I like dark one with not a lot of grain top right one.

I like the lower left, with the top right as second choice. Both offer a nice amount of contrast with your cabinets. The two upper left samples are too close to your cabinet color, which would make for a sea of nutmeg, and the bottom right looks a bit too beige/cool.

Agree ^^. Either top right or bottom left.

https://www.kylieminteriors.ca/how-to-mix-match-and-coordinate-wood-stains-undertones/

I always like to share this link when choosing wood flooring.

I agree with others. bottom left and top right.

I like the lower left the best. Get a larger sample to make sure.

@eld6161 this link was very helpful!

however, im no design expert and dont trust myself to identify the right undertone of my cabinets. Can you or anyone help me confirm? lol

This pic was shown as a “good“ example. I do like it but not sure how to execute.

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Perhaps you could go to a cabinet store and find a color that you like as far as paint on a cabinet? Then just Bring a bunch of paint color samples of gray tones with you. Or better yet a paint company’s color fan deck.

@SafelyBuild i saw you deleted your earlier posts about painting cabinets Dover grey. That is not an option. I only want to choose a hardwood that looks good with my existing cabinet as is.

I hope someone joins in to either correct me or thumbs up me, but I think you should not do the flooring in the kitchen. Install will go over the tile and you won't be able to pull out appliances, if needed. You want a new floor to go under cabs and appliances and that would mean a kitchen gut. Remove the "after thought applied" baseboard trim.

To answer your question, I like top right. Dark enough to ground and give contrast. I think the other two in the top row are too light, too similar to the cabinet. As for the other two I'm not a fan of the oak grain for a floor. Furniture, okay, but too busy a pattern for an entire floor. That's just me.

@elcieg ohhhh I didn’t know this. The install quote included moving fridge, stove, washer and dryer. I know the hardwoods would go under there. Hmmm, what do you recommend?

Kitchen below shows an example of why I like sample, top, last. I like the floor darker than the cabinets.

My old kitchen had flooring over flooring and they had taken out the DW, range and fridge and put the new flooring underneath those. The variation in height should not be enough to make a difference for the range or refrigerator, the DW legs will have to be adjustable enough to lower them the thickness of the floor to still fit under the counter.

I did have a kitchen where the DW was "trapped" because of layers of flooring. Usually it's the DW you have to be concerned about. But if they put new flooring underneath this should not be a problem.

Top right or bottom left.

Flooring is installed without removing cabinets. You should ask how will the flooring meet the bottoms cabinets? What if there is no tile under the appliances? Those areas should be built up to level of existing tile so new flooring is uniform. It is confusing. Maybe this article will give you pause for thought.

https://steinerhomesltd.com/blog/can-you-replace-kitchen-flooring-without-removing-cabinets/

@palimpsest awesome intel as I did not know of of this! The install quote said to remove the old floor. They will install over concrete not the old floor. The dishwasher is giving me concern because I didn’t think that would be pulled out. I need to ask about that specifically. Thanks!

@elcieg Thank you! I will definitely find out as I was leaving alot up to the installers being experts, going in blind not knowing about uniformity and leveling of floor. It seems like i will have to completely move out temporarily. I thought it would be simple shifting furniture room by room. I appreciate the article you shared!

So IMO it is not just the flooring but the whole house. so a bit more is needed. As for choosing any color of anything on a monitor you are just asking for trouble. Yes the tile all needs to be removed all the floors in the whole house need to be level with eachother. As for the color you take a cabinet door to a flooring shop of your choice get 3 samples you think will work bring them home test in your space with your lighting and IMO the lighting needs to be LED 4000K best in kitchens and also keeps colors true at all times. Yes the DW needs to removed to instaall floor as do the fridge and range.

If your contractor is removing the tile in the kitchen, most of this conversation about the different levels will not matter.. They will not remove any flooring under the cabinets, but that is really irrelevant until the day that you decide to remove the cabinets.

If you think you will remove the cabinets one day, it might be worth purchasing enough extra flooring to do that now. Since you are going with wood however, you could possibly just wait and handle the floors when you do Kitchen Reno #2.

@kempek01 ahhh! I do like this solution because I do not want to remove my cabinets. I can have extra flooring for future use as I have plenty of storage.

@https://www.houzz.com/pro/dada139/patricia-colwell-consulting

you are right, my lighting is not the best. My home doesn‘t get alot of natural light. Thats why I was leaning towards a lighter floor. But I dont want it to clash with the kitchen.

I like the inspiration picture you shared with the lighter flooring. I don't think any of your samples are light enough to provide contrast with your cabinets.

Are there any other lighter choices you can look at?

@pugga I am going to order white oak samples from Mercier. I am also looking into KD Woods White Oak select. I don’t have the sample yet.

I am open to suggestions!

I read the comments here and viewed some of the links, well, I do agree that you can do the flooring without raising the cabinets. The real negative here is that if you raise the floor too much, it makes it impossible to get appliances out for repair or replacement. You might have the space under the cabinet, or maybe get a dishwasher that is slightly shorter. Either way if you’re doing a floating floor like it seems you are it should be OK. Another consideration, as if you don’t have enough decisions. Lol is to use a vinyl floor with a wood finish. Pretty much the same thickness as the linoleum you have currently but it should solve all of your problems. They sell it at the home stores and I’m sure the same place/ price as you are looking at the other wood floor. They are really nice looking, I actually like it better than the hardwood. It seems to be a lot more durable in my opinion :-)

I added new pics to the OP.

thanks!