I wasn't sure whether you were adding uppers, an island, a different wall or what when you said you were adding cabinets, so wasn't thinking that you were going to be putting them side-by-side and would need to extend countertop. Since the manufacturer is probably still making your cabinets, it definitely would be less $$ to just add to them - any differences in color from light/aging on old cabinets should blend in after a while. Just curious - did you buy this house recently and inherit the cabinets, or did you build/reno 4 years ago and choose the current cabinets yourself? If you got a really good price for the house then maybe you're not as concerned with replacing newer cabinets and doing all maple. You could always use older cabinets in laundry or maybe even bath (some people like higher vanities), sell them on CL or donate them to Habitat or something. if you're adding a lot of cabinets (like almost as many as are there already) then do what you like, no sense spending a lot to add to something you're not crazy about.

Right after I posted this message I called around trying to find spanish oak gel stain and I cant find it anywhere. So I guess onto plan "b"... painting, I was really wanting to gel stain so that I could skip the priming step. So now my question is: have any of you distressed furniture pieces in black? If so will you share your pics of it and tell me how you did it? Also are there any other gel stains that look black?

blakey - not it's not. It is Danby Vermont Marble. I found it at Dente in NJ and I absolutely love it! I could show you pictures of disappointing Calacutta Gold marble that we bought, at tremendous expense, for our master bath. The slabs were very white with a LOT of gray and barely any of the gold color my husband so loved in the sample. We had to keep buying a ton of the floor tiles to try to get the whitest tiles we could, so they would look right with the slab couters and sills. In hindsight, I don't think my husband would have gone for the Calacutta Gold marble, knowing what he knows today. About my marble top - I had "final" cleaners in (that I hired at great personal expense since my GC's cleaners were pathetic) yesterday, the day before our scheduled move. Four people cleaned for 7 hours in my kitchen, removing all drawers, cleaning inside the cabinet boxes, inside all the filthy brand new appliances inside and out, etc. They were almost done when my GC had the fabricator's workmen in to my kitchen to grind out the long, curved gouge one of his workers put in my island top! This, after I left specific and sternly worded instructions that my marble top was to be REMOVED because I did not want marble dust all over the kitchen after the cleaners were here. They ground the top. I walked in after 15 minutes and started screaming and cursing at anyone in sight! We were not able to move in today. My top looks like you-know-what. I am not ever speaking to my GC again; he has to go through my husband for EVERYTHING now, because my breath is wasted on him since he clearly doesn't listen to me. I'm so angry I could (and did, many times) cry! (Grrrrrr.)

When you say "stain" how dark are you talking about? I have a friend who stained her oak floors pretty dark, and EVERY crumb shows. It's a PITA. She regrets it. One of the best things about natural oak floors is that they don't show dirt, that is, unless you stain them dark. As others have noted, some finishes can change the oak color if sun hits it. My kitchen faces north, with trees blocking most of the light, so I don't worry about my unstained natural oak floors - they were last finished 7 years ago and look the same now as they did then. But if your kitchen has, e.g., a south-facing window, you should ask your floor guy what is the best preventative for color changing.