Don't use laminate if you can afford it. Get solid hardwood. It can be replaced, refinished and sanded over time. We've been very pleased.

I love my bamboo floor in the kitchen (as well as everywhere else except the bathrooms). So hard nothing bothers it, and it laughs at normal kitchen water sprinkled around. It probably would have been fine in the bathrooms too, but I wanted black and white tile in the hall bath.

I have 3/4" site finished oak in the kitchen, and had bamboo in my previous home. Loved them both! It's so "warm" on bare feet.

I love Cherry floors, but I would not put them in my own kitchen because they're so soft. They dent and ding very easily.

We've got old solid oak hardwood from late 70s in our kitchen are still beautiful, easy to clean, and shiny. So my suggestion is - Go for hardwoods

As I'm sure you are aware hickory cabinets usually have lots of variation in color and grain. Within the same cabinets you may see white to reddish brown. These variations are more prevelant on cabinets with a natural finish. It can be very dramatic and your cabinets will definitely be the star of your kitchen.

I think you really need to look carefully at what type of wood you choose for your floor. In my opinion it should be something with minimal graining. Perhaps you should consider maple with a stain on it. You are right in thinking that the color should not be almost the same as the cabinets or it will look like a sea of wood. You should have contrast between your cabinets and flooring. I know want a light kitchen but darker floor will actually ground your kitchen and really won't make the overall kitchen dark. I think you should pick out one of the darker brown variations in you cabinets and use that as your floor color. Whatever you decide, I think your floor should be at least 3 shades lighter or darker than your cabinets.

I have natural cherry cabinets in my kitchen and my floors are natural ash. I think the contrast is a great feature.

If you search google using the terms gardenweb, hickory cabinets and wood floors or flooring you should find lots of discussions and photos.

Good of luck with your choices. Can't wait to see your reveal.

I love solid hardwood floors. They can be repaired if there is a plumbing catastrophe, sanded, retained multiple times over the years. I prefer a high gloss polyurethane finish as it's harder, easy to keep clean and I've found it wears far better than more subtle satin finish. I have dog and my kitchen opens directly to the outside, and it's been great. I had it before in another house for a few years, and in this one for 13 and it looks like new. You can also get exactly the color of stain you want as it can be mixed just like paint. I've used part mahogany and part walnut - just added it together until I liked the color.

Thanks everyone, we will price hardwood and then see if we need to trim costs. I don't know if I will have any of the kitchen cabinet doors before I have to choose a flooring color or not, but I could just go with one of the samples of hickory and chose the darker color from it. I do know hickory is multi colored, especially the rustic hickory. I like the rustic, hubby doesn't think he can live with that much variation so it will probably be the non-rustic, which will still be nice since we are building along a woodland that had many hickories as well as other trees. I will look for a hardwood that has less grain pattern, but still durable. :)