would be no issue starting middle, left or right.

I've never split a room and some of the rooms were large but no issues.

Again, the only issue by not starting at the door is you cant be sure that last board is going to fit exactly next to the threshold,