In our current house the previous owner had the floors refinished with a water based urethane. I personally do not like it. It is more of a satin/matte finish. I prefer the glossy/wet look. I do not know how many coats were put on. We installed new wood flooring in the sunroom/back door entrance (was tiled) and finished it ourselves and used Duraseal- poly based. We put quite a few coats on it as that room is the backdoor entry that is used by 2 adults and 4 kids and lots of friends. The floor is just gorgeous. I absolutely love it and when we put hardwood on the kitchen floor and rent the machines again, I am going to hit the other floors and refinish them with Duraseal. I am finding that the water based is not as tough as the Duraseal. We have twin toddlers who spill things, drop toys and it just seems like the finish isn't as tough as a poly finish. It looks like it is wearing in high traffic areas, not down to wood, but the finish is even more matte in the main traffic pattern. I will warn you though that the poly based does have a strong smell. I closed off and actually taped heavy duty plastic up over openings to try to keep the smell isolated to that part of the house.

I suggest going a few steps darker than the cabinets. Your dark(er) counter top will be your inspiration. The grain in the wood is quite strong which can be used to your ADVANTAGE! If you water pop your wood, the grain will take on the stain a snick more...thereby giving you the DEPTH of colour you crave WITHOUT going so dark that you remove the light from the room (or the floors). I suggest a mid-tone stain with water popping. I would work a little into the 'green' range as your counter top 'reads' cool tones more than orange tones. Let the GRAIN take a strong stain (water popping) so that you can get all the contrast you desire WITHOUT having to go too dark. Make sure your refinisher offers some colour samples on your floor (must include a coat of finish to show the true depth of the colour...and if you water pop make sure the water popping is done with all the colour samples). Once your samples are down, you can take the time to figure out which stain works BEST in your lighting situation as well as with your counter top.

The gray stain on the doors/trim is pink (when shown against the new options). The darker floors throw more GRAY into the air = the doors look grayer than they actually are. As soon as you take away the dark gray, you will notice how pink your doors actually are. I'm sorry but the best way to get this to work is to REVERSE the colour scheme. That means dark(er) doors with LIGHTER floors.

Pink Blocker will "minimize" your red tones. For light browns, you will not have much to choose from in Duraseal colors. Bona has Twig or Nutmeg in Drifast stains. If, you want lighter than that, use chemical stains.