Go with what you really want: the white oak wider plank flooring. For me a narrower plank has a more formal feel/look while a wider plank reads more causal. Most people want a more casual home.

This way you will have the kitchen you want and not feel like you have 'settled'. You can upgrade the rest of the floors as you have time/money and in the mean time have a kitchen you love.

I would not want to spend all the time & money agonizing over every detail of and the work of a kitchen remodel not to get what I really want. Be of good cheer and go boldly forth with your decision - you will love your kitchen.

Thank you! These last minute "UGHS" are killing me -- and at this time of the year too.... I very much appreciate your advice!

We need more pictures -- what does the floor look like? Red oak and white oak don't help in identifying the color of the stain on the wood.

I'm making the kids breakfast and have this thread open in hopes of catching anything before I have to make a decision today. The wood is all being restained in the back of the house bc they have to patch most of the rooms. So, I can do any stain. And it's all 2 1/4 except the kitchen, where there is nothing right now (subfloor only). It'll match better if everything is red oak (incl new kitchen) but I am concerned about getting the red out with a medium brown color. I wish I had white oak everywhere but not sure we want to embark on the cost of replacing everything!

Was hoping to do a medium brown with a little gray in it (to pick up the bleached part of the cabs). The wood in the top corner here is the color I'd like. Do you think I can achieve that with a red oak? the cab is the bottom color -- lighting on it is a little brighter than true. These were prefinished woods, so don't have a stain color.

Thank you for your candor, I appreciate it. I had maple in the kitchen when I made the decision and I am disappointed that the floor didn't come up in discussions with the designer. I wanted a wood stain v paint and was wearing horseblinders to that bc it looked fine on the maple. But, they are here and pretty and I'm hoping for the best. The cabinet picture is in the original post and the floors can be any color I want. We are down to the subfloor in the kitchen. We will do rift/quarter sawn to calm them down and I do think they look ok. (Agree with you, though, not ideal.) The pic in the post right above yours is just in a showroom where I brought my cabinet sample.

So do you rec we just do a 2 1/4 red oak like the rest of the house (and color as we want). Do you have experience with a medium brown and grey that gets most of the red tone out? I really would like it not to be too dark. But ok with something like jacobean with a grey?

I have a couple thoughts.

1. Always use a very good quality stain, don't use something like Minwax on your floors (I recall that "jacobean" was a minwax color, I believe).

2. Why don't you just do tile in the kitchen? Then you can choose any color you like, and don't have to worry about selecting the perfect stain color to match all that copious wood you have going on.

3. Those photos look really, really gray (could be my monitor). If you have red oak, even if toned down to a medium brown-ish color, I wouldn't add in the gray.