Your Pro should provide you with samples hat he uses a conversion varnish to finish. Cabinets aren’t painted with house paint. Or shouldn’t be.

Thanks for the suggestions! And thanks for the compliment :) I debated putting the one of my girls but that picture really showed the wood and the green, lol! The pale oak is beautiful and I got some samples of clay beige and manchester tan. Thanks again!

@aprilneverends, the original cabinet picture is posted in my original post. I do not have the pictures to the "space" but the rest of it is indeed just ivory colored walls with windows, and oak colored baseboards, covered with a neutral carpet -- which will be replaced with a vinyl plank flooring. To answer your other question regarding LVP: I intend to put wood-look vinyl in the living/dining area, and intend to put tile-look vinyl in the kitchen and entry -- which is approximately 6'x8' area that is completely open otherwise to the rest of the Great Room. Hope that answers the questions. Housegal, thanks for the link share. Bardapotter: thank you for the pointer. Would love to see pix. Colonel115: any pointers regarding which wood/stain look would be a shade darker? TIA!!

So much fabulous feedback - THANK YOU!! @jhmarie - I think you are right about the white oak floors - they are very hard and don't really scratch. I'm going to consider quartersawn oak now... and you are definitely correct about a drab grey/brown combo. We are leaning towards the greige colors for the floors and backsplash. A cold hard grey won't really fit in with the rest of the house. @olmama - your kitchen looks fabulous and it really does remind me of ours. The ceilings are almost identical. @nosoccermom - I like the colors, but the shape is too modern. I think something between rustic and farm fits us better. I went to the website and saw those cabinets are oak... wow I had no idea oak could looks that good. lol. :) @Olychick - yeah I'm starting to have second thoughts about the knotty alder. with so many knots already, it might be too much "clutter" for such a small space. Out kitchen is not really that big - it just feels like it because of the open ceiling and the sun room with the windows makes it feel huge. @herbflavor - Thanks for the input on the flooring - I'm to the tile store this weekend to look at tiles like the ones mentioned above. @OneRidgeOff - Holy smokes!! I love your granite and backsplash. My partner also loves blues like that. He is going to flip when he sees your kitchen pictures. I'm so excited to pick our granite. :) @SJ McCarthy - you are 100% correct that we are going to struggle until we update the windows. the rest of the house was updated since building, but they did not update the sunroom, probably because of the cost. Those windows are HUGE. @Filipe Agostinho - I see what you are saying about contract - I'm going to focus on making sure there is contrast between the floors/backsplash/countertop and cabinets. This is a huge help. Ok, so to recap - definitely going to focus on greige floors, and will look at quartersawn oak, since it will match the trim in the rest of the house, and modern shaped cabinets will still update it, without having to update the rest of the house. You all are awesome. Thank you so much. :)