Stained cabinets,natural wood floors, stained woodwork/trim - that about describes our kitchen. This was taken the day after the remodel was finished so there wasn't yet anything in place to make it look lived in.

Here is a link that might be useful:

I understand your concern. We had a medium redish toned hardwood with white cabinets in the kitchen of our old house, now we have more of a yellowish toned hardwood with maple cabinets (mocha stain with a coffee glaze). It IS brown (and darker, but that is also due to the dark granite and the black island) with this combo, but if it's what you like, get it--just make sure that you have adequate lighting. We added two pendants over the island, a fixture over the sink and one over the butler's pantry, and undercabinet lighting all around the perimeter to offset the darker elements.

{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}

Here's ours:

The key is to not try and match the woods exactly, but instead choose cabinets at least a tiny bit darker or lighter. The difference in shade is even more important if your floors are a more uniform color than what laura1202 and we have.

As soon as I figure how to post pictures and work my darn camera I will post, but I have cherry cabinets(1 shade darker then natural) and I have almost all norther red oak 3 1/2" flooring in my house except for tile in the bathrooms. The darker colors in the oak match the cherry perfectly.

Hope this isn't too much of a hijack -- Laura1202, can you tell us the name of your two countertop materials? Are you happy? Thanks!

Mollie, I also wanted hardwood floors but didn't want all the brown. We finally chose a garnet/cabernet stain for our birch cabinets. The decision took us a long time to make because we were going from a white kitchen and we worried about the "darkness" of the cabinets in our medium sized kitchen. Oh my gosh, I can't tell you how gorgeous it turned out. The natural oak is a beautiful contrast to the cabinets and they both look lovelier for it. I don't have photos yet, the guys are working as we speak. There are lots of stains out there, just pick one that contrasts, and both the floors and cabinets will stand out.

I recently renovated an 1899 Victorian duplex with existing hardwood floors, and I was worried about the same thing. I didn't want to do white cabinets but I was so worried about the whole place looking like it was hosed down in wood. I just made sure I chose cabinets that were definitely different than the floors -- in my case, my floors were pretty dark so I went with a lighter cabinet -- not "natural maple" light, but definitely lighter than the floors. I was very nervous about it, but when all was said and done, it looks great! (For the record, I didn't choose particularly light accents: I did emerald pearl granite countertops, and multi rajah slate tile backsplash. Everything looks fab!) Good luck!

We did light maple cabs, dark cherry island and medium maple floors that has some movement to the grain which ties it all in.

Here is a link that might be useful: check out the last photo

We were also worried it would be too dark and too much wood but we like how ours turned out. The floors are not stained (Brazillian Teak) but they look one shade lighter than our Alder, Chestnut stained cabinets. I think the light counters break it up too.

Lindy, your kitchen is gorgeous!

Thank you beware! ;c)

beware wrote: Laura1202, can you tell us the name of your two countertop materials? Are you happy? Thanks!

Hi beware--

I wasn't sure if you meant the countertop in each picture above? The white kitchen had Corian in Matte White and the maple kitchen has Verde Butterfly granite. I love the look of the granite (I wanted a darker granite with a more uniform pattern as opposed to a granite with a lot of movement) but there is no equal to Corian in ease of cleanup! (Yeah, I know it's plastic.)