Ok, so my DH brought it home and..... I don't like it :( Sometimes things have a way of growing on me but I don't think that this will. And, of course, the cabinet isn't finished yet so it's a bit hard to see it and judge with the cabinet looking the way it does above rather than the rest of the cabinets. My complaints - I think it'll be too dark. It's the darkest thing in the kitchen and it's basically the longest uninterrupted stretch of counter (the area next to it is 112 but that includes the sink) so it seems very visually prominent. I'm not a huge fan of the strips of wood next to the strips of wood in the floor. The finish on it is pretty shiny and somehow it appears very lifeless and flat - DH commented that it looks like laminate! I realize that this could be changed with a different finish on it. The positives - it looks really nice with the dark wainscotting in the dining room. It's not in the dining room of course but the view through is nice. The wood itself is pretty gorgeous. The colors and patterns are SO pretty. I'm thinking now that I need a different wood species. I think I'd prefer something that's more in keeping with the colors in the floor. Anyone have any recommendations? I'm thinking about sapele, mahogany, cherry, teak and maple. I think I'd probably prefer a plank style so that it's not as visually similar to the floor. Any thoughts or recommendations are appreciated!!

Take a look at Pirula's kitchen in the Finished Kitchen Blog--link below. She has slab cherry counters and wood floors, and her kitchen is gorgeous! Her counters and floor don't match exactly, but they look great together. (Dianalo is right about tones needing to match, I think.) Her counters were the inspiration for ours, although ours are oak. Do you have samples of the floor and counter you're thinking about? If the samples look good together, then I think you're OK. Oak counters with hickory floor: Here is a link that might be useful: Pirula's kitchen in the FKB

1st picture I would keep as is. It looks like a faux wood tile. I think the idea behind those is to minimize the grout so it looks more realistic. You also want very minimal grout between tiles. My parents have a wood look tile in their second home. One barely notices the grout lines. Second picture--I would select something a shade or two lighter. Personally I don't like when grout is darker than the tile. It reminds me of a gas station restroom and looks dirty to me. On my screen it looks like you matched the darker shade in the tile. I'd try to match the lighter shade.

Nancy, that’s really beautiful!!! We have two bathrooms with walnut vanities and our kitchen island (with an under mount sink) is walnut. All are coated with Waterlox like Nancy’s. One of the bathrooms is shared daily by our three teenaged boys, it has a sink that sort of sits on the top, not quite a vessel sink though. The other bathroom is our main floor powder room and has a vessel sink on it, it also gets a lot of daily use because we are a larger, homeschooling family. With the Waterlox, water damage is just not an issue. The boys’ bathroom is almost 4 years old, the powder room is about 2.5 years old, and the kitchen island is about a year and a half old now... zero water damage. Now, the boys’ bathroom does have some cosmetic damage to the vanity... they got some kind of bleach product on it. It hasn’t compromised the protective finish, but it has made it look cloudy there. (Waterlox tells you that bleach is a no no) I plan to refinish it after they all move out (boys are currently 17, 17, and 18). The powder room vanity did get some minor damage once, I had some foo-foo all natural liquid hand soap that was basically the same color as the wood and a big glob of it dripped onto the wood and ate right through the finish... (I think it was there for a few days before I noticed it) I do not know what ingredient caused it to do that, but I lightly sanded the area and did a spot treat touchup with more Waterlox and you really can’t tell there was ever an issue. (And now we only use foamy soap in there.) The kitchen island has a “patina.” It gets little scratches... sometimes I touch it up... it’s a very well used countertop. So, as you can see, it’s not a maintenance free surface, but water damage really isn’t a concern. Fwiw, I do not plan to use a wood vanity when we remodel our master bathroom... I use a lot of products in my daily routine, and I just don’t want to worry about where I set my flat iron or whether or not a new facial mask I might try will react poorly to the Waterlox or not. But I do still adore all three of my other Walnut countertops! Here are a couple of pictures, one of my kitchen, and the other showing part of my powder room vanity. Sorry, don’t have one of the boys’ bathroom.