yeah, i don't think you can make red oak look like white oak. i have several french antique pieces in european red oak. it is very dark, and i love it. i bought some antique chairs recently to go with a red oak table. i thought they were dark too, but they are in white oak. i believe that i can make the white oak chairs darker, but vise versa is another story. i would definitely make him redo those cabs in the wood that you chose. he should not have changed that without your permission. i hate it when i pay someone for a product/service and they just take it upon themselves to do what they want to do. my poolbuilder moved my pool about a foot and a half without telling me. i noticed it was not lined up with a planter after it was built and he admitted that he had done this. i guess its too late to make him fill that pool in and re-dig another one a foot and a half over. but, i would consider cabinets a different story. make him do it over.

you can't turn Red Oak into White Oak. although both oak, they have their different tones and graining. Most likely, if you have an original craftsman that's 100 years old, it's Red Oak. Post a picture of what you're talking about. The 'honey oak' term came from the 80's when they started doing homes w/the cheaper quality oak trim and cabinets, and stained them a 'honey' color. That wood was red oak. this is a vintage craftsman w/oak trim. most of them were this darker stain

The video had dark wood trim much darker than the floors and looks much better lighter and brighter. The original posters wood trim matches her light oak floors and looks nice but it is her house so if she wants to paint it to make her happy that is up to her. Or she can see if a wall color will help. My bedroom's headboard does not make me feel good so I am going to make my change also. With all the opinions, it is best to then decide who YOU feel and what you want to do. Thank you so much Celery, Visualization, Rendering Images for your video. I love creamy and bright walls and that is why I feel a headboard for me without the dirty looking too busy headboard would make me happy. I am still wondering how much canned lighting in my ceiling would help me feel happier.

Thanks! We do have a true flooring professional doing the floors, not a general contractor. He feels bad that he mis-identified the wood in the kitchen, but it was in such poor shape that it was hard to tell, apparently. He mentioned that he could bleach the wood and try to get it to match better but I was just wondering if that is a futile effort. I didn't want to leave the floors unmatched in their natural state b/c it would look like a mistake for SURE, but wondering if there are any design professionals out there who have confronted this issue and done something like intentionally staining the kitchen a different darker color so it looks intentional. Or alternatively if anyone has successfully remedied this situation with bleach & a stain to where it actually looks ok. Maybe a picture would be helpful but I can't get in there right now as they are sanding the floors and it's all sealed off!! P.S. Replacing the Red Oak with White Oak is a great long term solution but short term, we don't have the $$ to do that!