We did, to make the trim match throughout the house. About the only place we didn't add shoe molding was in closet interiors.

Truthfully, that cat door was a source of amusement for all the trades that worked on it. I'll never forget the great, hulking foreman of the drywall crew making it his own personal responsibility to properly mud the bullnose edges of what he smilingly described as the "little kitty-cat door". The finish carpenter - bless his heart - took the time to painstakingly route the custom arch out of a piece of MDF and fit the base and shoe to it. The painters treated it with the same care and detail as every other bit of trim - giggling all the while. The space inside is not large - only a square foot or so - so the vacuum wand works dandy. There is another proper catflap set 90 degrees to the decorative doorway that then goes into a small 'catroom' where I can keep the food dishes and dirtbox. Doing the doorway in the wall like that was much easier and cleaner than trying to put the catflap in the 'people' door. As for the builder - since I was the designer/owner/GC/foreman/gofer and chief ditch-digger I pretty much got what I wanted - eventually.

Maybe this is a regional thing? When we lived in the Northeast, we never saw anything except shoe molding painted or stained to match the woodwork. We moved to the Southeast and have not seen anything except shoe molding that matches the flooring, including at the base of the cabinets. It looked strange to us at first, but now it seems normal. I will say that when it is stained to match the hardwood floor, it doesn't show scuff marks like the white painted molding did. In your case, cbjmidwood, neither of your colors would be light, so you wouldn't have that problem -- so it seems like just a matter of personal preference. Maybe go to an open house or two and see how they treat this in your area. Your kitchen sounds very nice -- hope you will love it!

You're great, Bill. My darling contractors are great, too, but in other areas, not this one. They couldn't imagine not doing shoemold to the point that they literally didn't understand my earnest confirmations (I thought) that it wouldn't be used and put it everywhere. And I had to to let them because the hardwood only came up to somewhere near the baseboards. Oh, well. I tell myself it's a true traditional look.