I have a wood floor/wood cabinet kitchen now, and we break up the woodwoodwood look with a couple of runners. I bought one that is cotton and machine washable. Or you could use FLOR tiles to make a custom sized rug, and those can be hosed down in the driveway if they get dirty. Personally, I wouldn't replace a hardwood floor with something else unless the hardwood were in really bad condition.

If you have a wood floor, I would get it refinished.
What are the other floors in your house? I'd just match what you have there and use area rugs.

Below are pictures of IKEA Adel brown and hardwood floors in almost the same shade. It looks nice. Just pick a complementary wall color, accessories, window treatments, art, etc.

{{!gwi}}

If you do hardwood, you should probably maintain continuity with the rest of the house. I don't think it makes sense to change the color of the hardwood when you get to the kitchen. But it sounds like if you did that, there wouldn't be much contrast between the floor and cabinets, which might not be a good thing.

What about something like Marmoleum, in a gray to coordinate with your counters?

the other rooms have the same wood floors, but in better condition than the kitchen. here are some photos:

Are you redoing the rest of your floors when you redo the kitchen? If so, what about a natural finish on the red oak?

Here is a photo of natural red oak and IKEA Adel MB. As you can see, the floors are somewhat lighter than the cabinets and they look awesome. As you likely can't see, they both share a warmish red undertone that makes them look super nice together.

[Modern Kitchen[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/modern-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2105) by Rockwall Design-Build Firms Modern Craft Construction, LLC

I am 'pro' wood floors in kitchens. Warm and cozy. And I am 'pro' old wood floors with character.

This post was edited by robotropolis on Tue, Jun 24, 14 at 14:10

What do you think of this color combo with tile someone did back in 2008? How do you think it compares to the wood-on-wood look?

I do like the look of wood floors (and definitely would prefer it if my cabinets were white), but I can't figure out if I "really" like it...Maybe I looked at too many photos and developed some kind of bias for something that everyone else seems to be doing. I *think* I like the photos with wood floors posted above, but do I really like it or am I unconsciously trying to conform to the trend of wood-floored kitchens? It doesn't help that a real estate broker recently told me that many of his customers seek out kitchens with wood flooring...

robotropolis, do you think I can do that light natural finish with my floors? I'm not sure if the floors are stained or just really old and dirty...

thank you for asking this question. We are hoping the red oak in most of our house is continued in the kitchen (or we may add it if it's not) and i LOVE the adel medium brown, but i was concerned about too much wood. The pictures have made me feel much better.

If you refinish your red oak floors with a clear polyurethane finish, then they will look lighter at first and gradually darken over time. I just had that done :) .

I believe that continuous flooring throughout is such a great feature so I would recommend that you keep it that way if that is an option.

If you are refinishing your floors throughout, it would be an option to lighten them with one of the white colours in Rubio Monocoat - it protects and colours the wood in one step. See link below. I would consider doing that if I was doing that door style.

Here is a link that might be useful: Natural Monocoat Oil Plus 2C Finish

Kolorblinding, I love the Adel medium brown cabinets! My neighbor just did this in her kitchen and it looks wonderful! I love the reddish tones to the cabinets. The cabinets looks so rich and really is so modern looking with the hardware and the gray tones she also did in her kitchen. She has tile.

I would just stain a natural coat over the red oak after refinishing them and use area rugs.