I'll just lead off by saying that I'm terrible at imagining what something will look like and what will look good together. I've also spent a LOT of time today on the internet looking at pictures of kitchens, and if possible, I am more confused now than when I started! I need help!

Basic info: we hope to completely remodel our kitchen (new cabinets, floor, countertop, appliances) this summer. The kitchen is small, about 13' long by 8' wide, with a door to the hall in the one "short" side, a long run of cabinets/range/cabinets along one "long" side, then cabinets/sink/window along the other "short" side, and along the other "long" side, a wide archway to the dining room. We are not remodeling the dining room, but would like to have some cabinets built in there for extra storage.

Considerations with the existing house are that it is arts & crafts style, wooden floors through most of the house, and quite dark trim through almost the entire house. Most of the doors are also this dark wood, including the door from the kitchen into the hallway. (The door frame in the kitchen, though, has been painted - perhaps with several layers of paint? not sure) The dining room adjoining the kitchen has a light wooden floor (looks like oak).

Another important consideration - we have 4 kids (oldest is 7), so this will be a hard-working kitchen. I like things to be clean, or at least look that way ;), and my husband and kids do not have standards for cleanliness that are quite as high as mine. So in other words - if it takes a lot to keep it looking clean, I'm going to be frustrated with my family a lot of the time!

Here are some of my thoughts:
*small kitchen, so an overall light color scheme is probably best
*should we try to match the dining room floor in the kitchen (light oak hardwood)? How do-able would that be?
*if we have light wood floor, would it not be good to have light wood cabinets? I don't really want oak cabinets - would light maple cabinets and light oak floor look bad?
*should I just ditch the wood floor in the kitchen and go with something contrasting to the dining room floor? Would that make it easier to have wood cabinets without overwhelming the space with 1000 different wood tones?
*should we do anything with the dark wood tone that is throughout the house?
*white cabinets? good or bad idea? I tend to prefer wood...
*I most definitely want white appliances... in a small kitchen, would a bunch of white appliances and wood cabinets look bad? is white cabinets the way to go?

... and on and on...

Please, please, please help me out and give me something solid to think about, or rules to follow, or SOMETHING! Links to photos to illustrate points or whatever are most welcome... as I said, I've been looking at photos a lot today but the photos alone are not really helping me to focus this thinking in a good direction!