This is my wood kitchens idea book with both new and refreshed wood kitchens. Keep your particular wood tone in mind when looking at pics, but most of these are warm toned. Many have wood floors: https://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/75202366/list/wood-kitchens Natural oak works well with whites and creams as you can see in many of the pics. I have an oak kitchen and cream walls. Sage works well. Cool grays don't usually work, but warm grays - which often have a green or beige under tone can work well or very light gray/whites. In my home I have a traditional natural oak floor. It is not "on trend" but as it is in homes over a hundred years old and still used today - more timeless. Hickory flooring can be very pretty, but it has a lot of movement and color variations which might not work well with the oak cabinets. I refreshed my oak kitchen with new counters, apron front sink, backsplash and under cabinet lighting. I am very pleased with the results, but the under cabinet lighting was my most functional change and the one I would miss the most if taken away. I only have it between the sink and range, but it adds much needed light and brightens the kitchen.

Unfortunately, I can't paint the cabinets...i'm renting....the landlord did say I could stain them...I might take some Briwax to them to cut the orange a bit. I don't want to put in to much time and effort..I like a white kitchen that is airy. I'm going to put a rattan pendant light in the window, a roman shade and hange the hardware on the cabinets...I thought about doing a marble contact paper on the countertops and stick on subway tile back splash. However, I don't like the look of "cheap" either...ugh....thank you on the advice of pale oak....after doing more research, you are very right...wrong color...ok, what about Swiss coffee. I can't do anything with green or green undertones...I really dislike green unless its a plant. I prefer cooler tones...but can live with a bit of warmth. This is a color I'll be putting everywhere on the main floor...the space doesn't get a ton of natural light...so I don't want it to look muddy at night...maybe Simply white is the way to go. It's safe. Any ideas on how I can decorate or make this space more "airy" and livable I will appreciate very much. I'm also going to do some under cabinet lighting

Do choose your overall look for the kitchen, thinking about what component will be hardest/most expensive to change if you start to dislike it. I wouldn't put wood look vinyl or tile next to natural hardwood - I just don't like the way they look next to each other - although overall, I think wood look tile is a great look. So, I would be looking for a natural stone look tile or vinyl - stay far away from tile with a pinkish undertone, and choose one that matches the overall warmth (ie cool colors vs warm colors) of the rest of the adjacent spaces. That will be about as "timeless" as you can get. Sometimes the classic black & white square look doesn't fit the character of the rest of the house, sometimes it is perfect - so keep that in mind, too.

OK...so you ARE updating the kitchen. OK. Now we are getting to the nitty gritty. Take TWO WEEKS (yep...1/2 month) to figure out your ENTIRE HOUSE colour scheme. This will become your 7 year renovation plan. 'Cause once you change ONE THING you start seeing how tired everything else looks. Nope. I'm not kidding. The 7 year renovation time frame is roughly how long it takes to do everything - piece by piece. What you are going to do is give yourself an END LOOK. It's like grabbing a train in a foreign country. Would you jump on one just 'hoping' you get where you are going? No. You would plan your trip to suit the train schedules. So don't just 'jump in' with flooring and hope (against hope) you get to where you want to be. Take the time right now to plank how each space will look. Go ahead and gather paint chips and list what colour you want for each space. Your kitchen has 7 (seven) elements: 1. Cabinets (big ticket item) 2. Counter tops (big ticket item) 3. Flooring (big ticket item) 4. Appliances: Total expenditure with 5 (or more) items = big ticket item 5. Backsplash (low budget) 6. Lighting (low budget) 7. Paint/wall colours (low budget) Wow! That's just for the kitchen!!!! Holy Hanna! Now imagine the sitting room with the fireplace...and the entrance...living room...dining room...bathrooms...bedrooms. Whew! If you mess up ONE choice today you mess up everything down the line. Trust me on this one (we see it multiple times a day on Houzz). Sit down and figure out the ENTIRE house and all of it's colours (get paint chips to match). Now you start purchasing things like paint, backsplashes, lighting, etc. And BTW...you want to update your LIGHTING well before you update anything else...so that you can see the FINAL colour of the products in your house.