Marthaelena, can you help give me a more specific recommendation on what might look good? Because I started out thinking I could change materials and just couldn't hit on an idea that would work. Kitchen will be warm contemporary with medium stained shaker cabinets on cherry; dark granite or soapstone, and oak hardwood floors. The kitchen is at one end of the mudroom, and at the other is the back hall and then the laundry. Laundry floor is tile that relates to the kitchen backsplash but basic white slab melamine cabinetry. So I feel like a third look in between might be too much. I can see keeping the same color and switching from shaker to slab in the office/mudroom area, for example, but I have a harder time picturing switching to a different wood tone. Maybe something like this - maybe I paint my island and then carry that color into the mudroom? I am one of those people who cannot figure out how to put things together visually. I know what I like and what I don't when it is done, but I have a very hard time visualizing what will work and what won't. mnhockeymom, love your lockers. Who did yours - cabinet company or finish carpenter? I want something very similar with the bottom portion being deeper than the top, and then I'll have cabs with doors over the top. At the end of the run I'll have my spare refrigerator. We also have one locker with a door that is dedicated to shoes as we have many, many shoes and they all live in the mudroom. We take off our shoes as soon as we come inside so the kids don't have any shoes upstairs at all. DH and I have some but most are mudroom-based. Anita

Love your house! This is great timing as we are breaking ground next week. I see your flooring is hickory, I love it. Can you give details about that? Width, grade, etc? Our flooring has been our hardest part to figure out, I love how fresh and contemporary yet warm your look is. It is hard to achieve that balance, but you have done it perfectly.

I put an epoxy in my garage and love it but not sure I woukd want it in my midroom. I have had vinyl tile but did not like them at all. Why not regular tile. I just put this tile in my midroom and love it. Not expensive. Just from Lowes.

Good old Navajo White! So here's my take--I personally don't like the variegated tiles on the right, I think they're overused. (I seem to see them on walls a lot in awkward foreclosure remodels. They're better on floors, but still....) For paint, what about going with something slightly browner than the Nav White, but not as dark/yellow as your sample above? Then you can still paint the outline of your door a bright white for contrast. (Remember to paint the front bottom part of the doorframe too, so it doesn't look like the door is floating in space.) Back to tile, I like the bottom middle one, or the small square on the left above it. The samples on the far left are too gray to coordinate well with your brown/cream.