My red oak with nutmeg, in various light around the kitchen.

Annettacm those floors are shudder-inducingly gorgeous! Wow!

Thanks :) I was trying to be very careful not to get my messy kitchen in the pics. And that floor could probably use a good sweeping.

I agree - those are beautiful @annettacm! Thank you so much for sharing.

I am really struggling with this decision as we have hardwoods throughout the entire house except tile floors in (2) bathrooms on the second floor and the mudroom / laundry room area. However, we are only refinishing the hardwoods on the first floor right now. So we want something that will look okay with the stairs and second floor being different. Ultimately it's more important that I love it for the first floor and with the new kitchen cabinets.

Here is a picture of our samples on the kitchen floor near the bar area (sorry for the mess). In the background to the right, you can see a hallway that has the current color which will remain on the stairs and 2nd level.

Thoughts?

spartans99, definitely go lighter, with those black countertops your kitchen will be a light-sink. But how gorgeous will those be when they are all done?!

annettacm, you don't know "needing swept" until you have seen the current state of my floors! So neglected as I work hard at finishing the kitchen.

I would also go lighter. Also, I would separate all the samples, because together it's just a competition and you can't get a good idea of how one single stain will look with the rest of your kitchen. Remove the ones that aren't in contention, till you have 2 or 3 finalists. Then, one at a time, put it in the kitchen. What's important is how it looks in your kitchen, not compared to other colors.

The second one from the end closest to hall is pretty. Like everyone else says maybe just a touch LIGHTER. I like this one for the red tones in it with your cabinets. It's not overwhelmingly red so as not to offer any contrast to separate the two. I don't care for the more gray ones that don't have as much life in them. It's so hard to pick out these really high impact choices. Good luck!

annettacm for your nutmeg floors what brand stain was used? They look great!!

Keep them light. It's my pet peeve when I see hardwood floors touching wood cabinets that are too similar in color. It almost always clashes.

What are your thoughts on the wood floors being darker than the cabinets?

Here are a couple of pics. My cabinets are different color than hallway closet doors

sorry didn't get pics attached