I did espresso-stained maple cabinets and did a medium-dark oak floor (minwax's provencial.)

I love it. here are a couple of pics:

Very nice!!

We are in the midst of a new house build and we will have Brazilian Cherry flooring throughout. We had the same dilemma choosing a cabinet color. I tend to be drawn to darker wood tones- but we ended up choosing painted cream colored cabs instead. The samples look great together. My other concern with picking out dark cabs is that he BC floors will get darker over time and there is no way you could predict exactly what tone your floors will end up (a lot of it depends on the amount of light/UV exposure etc.)

However we will have solid wood doors throughout the house and ended up choosing a Woodharbor cherry door stained in "cinnamon". The company makes cabinets too. So you can prob check out samples of that color.That color also comes with a black glaze option for even darker cabs/doors)

My cabs are dark oak and the floor is the original (refinished) fir. I like the look.

Here is a link that might be useful: My Eventually Almost Mostly Finished Craftsman Kitchen

I guess we took the easy way out on decision making - and went with both painted and stained cabinets. Our cabinets are maple with a dark custom stain, the others a cream with some glazing. The floor is a handscraped maple, brown with some red undertones.

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I did my cousins place on the beach in Hallandale, Fla. She has BC floors and we installed maple cabinets with a dark merlot stain. (She's drawn to dark colors) The look is rich and warm. Her walls are a soft cream and the granite ( I forget the name) has a cream base with lots of brown, dark tans, and some burgandy overtones. It looks spectacutlar!

This is mine before we got new windows and barstools. The hardwood floor in the great room is BC, and the cabinets are unstained mahogany. My neighbor has the same floor in the kitchen with fairly dark cabinets. She also used a green granite and she has really good lighting.

My lighting could be better but the dark is still okay.

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All very nice. This certainly aleviates my concerns about the combination being too dark.

chinchette...love your kitchen, I looked in the FKB and couldn't find you. Would love to see more and know some details. I didn't check in-progress kitchens, I will check there now. Thanks!

Thanks. I didn't know there is an i/p kitchen blog. This one has been incomplete for over a year due to backsplash brain freeze. I will be posting again about that soon in another thread.

I think that the stainless helps break up all the dark and we used medium to light granite and its shiny. That helps.

kygirl99,
What color is your granite, it looks like it has white, taupe with specs of black. I am looking for something similar, but would like to get quartz. Do you have any close up pics?
Thanks,magoo

Brownli,

Love your floors. Who is the manufacturer?

Personally, I'm always drawn to lighter colors. I need sunlight to be able to function ... Yes, those dark woods can look very dramatic and spectacular but spending hours daily in that environment would be a different matter for me.

Nevertheless, the kitchens pictured here do work quite well even from my perspective because they are not ALL dark wood. Either the island or the cabinets have a lighter color.

chinchette's kitchen can get away with all dark cabinets + dark flooring because the kitchen is open on 2 sides to the rest of the house and gets flooded with sunlight.

Actually I really wish that we had more natural light in our kitchen but I think the dark wood is working out okay because of the light countertops and the open plan, as well as SS here and there with reflective surfaces. It is not getting flooded with light but there is light to look towards out the windows and that makes a difference. There is a big overhang on the patio outside the kitchen so not as much light in the actual kitchen. I wish we had a skylight. I'd say we have a rich and mellow look which is calming, as opposed to a bright and airy look, which I also like.

I missed this thread until now. We have brazillian cherry floors and cherry sienna cabinets. We get lots of light from two big windows along the south facing sink wall, and our adjacent atrium. Still though, we chose light counters and backsplash to balance out the darkness. In real life, our kitchen is very bright and cheery.

We have walnut hardwoods, which have both light and dark coloring, painted perimeter cabinets, and a dark stained island and built-in hutch. The hardwoods are finally being finished today and tomorrow. I'll try to post pics this weekend. We should move in (new construction) next Friday, but seems like there's still a lot to do to get it move-in ready.

judydel - very late with this posting - sorry- our floors are brand name Pinnacle - scraped Sorrel maple.