Hello, all! I am so sorry! I forgot about this post, and something was terribly wrong with the GW search engines for a while. When I would put in my name, I got a bunch of older posts only. Plus - my mom went into the hospital for a procedure about that time - just too many things to juggle. At any rate, thanks for your friendly input. Norcalnancy,I think your combo looks wonderful! Thanks for pix. Well, I was swayed by my friend's advice toward tile - though she followed up with an e-mail saying if I wanted wood, why not go with site finished to match my other wood and pull out the color in the backsplash. The tile border is installed, and I find myself wanting to swap out half my order for some cherry engineered wide plank! This is a decision I have really gone nutso over, vascillating back and forth. I promise I will try to get my act together on how to post pix when it gets resolved! Thanks for the help.

"...and it might look OK." i think the price tag of a new kitchen is such that would make me want something that would definitely look better than just "okay". i agree the reddish woods tend to clash with cooler colors such as gray, which is why you might be having trouble finding pics with this combination. i'm sure you've come across many images with cherry cabs and painted islands in warmer hues as they tend to work well together. it's hard for anyone to say these choices would never work, but there is a greater chance that they won't. i completely agree i would also like to see a different color on the island. depending on the tone/hue of the cabinets, black could work very well. i have a hard time suggesting "colors" since my preference is to work with a limited palette -but that's just my preference for a kitchen. i'm sure other color-adventurous people will chime in! GL.

I got a sample door of driftwood with ebony glaze on cherry and really liked it. I think I would have been happy with Starmark, but after figuring tax/installation/etc the difference between them and the custom shop was very little and my contractor really wanted me to use the custom shop. The custom shop allows things to be a little more "custom" too which is nice. They work together well with the contractor so it has made things easier than I think it would have been otherwise. I ended up matching a stained maple to Starmark driftwood with a black glaze. It's very close in appearance. The kitchen is still in progress so I don't have any finished pictures (probably 4-6 weeks out still), but here is a sample door with the stain. This isn't the door style we ended up using, its more for color. This is my custom shop's maple, but it looks very similar in color/tone to the cherry driftwood sample I got from Starmark. I think the glaze is important on cherry or maple to mellow out the underlying wood tone, otherwise looks really pink (was not a fan at all of that look). Oak might be able to get away with plain stain. It's a little dark, I thought about doing the whole kitchen in it, but ultimately settled on a mix of light grey paint (matched to SW Repose Grey) on one wall and the island/mudroom/appliance wall/desk all stained. Omega porch swing seemed pretty similar, I cross shopped that too. I think I would have done QS oak inset if I stuck with starmark or omega. I really liked Porch swing with a brushed ebony finish.

Cherry can work very nicely with blue. So long as you have a blue/gray, you can have a strong contrast which highlights both the cabinets and the floor colour. You already have a blue based gray tile in the kitchen up against the cabinets. You can see it just in the background of your first photo. If you need to, simply pick a gray that works will with the existing kitchen floor (but go SEVERAL steps lighter). But buyer beware! Any of the grays you are looking at will DARKEN the space! And that can lead to more money being spent on lighting upgrades and paint upgrades. And if that doesn't work you might have to look at changing out the counter tops because you will have mid-tone gray on mid-tone gray and then mid-tone cherry. All of that turns much darker than you imagined it would. And just for fun, the hardwood colour already in place is a great fit with the cabinets. BTW: gray is on the way out as a fashionable colour. The lighter floors are more the "in" colour. And I mean so pale they are almost silvery white.