I have the "Something's Gotta Give" combo. I did a dark brown cork on the floor. There's natural maple in the rest of the house, so it is different enough to look intentional.

A medium dark grey with a black granite would also look fine. I just hated the hardness of tile, as well as the dirtiness of grout.

Cork crossed my mind, how is it holding up? Any issues with water?

thanks

Have you considered continuing your wood floors into the kitchen?

No issues at all with water.

I bought the cheapest product I could find, and they aren't natural coloured. As a result, the dog has scratched them, and the natural colour shows through. The random style of the cork means I can touch them up and the stains disappear. But they happen so frequently, I've given up in that until we put this house up for sale. :) And apparently I'm alone in this issue, so it seems to be the cheap product I bought.

Color matching the wood floor would be pretty hard I'm guessing (house is 25 yo). Also my wife is not too inclined for wood in the kitchen.

I'm thinking this tile in bronzo could go well with a black granite countertop:
http://www.ceramictileworksmn.com/Broadway

I had your same issue, sort of. I couldn't continue my red oak flooring from the dining room into kitchen due to the walnut cabinets and I have only a partial wall between the kitchen and dining room. I hated my porcelain tile. It killed my back and knees so I was determined no to get tile again. I went with Marmoleum, which was one of my best kitchen decisions.

I think cork is a great idea. Also, it would be possible to put in wood. Choose a color that is different enough to look intentional, but in the same tone (ie, red or golden or brown). Then, in the transition from the dining room, put in a piece that is running in the opposite direction -- I mean, if the DR and K floors are running in the same direction lengthwise, use a strip running across to be a border for the 2 areas. You could even stain that border piece in a pattern that uses the 2 different floor colors.

We too went with a white Shaker kitchen with dark, almost black countertops.
To complete the black & white theme, we also went with black appliances and a black slate floor.
Below is a link to our completed kitchen.
HTH

Here is a link that might be useful: Black & White Kitchen

Beautiful, nice BlueStar. Dark grey is definitely doable. Still thinking, White quartz would be easier to match for the floor. I keep reading older posts here, I'm not the first one with having the all white or black white dilemma. If going with black, I think I'd like a bit of a warm tone somewhere.

I've decided to spend the $$ getting the hardwood extended into the kitchen. A company specializing in hardwood restoration should have no problem matching the wood. In our case they are "interlacing" so that new planks overlap with old planks to reduce the transition line. Although hardwood is not my first choice practicality-wise, I am going to live with it because I want that seamless look that brings our kitchen/dining/living into a unified space.

If I was doing something other than hardwood, I would get a natural stone in compatible colours with my wood (maybe slate?) - or porcelain, done in some modern-looking way (maybe rectangular tiles, not 12"x12"). Cork would look good but too delicate as far as I'm concerned.

I loved our cork floors. We put them in two different kitchens.

I have seen hardwood extended and matched very well--much better than I would have thought possible. And we have and contractors tell us it would be no problem to match up our floor for patches in areas that currently have giant obsolete floor heat registers. So if that would be your first choice, I would investigate it more.

I color-matched red oak wood floors from a 60 year old house. The floor guy hand-nailed parquet to extend the floor and the color match was just about perfect.

Barista, There are any number of ways to warm up a white or black & white space. If you haven't picked your cabinet color yet, you could choose a warm white, which is what we did. Also, you could find a countertop with warm undertones. And there's always the option of a warm color for the walls and also warm lighting.
Just a few things to consider :)
BTW, we love the Bluestar.

We are putting white shaker cabinets with dark soapstone counters in also. Our floor is heart pine which we added a year or so ago to match the rest of the house. It did look different for a few months then everything sort of blended together and you would never know it was not installed the same time. Originally we had lovely porcelain tile but I found it to be very hard on my legs, I like to cook and standing there for any length of time hurt. Also, the hard surface was noisy, if I dropped a spoon it would echo all through our open plan home. Whenever we had guests they would congregate in the kitchen and the noise level was terrible. This was just our experience, good luck with whatever beautiful floors you choose.

We have a Pergo vinyl tile floating floor in our kitchen - had if for 12 years, and love it! It looks great, is warm, soft but durable - and very easy on the back and knees. Everyone who comes to our kitchen loves it - there are so many new options of this kind of flooring, please investigate it. Most people only think of ceramic or porcelain tile or wood - see my photo attached of our recently updated kitchen with my floor.

We continued the hardwood flooring into the kitchen replacing the old floor. 100 year old home, remodeled in "transitional" style, white shaker cabs, modern pulls, stainless appliances, integrated panels. But a strong alternative for the floor was black and white large marmoleum tiles. Stunning if done right.

We are going to have white shaker cabinets and have decided on Marmoleum (in Volcanic Ash). Sounds funny but I'm super excited about the Marmoleum! I think it's pretty versatile in that it can go in both traditional or more modern directions, style-wise.

I did white cabinets and chose to extend my red oak hardwood throughout the kitchen. Couldn't believe how well it was matched - in a good way!

Muffett I love your kitchen - the wood floors really keep the space warm.

We don't have an open floorplan so matching wasn't as much of an issue for us. I just love our red oak floors and can't imagine any other flooring in our white shaker kitchen.