Painted cabinets...I went with an English Chestnut stain (very similar to Walnut) on my oak floors, I decided to use white painted/glazed cabinets that touch the floors then I went with Maple cabinets on the uppers that will be stained in the same color as my flooring...while maple may have a different coloring than oak, it should still look okay...I just don't like the look of two woods competing with each other.... Tara

I am of the school that firmly believes that all woods go w/ all other woods. It is that way in nature and no one complains! Your darker floors will make the natural maple cabs look wonderful! They will be a sleek counterpoint to the darker floors. If you darken the cabs, you will loose the contrast and your kitchen will become a dark hole and you will wonder why you don't like working in there anymore. :) Too much matchy-matchy and your home becomes stagnate. Are you going to replace all other wood surfaces in the house to match the new floor? Hmmmm? I didn't think so. You just need to think of your maple cabs as one HUGE piece of furniture! Sermon over. :)

The hardwood will remain the natural rustic maple--it was there before and is one of the few surfaces that we're not replacing. The baseboards, doors (2 panel shaker red oak), and window casings will be stained the same as the baseboards (by me). What color that will be is what we're considering. I wasn't planning on painting the wood at all. The overall look of the natural rustic maple is lighter--but the colors in the floor range from light to very dark. Would a medium dark stain (like the Mission Oak from Minwax) look all right with this, and create that rustic Crafsman feel I'm trying to create? I wish I was more sure on how to "get there", but I guess that's why I'm calling for help from the experts. LOL.... THANKS, Cj

You might consider these? But they would need careful testing in your space, as they are prone to colour shift in imbalanced light. (Not directly on to the walls though, but either on board or Paint,Peel,Stick decals, so that you might move them around) Nature mixes warm & cool colours together successfully all the time,,,