Thanks for the welcome! boxer, those are very similar except the cabinet style is a simple shaker. I believe the color is very close. The sample we have is a few years old so it has darkened some. A nice preview of what is to come. I'm personally drawn to the darker one, multicolor. I'm hoping light walls and backsplash will be enough to keep it from looking like a cave. It would be nice to also put the same tile by the front door (in a different size) to tie things together. I feel like either tile would look beautiful, I just don't want to pick the wrong one and wish I had the other. Probably the most difficult kitchen decision so far!

You can look to what traditional homes in your area utilize for inspiration. You can also look on Houzz for inspiration, the filters let you hone in on home style, room, etc... My home is in Maine, our rugged climate definitely factors into traditional home design. My house is less traditional, more contemporary, but I still wanted it to feel in tune with the environment. My main floor has wood floors, natural ash, 5" wide. My entry runs into the powder room, and laundry room. These areas in a traditional Maine home would very often be Maine/Vermont slate due to its durability. I went with a more contemporary porcelain slate tile, in a larger size. I also thought about running the tile in a stacked layout, but ultimately the tile felt right staggered. A diamond layout felt very wrong, in a more traditional home diamond would probably have worked best. For another example, I am redoing my masterbath currently. I am very drawn to traditional bath tile layouts, using square tiles on the walls. I love a base molding of 6x6 squares followed by a trim, then 3x3 squares. This does not work in my house and letting that go really delayed my project. The tile I ultimately went with is in now and is perfectly in keeping with the style of my home, but getting there was a journey.

Thank you for your candor, I appreciate it. I had maple in the kitchen when I made the decision and I am disappointed that the floor didn't come up in discussions with the designer. I wanted a wood stain v paint and was wearing horseblinders to that bc it looked fine on the maple. But, they are here and pretty and I'm hoping for the best. The cabinet picture is in the original post and the floors can be any color I want. We are down to the subfloor in the kitchen. We will do rift/quarter sawn to calm them down and I do think they look ok. (Agree with you, though, not ideal.) The pic in the post right above yours is just in a showroom where I brought my cabinet sample. So do you rec we just do a 2 1/4 red oak like the rest of the house (and color as we want). Do you have experience with a medium brown and grey that gets most of the red tone out? I really would like it not to be too dark. But ok with something like jacobean with a grey?

I agree with carpet. The other option is cork flooring. Cork will have the necessary cushion and slip resistance that your family require without having the look of carpet. But SAFETY comes before FASHION! A slip on anything other than carpet or cork will cause bone breaks and lengthy stays in hospital. And once in hospital, elderly people often become infected with things like C. diff which has a HIGH "kill rate". The pain and loss of quality of life a broken bone brings aside, the last thing you want an elderly family member to go through is a serious - hospital acquired - infection. Carpet or cork. Think fashionable resale once you no longer have the "need" for safe, cushiony flooring.