I now have in front of me two samples of stain over white oak. One dark, one medium shade. Coincidentally, Linen white is my wall color too. I agree that the dark stain may show imperfections. Kitchen cabs are off-white for me. I'm leaning towards the medium shade more that the darker shade. Contrast will be fine even with the medium stain against the white or off-white cabs. Sounds like you and I are thinking alike- dark sounds luxurious but a pain to deal with daily. If you need, I'll try to get a photo of the two samples my flooring guy has delivered. Chestnut would be what I'd call the lighter shade.

@Joe Macker. I added protective film to my windows to block UV rays from causing damage. The advantage is that this protects everything in my room. I had damage to my furniture - both cloth and wood from the light streaming in. I have an Eastern exposure. You can't tell that there is any kind of protective film on the windows as mine are not tinted - or tinted so slightly that there is almost no difference but they are rated for close to 99% blocking of the UV rays.

I don't think you will be able to get that light look consistently with red and white oak. You probably need to go with a medium neutral stain on all floors, one that has green tones in it. Green is the complement to red/pink, and mixing complementary colors neutralizes them. I've had success with Special Walnut stain throughout my home. The floors in the original (1920s) part of the home are oak, not sure if red or white. The new white oak floors in the kitchen were installed in 2014; all are stained special walnut. Here is a photo of the transition area between dining room (above the saddle) and kitchen (below the saddle). The color is not too dark and not too light. Depending on the light it can look warmer or cooler. It's my "go-to" color for me and my clients for many years.

Just wanted to follow up with some feedback for anyone who ends up in a similar situation since the old threads helped me a lot. Tips for anyone looking for classic medium brown without any trendy gray tone: 1. The stain samples from the store are meaningless, make sure they sample all coats and the top coat finish on-site so you can see the final outcome with your lighting. (Also keep in mind Low-e windows throw colors.) The color we ended up going with didn’t match any of the four samples we had that were technically the same. 2. Online photos are meaningless. I’ll paste one below bc I scoured them too, but I have multiple photos at different angles and the color and undertones can look massively different. There is no substitute for in person samples. 3. Also take into account different wood cuts and species can affect colors. I thought we’d use probably use Provincial, but on our white oak it looked very one note/flat, and not at all like I have seen it in other settings. I’d definitely consider it again, especially on red oak, but in this house it didn’t give the look we expected. 4. Verify they use Duraseal or Bona if you want to use those brands before you get far down the road. There was a Bona combo I saw on a blog (nutmeg + Provincial) that looked great, but we couldn’t access that combo with our stainers and we were too far down the pipeline to consider finding someone who could/would. In the end, what worked best with our lighting and design plan was white oak in Early American (photo below even though the photo doesn’t really match the in person reality). Hope to move back in soon! Thanks again to everyone for your help and feedback.