Thanks all, you are so helpful. Things I learned today: Mondragon's table in not actually dark, and since I love the color so much, get over it! And noone freaked out about dark counters, so must be an ok idea. My cabinet doors are most likely maple. In fact birds eye maple was popular around here decades ago, and a local shop specialized in them. Maybe that's what I have. Maple is hard to stain, (due to not being very porous) use a conditioner. Wood dye is recommended for hard to stain woods (particles are very tiny and will will be able to penetrate this non-porous wood). Buy some wood dyes (and they are only $10 for enough to make 2 quarts) and play with the color, try it on the back of a door. The dye will deeply penetrate the wood, not just be on the surface. It is said to compliment and maximize grain, so I like that. Sanding will be important, as the dye will raise the grain. Conditioning the wood will help with this also. Rockler sells the wood dye recommended to celticmoon, and an outlet store is near me. DD and I will go there on our way to the big (I mean massive) Friends School Plant Sale in St. Paul MN next week. nomorebluekitchen: I've been pondering the lighting situation for a while now. We have under cab lighting, there kind of difficult to turn on, but they do help. It'd be nice to get them all on one switch, but I doubt it, as hubby just replaced the switches. Maybe next year after he's forgotten. I think we need to do a bunch of cans, as there is so little head room for lights (aspecially for 6'2" hubby) ci lantro: thanks for voting on the cab wood. I think I will assume they are maple and go from there. slc2053: Good idea about the conditioner, I'll look into that. Sounds like you're in a similar boat to me...I chose not to paint because of the flat door style. And I like the grain, so why hide it. Buehl: Yes, teacher, I read the whole thread. I got bored towards the end but I figured I wanted to have a good report back to you, so I finished it. Then I also read the whole thread "Evil Polyshades" that celticmoon started on the woodworking thread, too, which inadvertently lead me to the concept of wood dye for hard to stain woods like maple. pbrisjar: very pretty, love the floors especially. Wow, good work! Here's my address... Thanks for all the advice, it really helped! Now just a little more research on wood dye and maybe Waterlox on top and we might have a place to start. Gratefully, Amy

LOL. It was the professionals that primed over a door that was supposed to be stained. Anyway I am sure my GC has stained doors before but now that he had to replace the door once (and it wasn't cheap), he is afraid to even breath on the door now. He is basically looking for me to confirm that he should do X to the door, and that way if he does X, I can't turn around and say oh you ruined the door.

what is the wood species of your island....and what is the perimeter in your space? I think because it's the island, I might pick a slightly lighter stain and have them glaze it,as long as you have some detail for the glaze to lay on. For an island, this kind of a detail, not complicated to achieve ,would be actually easier at this point than the trial and error trying to find just the right pigment to"allow" grain toshow......and really on the island, being below counter, not sure it's going to be appreciated so much...up on the walls where light hits and your eyes naturally get the full on view is a different matter. It's just going to look dark below the counter once you go that dark with an all over stain.....so add café or dark bronze glaze to a medium-dark stain......easy!

A lot of it depends on the style and colors of the home. So if you can, post some pics of the spaces. Tile is fine for the kitchen. As is hardwood. But if your nervous and choose to go with a tile. There are so many options that can work nicely with wood. Again, depends on the style of the space. I always love a checkerboard pattern tile. It’s clean. And matches most everything.