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Kitchen cabinets & wood flooring similar color?

8 years ago

I don't have photos but the color of my wood cabinets & the hardwwod color i chose are similar. The installer suggested the toe plate the same as the flooring. Seems like too much of a woody look to me, i can't seem to visualize this. Any suggestions ?

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Comments (2)

PRO
Cancork Floor Inc.
8 years ago
Toe kicks often take on the colour of the cabinets. The cabinets and the floors (when wood) should have 2-4 degrees of separation between them (colours should be different; ie lighter or darker by 3 degrees).

The colour of the counter top will help point you in the direction that would best suit your kitchen. Sadly, many people are very good at creating a perfect match for wood cabs+wood floors. The difficulties come in when they try to get a few degrees of separation.

Without the 3-4 degrees of separation (darker or lighter than the cabs) the possibility of creating a kitchen with the "brown blahs" is very, very, very high. To STOP the kitchen from being boring/uninspired, there has to be something INTERESTING to hold your attention. That "something" comes with "contrast".

Example: Crisp white counters, natural cherry wood cabinets + white(ish) floor tiles. Another example: Slate gray counters + white cabinets + gray travertine-look floor tiles.

You can have floors+ cabs that have are almost identical SO LONG AS you have a REALLY STRONG counter top+ back splash...I mean SUPER STRONG!

Back to the original dilemma: you have floors that match your cabinets (or a very similar)...that means it doesn't matter if the toe kick matches floor or cabinets...the effect is the same = wood that matches both. Toe kicks will either match floors or cabinets. Your woods are almost identical...so it won't matter what you use.

The bigger picture issue could become the wood+wood is too close in colour/tone to make for an interesting kitchen. The counter top+backsplash will be the focal point....and they will either make or break the kitchen as a "point of interest" in the home.

Good luck. The choice of wood that matches floor or cabinets (in your case) doesn't matter.
PRO
Stainless Toe Kick and Wall Base
8 years ago
Check out the ideabook on our Houzz profile for some examples of stainless base as a transition between both different and similar colors and textures. One example of a transition between light and dark floors below. Hope that helps!
Contemporary Kitchen · More Info
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wow, thanks for all the help! I can see that the different adjacent woods look good in your posted pictures only because they are quite differentn from each other, not sure that I want to go too light on the new wood because it would be to "blendy" with the white cabinets. A border is an interesting idea but my kitchen might be too small to be able to pull that off, I have an approx 10 x 13 U shaped kitchen with an adjacent 10 x 8 breakfast area. I appreciate the comments to consider that the lighting in the kitchen might be quite different from the hallway. That is true but I did not think of the hallway as being dark until we had the flooring changed and it surprised me how much darker it was after the flooring change. I'm going to find some dark brown tarps to put on the kitchen floor and see what that feels like. thank you!
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Thinking on this but my first thought is not to do black cabinets. And, don't worry about "floor fatigue" so much. It's not like you'll be standing for hours in a kitchen like a restaurant chef. I have porcelain wood look tile and I don't notice the "fatigue" of a hard floor. It always looks best to have the flooring the same throughout so nix the idea of changing the flooring from the living space/kitchen space. The floor plan you show is too small to see details. I'm thinking if you are going concrete floor, mix the cabinets with natural wood look and a light counter...maybe a white quartz.
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Your kitchen sounds lovely! I am using quartersawn white oak on my cabinets and I think you will love the rift sawn (I was torn between QS and rift sawn, both are beautiful and so different from the oak cabs I took out). With your floors being red oak, they are trying to pull warmer/redder. Are your cabinets red or white oak? I lean toward weathered oak stain because I like the warmth it gives. Your floors are likely plain sawn and just the cabs are rift sawn? That will impact how the stain looks as well. Maybe a 90% weathered with 10% gray would be a good mix? https://www.houzz.com/discussions/duraseal-weathered-oak-and-classic-gray-dsvw-vd~2374805
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