i also have "red oak" floors....i know what you mean because mine aren't red or cherry at all....anyway, we have ordered our cabinets and the island is in alder/chestnut stain.....on the dark side but not expresso or black. can't really tell you what it will look like yet...just saw the sample from cabinet co. and it looked nice....

Funny, Early American is exactly the stain suggested by the color consultant. I think chestnut is an option too. I think of it as a warm deep color.

We have a DR table that we may match the island to, since it's a known color and goes well with the floor.
Thanks and good luck to you both.

I'm going through this too with alder cabinets/doors. Is Early American the brand or the color? Anyone have it that they could post a picture?

Thank you!

I have Chestnut on mine although it was done onsite and tweaked a little so not an exact formula. Yes, it does get blotchy but we liked that look as we wanted something kind of glaze-like if that makes sense. Here's our Alder in Chestnut.

Lindybarts - yours came out very rich looking. I love the warm sheen on them.

Trudymom - Good point on brand vs color. The swatch of Early American I saw was in a BM paint shop...but I can't recall the brand of stain except it was a gel stain. Anyway, I think it's a must to get samples on your wood before really knowing what you'll end up with. I think I'll ask my cabinet maker to put aside a piece for me to experiment with. If I get the time, I'll take a pic and mark up the various colors and post it.

I have alder and I love it. But it was quite an ordeal getting them right.

When I chose them I told the cabinet maker I wanted a "nice warm natural" color. Out of that, he focused on the word "natural" and only sealed them. That might have worked except for the fact that there's a lot of variation in the wood.

Here's what showed up in my kitchen:

I totally freaked at the clown stripes. We had to have them pulled out, stripped and stained to even it out. It was my mistake to be so general, I suppose, his to place that lighter board where it stuck out like a sore thumb. It cost us $2K and months of delay since we went to any available slot in the cabinet maker's and GC's production schedules after that.

It was worth it though. Here's what we ended up with when they stained the lighter boards to make them fit in and then stained the whole expanse:

and another spot where you can see the wood to better advantage:

I love the richness of the wood and its rustic quality. I hope you will too. Just specify that you want the boards hand selected for uniformity or good attention to the stain.

Wow thanks for the tip imrainey. Glad it worked out so well for you in the end.

OK, the inspiration just came to me ;-) What do you think about this idea... a medium bluish grey stain on the island keeping with my overall neutral color scheme: very subtle light grey painted cabs with cream white crown molding, natural stone backsplash, SS appliances, natural oak floors. Same countertop throughout - a dark, but not black, granite with blue pearl dots and gray mica-like (or perhaps it IS mica?) accents.

Try to look up sharon s's kitchen. Her perimeter cabinets are in wood but her island is painted a greenish gray. her kitchen is gorgeous.....not exactly what you are going for but you can see a painted island.....

I've been looking for pics of sharon_s's kitchen but haven't been able to find them anywhere except 1 tiny one in the white granite thread. Has anyone seen them? Sharon_S you still around?