Unstained oak with a golden or beige/light brown tone using an oil based finish means white oak. An orange/amber tone means red oak. Again, this is for unstained wood. White oak generally has softer texture/tighter grain (annual rings closer together) than red oak. Also, white oak lumber is generally more uniform in color (light brown-beige heartwood), whereas red oak has more variation between boards with pink, amber, straw, and light brown tones. If you can look at the end grain of unfinished wood with a magnifying glass, white oak (Quercus alba) was little plugs in the cells called tyloses, whereas red oak does not. This makes white oak water tight for barrels. This does not apply to the white oaks species from Europe. For new USA sold furniture, throw all of this information out the window. Rules allow the use of a "golden oak" finish description on any wood you want. Let the Buyer beware!

This was my problem too. My KIT is open to the BR and FR and these rooms have stained trim. I really wanted an ivory kitchen, but I compromised. My new cabs have the same stain color as my old ones to tie in with the existing judges paneling. I painted the hutch and island. Could you do a combo of finishes? Can you post pictures? If people could see the KIT, they could give you better suggestions. On the right, you can see the stained paneling going into BR. The back of the kitchen leads to the DR which has painted trim, so this door has to be two toned to match each room when it is closed. The stained crown at the back of the KIT hasn't been installed yet, but it will be next to the painted crown of the hutch.

I also vote you should wait. Your user name is "3 boys for me," which says to me that you have a lot of action going on in that kitchen to get those boys fed. I have two boys and a girl so I can relate. One thing your kitchen has going for it is all that storage. If you don't have teens yet, they go through a lot of cereal (as just one example). I am not the layout guru some are. But I can see that it's a country mile from the table to the fridge for a gallon of milk, and the microwave is even farther. Plus, all the non-cooks in the family would be getting in the way of the cook. The other obvious thing I notice is that you don't appear to have a decent range hood (maybe a downdraft). Would encourage you to build a layout of your current kitchen. Measure the wall lengths, the cabinet lengths etc and write them all in. Scan it in and put it on a photobucket account. From there, it's pretty easy to load it onto this thread. I would actually start this process now and take 1-2 years to really figure out what you want. One thought I have is that you could potentially save a lot of those cabinets (especially the boxes) and reconfigure them into a new layout. Good luck!

I've seen such excellent advice from many on this forum! I'm hoping to get some helpful suggestions for some changes I'm considering in my family room. I have been doing an exhaustive search for the best solution to update my dated oak bookcases/tv armoire. I have a 1950's ranch and my taste has always been toward what I like to call "soft modern", and our family room is in need of a more "modern" look in keeping with the soft, comfortable feeling I need in my home. I inherited an oak bookshelf 20+ years ago, and chose to incorporate it into our family room by having a second one made to match, together with a large armoire to hold the tv and various components. Now many years later, I'm moving away from all the very warm colors throughout my home and working toward a more neutral decor, with warm grays and off white, natural textures. This large wall of oak bookcases is located adjacent to the kitchen which has light maple cabinetry, and the room containing the cases has a caramel leather sofa, white shutters and a warm beige shag carpet. (see photos) My plan is to paint the walls a neutral greige, replace the rug with an off-white textured area rug (possibly Crate and Barrel Alfredo or Popcorn rug), and the wood floor will be stripped and left natural with only a protective coat. I don't have the option of going darker on the hardwood floors because I have the 50's light oak trim throughout my home and I can't deal with a complete overhaul on that! I'm also not changing the shutters out at this point because new windows are in our future, so I'll wait until that time to change out window treatments. What I am considering is either painting the oak a medium deep gray, or gray washing it, or using a gray gel stain. My goal is to make it more contemporary and flowing with the rest of my house which has grays and off-whites. However, I assume that the grain of the oak will show through whichever finish I decide to use because I don't intend to do the work of leveling out the wood and painting it to hide the oak grain (if removing the grain is even possible without a professional paint job). I am also considering possibly removing the middle armoire and picking up or having someone make a low oak cabinet to house the electronic components (surround sound, receiver, etc), and staining or graywashing it to match the bookshelves, mount the TV on the wall above it, flanked by the newly transformed gray bookshelves. Although this would be in keeping with the current trends for TV placement, I'm not crazy about staring at a big black TV screen, and the armoire, although large and outdated, hides the TV nicely when it's not in use. I've read posts about using TSP to prep the wood, and then use watered-downed warm gray paint; or using a stripping product and then applying a gray gel stain, and finally posts suggesting simply painting the pieces gray. I might sample on some oakwood, but it would help to narrow this down to 1 or 2 finishes to make a trial run. I appreciate any advice anyone has, including the possibility that I should dump the whole set on Craig's List, but I'd rather try an alternative first. My goal is to keep it and make it work in this room, considering that I hope to someday turn this entire wall into a contemporary fireplace/entertainment focal point, so making what I have work in the interim is or more practical approach. Thanks for any suggestions any of you may have !