I can't see your photos, so can't see exactly the color oak you have...... but we just went thought this with our gold-colored floors, which are red oak. We originally thought we'd like a mid-toned wood like a slightly stained maple. We brought home sample pieces from the kitchen cabinet store, and looked at them against the floor on all kinds of light. The stained maple looked awful. The natural maple, which when new is really light, looked nice, but we knew that in a couple of years it would have yellowed, and look much the same as the floors. The natural cherry looked slightly light (because it was new and not sun-changed yet) but it looked the best; plus, within a few months cherry darkens up so it will look even better. That's what we chose. I do think white would look great with the golden-toned oak floor... but I've just seen soooooo many white kitchens, and the style of our house begs for wood cabinets, so we chose cherry. I recommend going to the cabinet place and asking if you can take samples home. They usually have stacks of little wood pieces for customers to try. Look at them in all light, day, night, sunny, cloudy. And remember that all wood will change with age. Cherry is one of the quickest, and it gets darker. Maple or beech will both darken and get a lot more yellow. Stacey

hah I love "euro-lodge"! The hunting lodge of a duke around Turin had alot of murals and faux painting such as the huge plaster support columns were faux painted to look like huge marble columns (see, even then people wanted wanted marble where they couldn't make it happen lol) but the kitchen was the typical HUGE fireplace in the pre-stove times. The only other "euro-lodge" that I've been in is Dublin castle where everything is on a huge scale, even given the huge scale of the castle rooms, but alas the kitchen is the still the fireplace type. So no modern anything in either since people aren't actively living in them. But I thought you might be interested since one's Italian and one's Irish! Going along the modern glass idea, have you seen catmom's (any relation to ptamom lol??) fabulous glass BS? The link to it is below. HTH Here is a link that might be useful: catmom's backsplash

The Elephant in the room needs to be talked about: the age of the kitchen cabinets/counter tops/backsplash. This kitchen is clean and functional but dated. The counter tops are tile and the floors are laminate and the cabinets/boxes are dated as well. That means the kitchen is going to be ready for a renovation sooner rather than later. I mean in the next 7 years or so. Which means you need to sit down and do some HARD thinking. A kitchen renovation OFTEN (80-90%) changes the FOOT PRINT of the kitchen (the cabs are ripped out, holes in the floor are patched, etc). That means whatever floor you put in TODAY is going to need changing or a SERIOUS repair tomorrow. Right now you are trying to get a "refresh" of the kitchen without looking down the road at the FULL RENOVATION. That can get you into a bit of trouble. In your situation, I HIGHLY recommend that you sit down and plan out the next 7 years of your renovation life. Yes. Seven years. No. I am not kidding about this. To do this type of planning you have to have an END point. You need to know the FINAL look of your kitchen so that you can work towards it one step at a time. That means you need to have picked the COLOUR PALETTE for your kitchen before you lift a hammer. I like to see homeowners shop around for samples of things they like and then put those things into a basket in the trunk of their car. They will then keep the basket handy for when they see a 'GOOD DEAL' somewhere. If the deal fits the colour palette PERFECTLY, they you purchase it. If it doesn't, then you move on and save your money. Whew. But to answer your question, your wish for gray/white floors with red oak is going to be EXTREMELY tricky. Gray floors can have a peach/green tinge to them. And that will be a MASSIVE clash with orange-brown cabinets. You are welcome to put the floors in the house and kitchen, but BE PREPARED to HATE what you see. That's OK. Hate is an excellent motivator. It will move your 7 year renovation time line forward to include a 3-5 year time line. But your choice will push you towards a new look very, very, very quickly. Before you do that....please make sure you have a path set out to get to your final destination. Once you pick new floors, the destination will come faster than you ever thought possible. You will notice your inspiration kitchen is white on white on white. It is airy and sophisticated transitional/modern design. Your kitchen is not. As cute as it is...it is not. Please take a moment to investigate WHY you like the photo so much. It may not be "just the floors". You may LOVE the look that has been created. And that means a total redo of your kitchen.

I would love to see a lovely "white washed" oak looking vinyl in this space. The teal counter tops should be able to pull together the "wood" tones of the cabinets and the "soft grayish" tones of a white wash. Something like this is an example of what I'm thinking of: https://www.armstrongflooring.com/residential/en-ca/vinyl-flooring/luxury-vinyl-tile/luxe-plank-with-fastak-install/item/A6716.html If you can find the right vinyl plank, you should be able to get this to run throughout the space (including bathrooms, entrances and utility rooms). If you cannot find one that works nicely with the counters, I would suggest you leave the kitchen floor in place (it is the PERFECT match to the counters...you won't find anything better) and replace the carpets with a wood-toned vinyl. Now...just for fun, these homes are often built with "carpet" in mind. That means the subfloor (whatever it is...) if possibly the lowest of the low in terms of quality. That means it is often wavy or as far away from flat as you can get. Again, this is always the case...but it happens so often that you need to ASSUME there is a problem before you rip out the carpet. Once the carpet is gone, you will need to have the flatness and the subfloor SURFACE (the material that is sitting underneath the pad) assessed for vinyl. If you FLOAT the vinyl, then you only need to deal with "flatness". If you GLUE the vinyl then you have to deal with the type of MATERIAL as well. And that's where the headaches begin. Many times there is fibre board or luan sitting under carpet in a trailer (regardless of how well built it is). Both of these materials are "OK" underneath a floating floor, but they often have to come out if you want to glue down. And then the "flatness" has to be dealt with. Vinyl HATES wonky subfloors. And I mean HATES it. The subfloor has to be SMOOTH (vinyl telegraphs things like staples, staple holes, seams, etc. to the surface). And to get fibre board or luan smooth is a nightmare. They don't like "patch" material. Again, this could mean they need to come out and be replaced with something that can handle patch, etc. Please be prepared for some ++prep costs to deal with whatever is underneath that carpet. Whomsoever is doing the work for you will need to WALK INTO your home and pull back the carpet BEFORE they offer a quote. And the quote should include a range for the prep. It should look like $1-$4/sf for subfloor preparation (the range will depend on where you are and how expensive it is to hire local labour).