Hi everyone! I found this website while trying to update my kitchen. Like others before me, I am driving myself totally crazy, and everyone around me : / trying to choose a new floor and I am hoping beyond hope you can HELP ME! Currently I have 25 year old louvered golden oak cabinets (that I need to keep), new Twilight Bahia granite counters (blacks, grays, browns), and 25 year old linoleum that is scalloped cut around the counter height snack bar area, (old berber carpet next to it extending all the way to the front door). My worry is that the louvered cabinet doors and the "not plain" granite will not go well with too busy of a floor (ie: staggered tiles, too much color variation)...so was wondering what to get and WHAT COLOR? Two ideas to consider: One is to just replace the kitchen floor with ??... laminate/tile/vinyl/? and keep the scallop/carpet scheme (with new carpet). OR, extend the new kitchen floor all the way to the front door (which would include the kitchen, dining, and foyer areas). (I am definitely going to get new carpet, new dining room set, etc. so disregard those!) The entire area is raised (via kneehigh wood studs) so heavyish stained concrete like material couldn't work even though I think that'd look cool. I want something that looks like a nice quality...would slatelook type laminate tile be nice? Is sheet vinyl not appropriate for a dining/foyer? What colors? (bluish gray...brownish gray...tan/cream??) Do I need to match the granite counter specifically? (Note: There is a bluish/grayish tone fieldstone fireplace in the dining room...Paint colors could easily change...I was just in a "color" mood last year.) You all sure do seem to know what you're doing! I so respect that! PLEASE...Do you have any suggestions for me? I sure would appreciate any help! (I am going to try and post pictures. This is my very first post so I do NOT really know what I'm doing!) (Also posting to Kitchen Forum. Hope this works!) Here is a link that might be useful: Before Floor Pix of Whole Area

arcy, I can reposition the island. Funny you mentioned that because my mom hopped on the wagon to help me figure out what to do with the kitchen and she, too, suggested I reposition it. She also pointed out that the otherside of the island is much more attractive than the side that's exposed to the dining room. I will turn it next time I'm at the house and see what it's like. Thanks! Also, thanks for the wallpaper suggestion. I'll check out the collection at SW for ideas just in case. :) annkathryn, your cabinets are GORGEOUS! Thank you for the inspiration photos. They are gentle reminders of ways I can live with what I've got for now until I'm able to do what you did with transforming them. Great job! As promised, here are better photos of the kitchen: Here you can see the two green samples as well as a TINY bit of the Toasted Cashew I tried to sample peeking through Backsplash details (there is some splattering from cooking, that's not the tile) Close up of the tile in the kitchen (the grout will be cleaned when we move in so it'll lighten up a bit, the tile that will be installed in the dining room and living room will be similar in color to the lighter tile in the dividing strip shown here) Looking into the kitchen from the DR Someone requested a photo of the view from the back of the kitchen looking out to the DR -- pardon my lovely SIL, she was rinsing paint from her hands and the mini rollers, and my hand wasn't very steady here My mom suggested I take advantage of the side of the island shown in the above photo and turn it outward towards the DR. She also mentioned the idea of painting the island as some suggested here. I really like that idea! Hope this helps you all more than the previous photos did.

Before/after videos online so I wouldn't have to post so many pictures. (First two of grandson, skip to videos 3 & 4) Https://vimeo.com/user12732009/videos 1. Experimented (Mar. 2013) inside one door; days later it passed scratchtest. Eight months later cabinets like new. I had all materials from previous project so cabinet project cost nothing. 2. Removed doors, drawers, knobs, very light sanding outsides only, very little ebony stain, one coat semi gloss poly clear coat. Took 4 days, 3. Bought and stained oak molding for soffet, light oak, then ebony; perfect match. Cut scallops off the over-sink trim, and tossed the railing on hood vent and soffet. Spent money on labor and material to finish project. 4. Blue storm laminate FX180; large pieces were costly but I had no expensive corner cuts (so no seams), saved $$ using plain edges, more realistic anyway. PS got moving packet from postoffice and used the included Lowes 10% off coupon (on countertop). 5. A friend removed and repurposed old countertop (no removal or dump fees). 6. Designed my backsplash and had it put over old laminate back splash. Large tile over stove was $300 display, I paid $50. Plus I saved on glass tile that would have been used instead. My kitchen isn't as dark as it appears in videos. Hubby was very repentant for yelling that I would surely ruin the cabinets. Here is a link that might be useful: none

I don't know where you guys are, but actually around here everything gets painted white..:) (ah unless it exterior-they're suddenly into a tad darker browns. The builders I mean) I know there's gray trend but I know because I'm here and I read blogs and such otherwise I wouldn't know probably. (we re in OC, CA) so I wouldn't care whether gray is a trend or not I would just care that whatever color I choose(if deciding to paint at all) it's the color that makes sense with other colors that are there to stay..and with my own mindset that's probably to stay too, at least to some degree all these whites and grays and greiges are so different too..like, hundreds of them they also change in different lights..that is our brain that assigns them a constant definition, really I have a very warm greige kitchen and sometimes it's totally oatmeal and sometimes it's more greenish off white..it doesn't even have a name since the color is custom, and it's somebody else's custom color, so I just called it after myself lol, to make things easier. and recently I got so confused, like majorly confused, since I read on one blog "greige is white with some gray in it". I thought white with gray in it is an off white? don't you have to have beige-a light version of brown-thrown into it to get greige? I think that's a hard-to reach-consensus since I'm not even sure of definitions. and I'm very into everything about colors, so would make sense for me to become more sure, but it doesn't work that way lol. Somehow. What I know though-until we have our world and nature around us, all the colors that are there, be it sea or sky or snow or sand or leaves..they're timeless..:) to us they are, since we have much shorter expiration date..:) ah, and I love that idea with foam too..much easier to apply and to switch and to change