LONG but I wanted to tell Jeri all this about my floor in case she is interested in it or her husband is. Jeri, I was so surprised at how much grain Brazilian Cherry has also and there are more boards with more grain I wanted to send in pictures of but I knew that I sent enough pictures before I would bore all of you. I think if you go with a sawn cut engineered or a solid wood plank that is 5" wide (that is what my BR-111 planks are and fit together very tightly IF you have a good installer like my second installer since I floated the floor so 3-M tape was supposed to be used for 1 hour), you will see all the grain. When you walk on the floor, it feels like a solid hardwood floor and you can't tell that it was floated. I floated it for the tiny bit of give and for the extra insulation using the Floor Muffler with the Ultra Seal. I was afraid that gluing it down wood make the floor colder (I have little dogs that walk on the floor so I was thinking of them) and would be a harder surface to walk on. No one can tell so far that has visited that it is engineered with 3M of real wood over plywood. I had wanted Brazilian Cherry for the longest time but kept trying to fall in love with other wood species due to the change in color and fear of it getting too dark. I was amazed that if you leave all furniture off and open all the windows for about 3 weeks that the wood gets richer and darker without being too dark. I have not seen any more darkening up but if there is any, it is subtle since under the TV stand and under the cabinets when moved, there is no color change that I can see. The wood was so brown when I first opened the boxes that I was disappointed and had wished I spent more and went with the Santos Mahogany that I love and still love (Was more money so that is why I went with Brazilian Cherry since the two woods are so similar) but it sat in the family room for awhile until I found a painter and a flooring guy to install it so maybe exposure to oxygen quickens up the darkening process? I also am in an interior townhouse and most of my lights are not overhead but floor lamps if that makes a difference but I do keep all the blinds open in the day time with my big windows in my family room and the floor has not darkened up more and under the TV stand (has wheels) is the same color. The wood in person is very neutral and is brown and orangey brown with a few boards being a reddish-brown. At night with the lights on, it looks more red. It is always beautiful in color and very interesting with the varied grain and goes so well with my cherry desk and credenza and looks nice against the putty cabinets, the Bone White walls, the taupe sofa or any other color that I have near it. There is an amazing abundance of grain with the floor so interesting and not boring which shocked me at first since I had wanted a floor with little grain like I saw in the 3.25" board samples I had here but now I am liking the interesting grain. I chose Brazilian Cherry since it is good with dryness in case I am sleeping and do not have the humidifiers on in the winter time until I wake up. So far no buckling which is good. The wood is very good with dog pee which I know from my experiments from soaking wood in dog pee and now from actual use with my little dog Lexi marking. It cleans up easily and does not turn black. She has been very good since I got the floor and is now marking more outside in the back yard and only once in awhile needing to put her scent on the floor and does not go back to the area that I clean so that is good. I bought the wood from TrueHardwoods.com and no one locally could match their price but I did find two other online stores with similar prices for the 3.25" and the 5" widths. I chose TrueHardwoods.com due to my neighbor having such success. Again, Jeri thanks for the compliments.

We don't have hardwood in our kitchen, but do throughout the dining, living, entry, etc. where we used Douglas fir doors and woodwork. It has the same base colors, but is lighter. I think American cherry would also be nice for the same reasons. Maple or red birch would be a lighter contrast than the fir or cherry. I don't think this photo does either wood the justice it deserves, but it's hard to photograph it accurately.

From those on this kitchen forum, do you think that I should continue the Brazilian Cherry floors into the kitchen now that I have new appliances or will that not make the two small rooms look separate so I should do a pretty big tile or some other kind of floor? I like having the two rooms look like two separate rooms and I like how easy my Linoleum floor is to clean when I let my little dogs in and out the back kitchen sliding door but I am ready to change the 20 year old floor and update the kitchen. What color tile or other floor would look nice? I know there were a few kitchens I liked with big tiles. My friend is trying to push me to go with a tile look alike that is softer. I am thinking of going with dark Cherry kitchen doors hardware added unless I should just touch up the oak where it is worn and just change the counters? Any ideas of colors for the counters? I guess you should look at my new appliance post to answer these questions where I put the link below. Sorry about repeat posts but after I took so long to do one post, I was trying to copy and paste it to share to another forum on the GW forum for more responses. I am ready to continue the renovation of my kitchen and add framed pictures to the other rooms to finish them off. One day, I will change the TV to an LCD TV but for now, I want to work on the kitchen since the TV's screen is crystal clear and works so well. Here is a link that might be useful: Stainless Steel Appliances in my kitchen Link to help me continue to make changes with suggestions & ideas

Brazilian Cherry is a strong colour. It starts off as a nice even brownish tone (like a light walnut) and then DARKENS or STRENGTHENS in colour. It has two colour palettes: orange/red (like flames or fire) or pink/purple (like a colour found on some cars). Yours appears to be the flame orange/red. You will need to sand this down to raw wood (it looks to be a factory finish which *could mean this is going to be a difficult/expensive event) and then stain it a medium brown tone that has plenty of green in it. Green undertones cover up red tones. But here's the kicker, you will not know how DARK the floor will be for several months. Brazilian Cherry (aka Jatoba) DARKENS as it is exposed to "light" (yep...overhead lighting also does it...not just sunlight). With continued exposure to sunlight (as in LOTS AND LOTS of direct sunlight for many hours a day for years and years) the Jabota will then fade to a much lighter reddish gold. Whew. Most people need to work with a strong colour like American Walnut + Jacobean to get a "brown" Brazilian Cherry. Both stains have green undertones to them which is why they are able to tone down the fire red colour in the floors. But be aware that the colour you choose for the floors TODAY will NOT be the colours you get to live with for the next 25 years. Brazilian Cherry LOVES to change colours. It LOVES to throw in a curve ball just when you thought you had nailed the colour. If you are not ready to play "hide and seek" with colours/stains just yet, I suggest you leave it alone. The floors appear to be in good shape. A full sand/refinish is usually done around 25 years of age. I would say those floors are fairly new (7 years old...or so???). And a factory finish is often an Aluminum Oxide finish. These are SUPER tough finishes to remove. They can take twice the effort (and cost) to remove the finish. That means the average cost for refinishing a floor ($5/sf) goes up to around $7 - $8/sf. So before you make any more plans, PLEASE bring in the BEST professional you can find and have them look at your floor. Most of these high-end guys can spot an Aluminum Oxide finish. A few of them will attempt it (with the higher cost to refinish) while the rest of the 'guys' will simply walk away and refuse to return any of your messages. First things first: bring in a professional to give you a quote. After that, go ahead and figure out if you can live with a brown floor that could be "too red" if you get the stain wrong or "too dark" if the floor darkens more than you anticipated. And then decide if your money is better spent on a new type of hardwood floor.