view from kitchen... to the left is the front door

You have a lovely home with oodles of potential! if this was my house, I'd remove your kitchen peninsula and the small island and put in a big island. I find the existing peninsula closes off your kitchen. If you are replacing floor & countertop, this would be perfect time to build a new island. If you don't like the look of oak cabinets, paint them. The rest of your main floor is very beige and bar stools are dated looking. Perhaps take a colour cue from your tv stand. Add more colour in new artwork. Good luck!

Thank you! I really love our home :) adding color is definitely something that is needed

Are you saying "but it's oak" because of what you've read, or seen, or heard? I assure you, oak is not the devil that we're being forced to believe... :) I have a lot of it and I'm not embarrassed to say that I like it. I don't listen to what I'm told, I guess.

Wondering why you don't have a table in the eating area? The island looks a bit odd where it is, to be honest. You're serving bar is really for serving and not wide enough for sitting at, but I do have a couple of small stools at mine for "perching and chatting" people...

Most likely you want countertop, backsplash, and maybe new paint? Something light and neutral...

What colors do you like?

I'm not opposed to oak necessarily. It's just that it seems to clash with our dark floors. The oak we have is of good quality though.

As for the island, we don't have enough counter space in the kitchen so it's just to add more work space. We got a smaller one because if it was much bigger it would take up to much space.

We do plan on getting new countertops, kitchen floor, maybe backsplash. Then paint.

I do like neutrals, blues, mixed with earthy colors mostly.

If you're going to get new counter tops, I'd consider lowering the bar area to make it counter height. That would also give you more space to work on when people aren't eating there.

I disagree with the above (sorry, no offense meant!). I have what you have, op and I would never lower the serving bar. It creates a barrier for what you don't want seen. Unless you're the kind of person who religiously washes and dries and puts away dishes...has no bottle of Dawn on the counter. Keeps the sponge under the sink, etc....

Okay, so why couldn't you have a table as a workspace in that area? Tables have always been used that way when kitchens were on the small side. No problem.

I see there are kids around (lucky you!)...table in our house are frequently used for board games, puzzles, etc...

I do like blues and beige together, but it looks like your paint tends more toward a gold color???

Monitors don't translate colors well at all so it's very difficult to suggest a color. I very much like soapstone (or soapstone look) counters with oak and it looks like you have enough light in the rooms to handle that...

Is that doorway in the middle of the kitchen wall (on the right) really needed? If not, I would close it up to give you more options for a better functioning kitchen. You might not have the funds for it now, but perhaps you could make a plan and start saving for a more complete revamp of the kitchen layout, with some new or additional cabinets/counter on the doorway wall and better use of the space.

I also have oak and like it. Mine is mixed with a lot of white and blues. However, I can see where decisions have been made that are making the warm wood tone less attractive. The dark floor - which you love and the backsplash (maybe your choice?) are a bit of a miss with the warm wood tones. If you like your layout, consider refacing the cabinets with new doors - possibly white or dark like your floors. I think dark with the present backsplash would be too dark. You seem to prefer cooler tones, and since you have invested in the new floor, continue in that direction.

Colors are notoriously hard to tell onscreen, so take this all with a grain of salt. Your new floor color looks warmer in your hallway picture, so it's hard to tell what color it really is, although it's certainly warmer than the oak.

I think you need to stay away from cool colors such as blue, and also avoid warm colors such as yellow. That leaves you with neutrals such as a cool beige or a warm gray - a greige like Edgecomb Gray (Benjamin Moore). My son has used it in his house in a couple of areas, and it looks good with his honey oak trim.

The other really useful neither-cool-nor-warm color is green. A gray-green would look very good in your rooms I think. SW Sea Salt is a color that a lot of people seem to use successfully.

I think the blue of your TV cabinet is a jarringly cool color in your room.

You might want to invest in having a pro come to your house with a fan deck of paint colors. My sister recently had a house stager help her with a room. Not as expensive as the decorators she has used in the past.

I think you have a lot going on in a small space. It looks like you have 3 paint colors, a beige in the kitchen, a green in the hall and red in the dining room. I suggest choosing one good neutral paint color, a white or tan (like BM Manchester Tan), to unify the spaces. You also have 3 wood species going on with your stairs and baseboards a light wood (which doesn't look good with the dark floor), medium oak cabinets, and dark wood floor. If it were me, I would paint the baseboards and wood bannisters white. I would accent throughout with shades of blue. You have a good start on that already with your chair and curtains. Blue soapstone countertops and a pretty light porcelain tile floor would look nice with your oak. You may be able to pull this off without painting your good quality oak cabinets.

I would remove the small island that doesn't belong in that space, turn the curved tall peninsula into a straight island with room to walk into the kitchen from either side, and extend your new wood floors into the kitchen. Paint the cabinets a warm white which will work better with your floors.

I would start by priming all the different colored walls. They'll be ready for whatever color you choose and you'll have a blank canvas to help you judge what's really what here. I would remove that little island and put another can light in place of that pendant. The peninsula does hide a multitude of kitchen sins, and I like that. I think you can replace the current barstools, and then eliminate the ladder shelf, the demi-lune table, your end tables (and lamp,) the rug, curtains, and all the stuff on the walls, which is either too small or poorly placed/hung. This will allow you to see your space differently. Then start ideabooks of rooms you'd like to imitate.

Get some help, a lot of paint stores in my area, will send someone to your home for color consultation. Get with a kitchen designer, you need to know what the possibilities are with that space. Declutter and look into some better products for your windows [ just noticed you have toddler] might want to wait a year or two before doing that. Is it hard to watch TV with the furniture configurated that way? You might want to rethink that as well. Get some kind of plan that you can accomplish at your own pace.

The only choice we have had in this house is the wood floor. When I picked it out my hubby and I had the plan to paint the trim to a white. Now, hubby is opposed to the idea due to how big of a project it would be, plus do you then paint the oak doors etc. I am hoping that by putting a lighter color throughout this floor, it will minimize the obvious difference between the trim and the floor. I am having serious anxiety over all of this now though ahhhhh Anyway, I am now in a tough spot, design wise.

The backsplash is replaceable as far as I am concerned. I am sort of envisioning a white marble counter top with gray subway tile, large white tiles in on the floor. My biggest design issue is the oak clashing with the darker floors.

Don't worry about the floor yet....it's really pretty.

I would start with a neutral off white on the walls.

I would avoid gray and cool colors. The difference between the floors is not only that one is dark and the other lighter, but also that the dark is a much cooler color.

The way to bring them together is not to choose colors that are light, but to choose colors that are neither cool nor warm, but bridge the difference. I don't think white is the answer either, and white kitchen tiles are really a pain. Hard to keep looking clean, especially a light grout. And a darker grout in white tiles gives a very busy effect.

The first thing you need to do is make your space functional for your needs. It looks mighty uncomfortable to try to watch TV with the second arrangemen. I would put it back to what you had originally. I think you can accomplish a lot with paint. A beautiful indigo paint on your kitchen walls and on the island would define the space and tone down the yellow of the oak cabinets. Then I would paint the rest of the rooms an off-white. Add blue pillows to your sofa. Invest in new drapes hanging them close to the ceiling.

@Amanda Smith Oh we only had it arranged that way for a birthday party we had lol We have it arranged in a much more comfortable way to watch tv now haha

@partim, thanks for pointing out that the problem isn't necessarily the contrast in colors of the woods but the tone behind them. I honestly did not consider it that way, which is helping me move forward on how to solve the problem. I am beginning to see that probably the best way to paint would be to perhaps choose a neutral off white color throughout the expanse of the entire floor. I have a finished basement where I can play with color I suppose.

Here are some kitchens like yours with honey oak cabinets.

@AmandaSmith thanks for the photos!

Remember that those kitchens pictured have all warm tones. Your rooms don't.

I wouldn't do an off white. I think it will be too stark, and do nothing to bridge the warm and cool colors. I would do a greige color. Something like Edgecomb Gray which I suggested before, or Revere Pewter

Any of these work, partim?

No idea. I've never used SW paints. I can't seem to find that article, but those colors look gray to me, not greige.

https://www.kylieminteriors.ca/colour-review-edgecomb-gray-benjamin-moore/

Ok thank you. I have always really liked Revere Pewter but haven't looked at that in a while! I'll take another look.

Jute by BM is a nice neutral.

So all in all what do you think about the trim? Personally, I want to hire professionals to paint it a color (not stark white obviously). I just can't see myself living with the contrast in colors. I don't like it. Do you think it is worth the money to do that?

There's a reason that greige colors like Revere Pewter and Edgecomb Gray are so popular. LOTS of people have both warm and cool colors in their rooms. Few of us get to start from scratch and most people need to find a way to combine existing non-changeable finishes (floors, cabinets, countertops), plus furniture they already have. Often that's a mix of warm and cool colors. The greige colors look good with both, and when you add or remove something from the mix, it all still works together.

You may find that with a new wall color that your existing trim, kitchen counter etc. look just fine.

But then you'll have yet one other thing that's different....

I'm still voting for the more neutral...I don't think any of the "greiges" go with the oak. They're too mucky looking....Maybe a linen color would suit you more?

That's a nice color, Amanda. It's bit pinker than my linen but I use Sherwin Williams. I'll try to find out the color we used next to our oak cabinets...