Jubilee, I guess I'll revise my remarks a bit by saying that I'm only going by what my designer taught me about the flow thing... Our house is not huge, it's a medium 2600 sf 2-story, so in essence the downstairs really is not that big. I wanted to mix like that, and she said in a small area (or at least not a LARGE area!) not to have so many different floorings. To avoid patchiness. To give flow, so it, well, flows. And seems larger and more cohesive. I have to say lately looking at model homes, her advice has been borne out as I've seen the same wood flowing throughout houses, with small amounts of carpet and stone here and there. Your carpenter is probably right, but he's probably also talking about very large houses, so that is a different story (than my house). I don't know if yours is a big house or normal house. Also, my own experience has been that the very best and most talented carpenters and cabinetmakers I've had, have not been especially genius at interior design, so I've learned to turn to my designer for design advice, and pretty much take their design advice with a grain of salt. Maybe yours is different than mine have been... Yes I have lived to regret two different floorings in abutting rooms. We had existing yellowish oak in kitchen/family room/hall/powder room (most of downstairs), and added pinkish-yellowish oak to an adjoining study. Actually it was the same wood, just ten years younger. I thought it would blend. It didn't. Since the ten year old floor was pretty grunged, we had someone distress the whole thing, including the brand new... and this included re-staining them to a really warm and mellow toasty color. Now they all match, and I absolutely love it, and have to say my designer was right about flow. I wonder if a solution like that might work for you, then you could have exactly the color you want, and flow as well. It cost me just over $2K to have the whole thing done, and I live in expensive Southern California. Now that I have seen it done, I think I could do it myself if I wanted to work hard.

Yes, the sprayed paint should dry down flat. If it's dryng with an orange peel look, then that is likely a problem with atomization. The paint not atomizing can really occur because of any number of reasons....wrong tip, wrong fan size, wrong pressure setting, wrong temperature of material, wrong temperature of the air, wrong paint, wrong primer, paint applied too heavy, paint not applied heavy enough, overspray, etc. Were the doors laying flat when sprayed or upright? Sometimes if they are sprayed upright, gravity can actually make the paint sag a little bit and that may end up looking like an orange peel. You could try to sand it out. You can paint over the oil based paint with latex, but it needs to be dull and you may even want to reprime.

Painted my 20 yr old pine cabinets white about 3 years ago, I had glass put in a couple of the doors. After weeks of the process, taking doors, shelves out, cleaning, degreasing, sanding, prime, sand, prime, 2 coats of white-I used Benjamin Moore's cabinet paint, it wasnt recommended to coat with a clear coat, unless you want a shiny, plastic type look...I read forever about this process. To this very day, they look wonderful and clean very easily, just wipe off, no nicks. I think having no shiny clear finish makes them look like a rich, thick, white. By the way, I did buy the 30 dollar paint brushes I had read about, but found thru the process....honestly those little foam rollers, and brushes gave a smoother finish and I could toss them at the end of the day.

The flat paint isn't recommended for a cabinet or other furniture. Especially flat red. It will leave a lot of brush strokes and look horrible after drying. The red finish will burnish every time you attempt to clean it, or even touch it. But, if you don't intend to ever touch it or wash it, or care how ugly it will be, go for it. :) When BM says "slight wash ability" they do mean slight. Regal flat is for ceilings and walls that don't get touched.