Hello Kiki!!! First things first, I love being mentioned by my buddy Rmkitchen. She is a pro at getting the right, relevant information to you quickly. She's also got a great sense of style. We love RM!! I do think my granite would be of use to you, if not the same granite but my overall approach. I also wanted to marry the two things - I knew I'd go white cabinets, dark island. I thought from all the granites I saw, that the warm coloured granites like Santa Cecilia and Kashmir Gold, would work well to bridge that gap between the dark and light. My granite, Bianco Antico, just "works" with both colours. It's cooler than the granites I mentioned above, so you need to decide if you want warm vs cool. I myself, love the feel of moody, old-fashioned, vintage, antique-looking things, and I get that feeling from our granite. It also feels somewhat more "formal" than the warmer granites which come off more "casual"...I feel that way about warm golden hardwoods vs greyish brown hardwoods. Not sure if everyone feels this way too though!! I had considered doing one counter on the island - and a different counter colour on the perimeters. I've seen this look great, both in magazines and on Garden Web. But you know, I really like how it turned out when we used the same granite on both colours of cabinets. It ties things together. Note that we did do a wood top on our dark desk area, and I feel that this change in counter type does work well and adds variety. You were worried about the contrast - I think that having dark wood floors helps to soften the contrast between the two cabinet types. I also kind of like the contrast as it makes a dramatic statement. Anyway, I can go on and on. Good luck!

You probably don't want to hear from me, because I agree with your dh for 2 reasons...I do think it'd be tough to get a dark floor color that wouldn't compete with and create a very dark overall feel with the dark burgundy cabs...But also, we have Brazilian Cherry floors, which I didn't think were that dark on the samples, but are too dark for me in practical, everyday life. Any of the slightest scratches look white...and these come from anyplace furniture sits on it, anything is moved across them with any tiny bit of sand on it, and from normal movements of pets and family. Also, the dust and pet hair seems to be magnified. They just never look clean...and look dirtier than a lighter floor might. Just a heads up so that you might not be disappointed later, like I am. You might consider something like oak with a darker stain put on so that the grain and some color variation is allowed to show through. This could be a happy medium for you and your dh on the lightness and darkness issue, would allow the dark, solid burgundy cabinets to stand out, and solve the dirt and scratch-hiding issues, too.

ideagirl2, I'm glad you liked the gallery. Hopefully you can take away a some good ideas. I just googled "red stove" and clicked on images. There's a ton of stuff. I'm glad you took a chance with the red, although the blue would have been awesome too. It really does give you a jumping off point. I think the off white, black and red looks great too. It's really a classic pallette. In small and/or dark spaces, light really bounces around the white cabinets. What a shame that the original woodwork is gone. Warning, I'm stepping on my soapbox here (LOL!). What goes through peoples minds!?! My first house was a post war (WWII) rambler. Back then they still put in oak floors. We still had ours, which had been refinished at some point. A friend and co-worker lived in the same neighborhood. Her house had been belonged to her husband's grandma, the original owner. They assumed they had hardwood under their green shag. Come to find out, at some point, a corner of the floor had been eaten away by termites, so they (grandparents) had opted to pull out all the original floors, replaced it with carpet. It's heartbreaking. How hard could it have been to have the floors repaired and the termites treated? Certainly cheaper than a whole house of carpet. Ah well. Since your house it not so open, you can go different in every room if you choose. However, it might flow better if you have one thing that ties each room together. It can be color, or even tones. For example, you could have a little bit of red in each main room. That can mean red in the curtain or cushion fabric, or red accessories, something in a small dose. My friend did this with her house with that same burgandy/red color. Or, keep your wall tones in the same general range. That helps flow too. I can be jarring to go from say a white room, to a dark navy blue. What I have done in the past is choose colors from the middle range of the color cards. That 1950's house I mentioned had mid tone yellow walls in the living/dining room (also the entry), a deeper amber tone in the kitchen, Restoration Hardware Silver Sage in the family room addition, a lavender blue in the bedroom hallway, medium blue in the main bedroom and taupe in the bathroom. It all worked even though they were different colors, they had a sense of flow because they were in that mid range of tones.

Thanks, this is my first renovation and I think when I posted the question about it being dated I was just overwhelmed with all the choices I have been making. I'm doing two bathrooms, one kitchen, a dining room and a living room all at once! Its a lot. I lost sight of what I naturally like and want in my own home. Thanks to all for helping me with this! :-)