I'm with you mark_rachel...I'm wondering what "base" means. As for faux wood tile up against real wood floors = fashion faux pas that you will regret for the entire 25+ years you will live with the tile. If you can't stomach the tile/wood clash, you will simply spend more money in a few years to rip out the tile and do it again. If you want a nice compliment, look at travertine-look porcelain tiles in tones that will work nicely with the wood floors. And the kitchen floors should be chosen with all the other elements in the kitchen (a total of 7 elements for a kitchen) at once.

OK...Here are some suggestions. If you KNOW the tile is coming out in the next 5-7 years (I call this the 7 year renovation time line....which you plan out EXTENSIVELY before you TOUCH a single surface...right?) I HIGHLY recommend you put in a SOLID hardwood upstairs. You will have it SITE FINISHED to the colour you want for then next 25 years. Leave the stairs alone for now. Recarpet if you must...but leave them alone. You will choose a REGULAR 3.75" narrow strip hardwood in a regular wood (Maple, Red Oak, White Oak...nothing crazy or exotic). You will do this with the FULL KNOWLEDGE you will *most likely run this through the MAIN LEVEL at some other point in time. You want to be able to source the product in 7-10 years time...so you can have a consistent WOOD throughout the home. You do NOT have to have the same COLOUR on the two levels but you really want to try to keep the same SPECIES, WIDTH, and CUT for future renovations/refinishings. You will 'match' or 'compliment' the stairs to the MAIN LEVEL flooring (not the upstairs flooring). And THAT'S why you leave the stairs until you refinish the DOWNSTAIRS. Believe me, you have a lot of PLANNING to do for the next 5-7 years worth of RENOVATIONS. You will want to have a "story board" of colours that you want the ENTIRE HOUSE to be draped in BEFORE you touch the flooring. We've seen FAR TOO MANY PEOPLE rip up flooring 'at the beginning' (because the house is empty and it is the 'easiest' time to do it) only to have HUGE regrets that they rushed the decision. It is an EXPANSIVE and EXTENSIVE mistake to make. And please be aware the carpet is hiding HORRIBLE subfloors. I mean EXPENSIVE TO FIX. I always tell my clients to budget $2-$4/sf for the subfloors under the carpets. The average is around $2.50 - $3/sf...but a $4/sf repair is not rare. The $5-$6/sf repair/rebuild is rare....but not unheard of. Give yourself a TOTAL budget and work BACKWARDS to your 'wood purchase' budget. You might just find the 'purchase budget' is TOO LOW to get a wood floor installed.

We lived in Florida. Wood moves with the seasons, so glue would not allow the movement. Since we laid the floors ourselves in 1997, am working from memory here. We had plywood subfloor down then stacked the flooring in the air conditioned house for several weeks. We face nailed only. I really wanted an antique look and we used cut nails. All those are hammered in by hand. After all the flooring was installed, I mixed two colors of MinWax stains, Puritan Pine and one other ( memory fails me) in a one gallon paint can (new empty cans are sold by paint stores and Lowe’s) so my color would be consistent. No one else can be in the house for over a week while the staining and oiling are being done. Authentic Pine Floors gave me a formula for the finish I mixed in another unused gallon paint can, but I think I would use straight tung oil now. Tung oil must have five or six applications with sufficient drying time between coats. This cannot be rushed. We used tung oil on the cherry floors we laid two years ago in the kitchen of our current house and love it. Our Florida house had carpet upstairs for noise control, so I estimate we had over 2000 square feet of pine floors. My sister used the same material for her house in the Midwest 16 years ago and the floors are still beautiful. My daughter has about 3000 square feet of the same flooring, finished the same way. We all have dogs and active lives. Some people age their floors by dropping chains onto the surface, spreading sharp gravel on the floor and walking around with work boots to scratch the floors, or you can (with extreme caution) roll burning logs onto the hearth area to put a few scorch marks. Then stain and oil the floors. We did none of that at any of our three houses, preferring to let the floors show our history. All wood moves with humidity. It is not much, though. It certainly is not huge gaps.

ok fine you can work w the floor....part of your inspiration pic is smudged pale bleached looking surfaces.....floors and cabs probably with light filled space w windows and natural light. i see one window in your space...not really the kitchen w blinds drawn as well..the island is closest to the light...can the island be bigger...... using the inspirat part there and perhaps white against the walls....this can land you in a nice position. Designers help w what you have in reality and extracting from the inspiration you provide.