roygbiv, this was exactly what I planned on doing. I have had the HARDEST time choosing between cream painted cabinets or the cherry... but for now, I am saying Cherry (but I so love cream too!!) and I will do the island in cream. jejvtr, thanks for all the links.. I got "stuck" on the rate my space, and spent a couple hours on it!! (of course, 2nd guessing myself again!) I did have hardwood in the kitchen in our last house, and I did really love it, however, I only lived there 7 months - barely enough time to settle in. The flooring is a Spanish mahogany, so it is a different wood species, yet I am not sure if it has enough of a contrast, or if it doesn't really matter much if I am going with a lighter (either in the gold or beige) granite and doing the island in a cream glaze.

You've done a very good job with the situation you've been given. The hardwoods look very close to identical. The only thing I could add to this - and it is ONLY an esthetics suggestion - would be to go 1/2 step darker on the transition strips. Like sewing a seam on a shirt/dress/pants, the ideal is a perfect colour match (thread to cloth). If the match can't be done, a good seamstress will go a snick darker. At a distance it is much harder to see a darker stitch then it is to see a lighter stitch. That is the only thing you could do at this point. And to be clear, the transitions are a pretty good match. If you do anything, the transitions going 1/2 step darker than they are right now would be all I would suggest. Other than that, think of those pieces of wood as the thing that saved you $15K. It's all about how you look at a situation. You can think, "Oh, geeze. I wish I didn't have to have those things there," or you can think "Thank GOODNESS for those transition strips! They saved me $15,000!" Still the same situation - just a different way of looking at it.

I did both. I was taught by an installer how to flush cut the flooring to butt up against the tile, which did have an edge strip, with a 1/16th (I think, it’s been almost 2 years) gap and silicone caulk. I hated it because the flooring is matte and I couldn’t find a caulk that wasn’t shiny so it left an obvious shiny line between the tile and the laminate flooring. I replaced it with a transition strip. I do remember messing with the strip to making it as flush as possible between the two different floorings, I think we had to modify the metal piece inside or route one side deeper. keep in mind all of this was DIY and with proper planning by a pro installer the different floor levels are taken into account. I changed my mind and decided to tile the powder room when the flooring was already in. Also, in this scenario the ends are supposed to be sealed and caulked beneath the transition strip in a powder room application, even if it isn’t “wet,” like with a shower or bathtub. That was so deep in the specifications for the flooring we almost missed it. I did not use a transition strip by the front door. I intended to, just to be cautious since we spanned a greater distance, but I hated how the strip looked. Next to the threshold the caulk is invisible, even though it’s shiny. We were pressed on time and budget because it was a new home without any closet shelves, garage storage, or landscaping. The idea of replacing the carpet that was falling apart (after less than a year) with more of the same carpet by the builder was discouraging to me, so we really couldn’t do anything differently. But in a more predictable world, if I could have wrangled a couple thousand more, I have done a simple, not engineered, hardwood and installed it ourselves. The laminate has not had any issues at all as far as buckling or drifting. It’s on our main floor and the only place with an issue is where my kids drop ice cubes on the floor in the same spot and don’t pick them up. There isn’t any swelling or peeling but there is a thin line where you can see the composite is a different color. This is not in an area with a long span. The LVP with equivalent numbers of pieces were 2-3 times as expensive.

I did my wood to tile transition without strips (in order to make my place more handicap-friendly.) They just have to make the top surface of the tile and the top surface of the wood be the same height, I think I have about 1/8th inch difference at most between kitchen and living space, no difference between hallway and bath, and 1/8th difference at most between master and master bath. Back at my old home, I had a transistion strip between the dining area and the kitchen - it made it horrible to move from the linoleum of the kitchen back out to the wood of the dining area when I had a broken ankle and was on wheels. Plus the strips really do look ugly. (PS< the wood transition strips look fine, but mine were metal strips... but neither are necessary.) Others have pointed out you can have hardwood throughout, I just simply didn't want to do that. (Actually, my wood floors are broad beam pine, which is soft, anyway.) My build is semi-open, so I had the option in the kitchen to do tile, and so I did.