Surely you had something in mind when you chose the floors?

well you can either do a medium walnut stain, or keep them on the lighter side. I mean, what else can you do??

here's white oak, lighter stain, and walnut cabs

I'd do something cool like this w/the flooring

You may want to keep the floors light, this will give a nice contrast with the cabinets. similar to second pic above. Further, Lighter floors don’t show dust and dirt as readily.

"What looks best with walnut cabinets?"

What style walnut cabinets? What type/color finish on the walnut cabinets? What type/color countertops? Backsplash? You need to give more info so people can help you...................

I personally do not like oak and walnut together so now I guess keep the floor light.

jn3344, we did have a medium stained floor in mind, but our reality is we're wanting/needing to go lighter. We're searching for the answer to "just how light?" It's at least as difficult as picking a white paint, and we've seen a few different floors next to walnut we really like.

millworkman, a picture is worth a thousand words so here's the general scheme of the other materials:

Here's the cabinet

Here's countertops (ours Cambria Brittanicca specifically). Same backsplash as well.

Beth H, you're right that it's either medium to light. We've never actually laid eyes on light floors, and therefore hadn't given light any thought. However, here we are seeing our house moving along nicely, and suddenly found ourselves discussing light floors, as in, really light to unstained like in the above picture (sinful, right?). Simply, we want the floors to work well with the cabinets.

We know that all selections are connected and need to work well, but our only issue is the walnut/flooring combo.

PG, we like how you think. Thanks to all, and please, the more the merrier with comments. I'll post photos.

Hello Sam,thanks for the compliment. I know all abt dark floors, lol..just put them in. yikes! Never again...glad we are selling this house. But when they are clean, they look amazing. But I hate cleaning them 2x day Lol

I would keep them natural....no stain....just poly. Light floors are much easier to care for and they keep the space brighter.

You need to do something like this:

I like the natural the best :

@Sam Gentry, curious to know what you decided! And photos? :)

I love that classic midcentury feel, but in other styles it looks great aswell.

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I’ll post pics this evening.

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Well it’s dusk so here’s a couple shots of the dining room with different lighting. I’ll post kitchen pics tomorrow with good natural light (and once the counters are cleared)

Thanks for sharing and really lovely! @Sam Gentry

Please remind me what kind of finish and/or stain you have on those floors? I'm hoping for a natural golden look like this, though I guess sometimes a small bit of stain helps subdue any green or pink tones lurking inside (?). Flooring pros, feel free to weigh in. :)

It's usually best when mixing wood tones to have them look different. When they look similar but just slightly different it's a near miss and looks like a mistake. So I wouldn't stain the oak to make it warmer or darker to look more similar to the walnut. I'd clear-coat it and just let it be different and enjoy the contrast of light and dark.

I don't think white oak and walnut are two naturally unfriendly woods ( like say, walnut and cherry, which clash big time). Walnut and white oak are both somewhat cool-toned. I think they would be fairly simpatico together in their natural state.

There are some woods that are considered friendly, meaning they look good together, like walnut and maple or cherry and ash. There are other woods that are considered unfriendly together meaning they clash, with cherry ( which is red) and beech ( which is green) being the worst example.

Woodworkers will commonly mix woods they consider friendly. Here is a picture of a bed made with white oak and walnut that looks very nice. As woodworkers do mix white oak and walnut I believe they are considered friendly.

@User, thanks, that was my also thinking, but yesterday a designer was telling me that monochrome (mixing dark with dark, etc.) is the way to go if I wanted a contemporary look. Umm! Not so sure I can handle that.

I really hoped to do our natural ash floors with the walnut kitchen cabs, but looks like that's not going to work (ash is hard to get thanks in part to beetle curse), so I'm aiming for light white oak floors now.

Mittens Cat I think contrast can be nicer than matchy-matchy. And white oak is a wood that plays well with many other woods, and can look very pretty with walnut.

@User, agreed. But the samples of natural white oak I just tried (from several different brands) were still a bit too dark for the walnut cabinet pairing. I had a couple of designer friends come over and weigh in and they agreed. So bummed! :-<

I should mention some of the white oak samples were from @Oak & Broad and the quality and craftsmanship of those were REALLY impressive! Wish I were starting over from scratch!

@Sam Gentry, i keep forgetting to ask: is that black walnut or just everyday walnut? (whatever that is). It looks like black walnut, from my vantage point. Thanks!

Let’s call it everyday walnut. If it’s black, we didn’t ask for it.

There is only one genuine Black Walnut. Its grown here in the United States. Lots of companies will import lesser quality species from other countries and generically call it "walnut" Sam Gentry cabinets are genuine Black Walnut.

@Sam Gentry

I absolutely love your kitchen!! Having a walnut kitchen installed this summer, I was between honey bronze and matte black for the hardware. Leaning matte black now! Love your look, clean, classic, understated. Beautiful!

Wow. Thank you. We’ve been in the house almost three years and we still love every bit of it. Walnut seems to be eye catching to guests (back when we socialized, of course), but my wife and I continue to talk about much we like the walnut.

Sam Gentry, I love your cabinets as well. Can you share the manufacturer?

Custom made by https://www.houzz.com/pro/dlchapman/legacy-woodworks

We have years of experience with them. Could not recommend more highly.

Hi Sam! Question are your countertops quartz Cambria Brittannica? If so how do you like them?

Exactly what we have. Frankly, they’re perfect. They withstand everything from red wine, green play doh, red sauce, and colored markers, to the unplanned dancing on the island.

That is Awesome!!! Thank you!!