Most people suggest colors in the green family which is nice but I'm a big fan of sunflowers and decided to use a soft yellow instead. We put it in both our kitchen and breakfast area and like it alot! Not only does it give the kitchen and dining area a very warm and cozy feel and it also has a very pretty glow when the sun is shining in! Not to mention it matches our honey oak cabinets perfectly!

Your floors are beautiful. Since you've started with the FP, I assume you have added the trim inside the decorative arch, and I would go with a tone from that for the mantel (if you haven't already stained it.) Then decide if you like it well enough to include the window trim. I still have a piece of oak furniture that my mom had stained walnut, so I know it can be done and can look nice. That's a lot of staining though. Consider painting the doors for a break in the oakiness.

I would love to see a lovely "white washed" oak looking vinyl in this space. The teal counter tops should be able to pull together the "wood" tones of the cabinets and the "soft grayish" tones of a white wash. Something like this is an example of what I'm thinking of: https://www.armstrongflooring.com/residential/en-ca/vinyl-flooring/luxury-vinyl-tile/luxe-plank-with-fastak-install/item/A6716.html If you can find the right vinyl plank, you should be able to get this to run throughout the space (including bathrooms, entrances and utility rooms). If you cannot find one that works nicely with the counters, I would suggest you leave the kitchen floor in place (it is the PERFECT match to the counters...you won't find anything better) and replace the carpets with a wood-toned vinyl. Now...just for fun, these homes are often built with "carpet" in mind. That means the subfloor (whatever it is...) if possibly the lowest of the low in terms of quality. That means it is often wavy or as far away from flat as you can get. Again, this is always the case...but it happens so often that you need to ASSUME there is a problem before you rip out the carpet. Once the carpet is gone, you will need to have the flatness and the subfloor SURFACE (the material that is sitting underneath the pad) assessed for vinyl. If you FLOAT the vinyl, then you only need to deal with "flatness". If you GLUE the vinyl then you have to deal with the type of MATERIAL as well. And that's where the headaches begin. Many times there is fibre board or luan sitting under carpet in a trailer (regardless of how well built it is). Both of these materials are "OK" underneath a floating floor, but they often have to come out if you want to glue down. And then the "flatness" has to be dealt with. Vinyl HATES wonky subfloors. And I mean HATES it. The subfloor has to be SMOOTH (vinyl telegraphs things like staples, staple holes, seams, etc. to the surface). And to get fibre board or luan smooth is a nightmare. They don't like "patch" material. Again, this could mean they need to come out and be replaced with something that can handle patch, etc. Please be prepared for some ++prep costs to deal with whatever is underneath that carpet. Whomsoever is doing the work for you will need to WALK INTO your home and pull back the carpet BEFORE they offer a quote. And the quote should include a range for the prep. It should look like $1-$4/sf for subfloor preparation (the range will depend on where you are and how expensive it is to hire local labour).

Whatever happened to people putting gel stain on oak they don’t like? When I did my kitchen in 2003, everybody in the Kitchens forum was doing gel stain. It seems to me that those honey oak trim pieces are going to continue to scream their age out at you with every glance in their direction and it will look like you were too lazy or cheap to fix them (no insult intended, just trying to explain the effect they will have.). If you want to keep that honey oak look, fine. But you can’t fudge on it. You have to commit. Celebrate it. Or paint it or stain it. Don’t half re-decorate and think it will look good. Honey oak was just too....honey oak!