Burning Question: Lost In The Woods?
We’ve got another burning question for ya- and this time it comes from Susan, a reader with a kitchen floor conundrum. Here’s her question:
Should a kitchen’s hardwood floor match the wood cabinets? I’m reading online that it shouldn’t, but a lot of design magazines & books feature rooms where they match. Help!
So let’s give Susan a hand. Is the same tone on your kitchen cabinets and flooring a recipe for wood overload? Or are they the perfect ingredients for a cohesive and consistent kitchen design? Do tell.
Image courtesy of the 2007 HGTV Dream Home
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Our kitchen floor is tiled, so it goes with our cabinetry and counters. However, our laminate is visible from the kitchen and they don’t match. I was concerned about the proximity as well, but everyone told me it didn’t really matter, so that’s what I’m going with :)
Our house has wonderful red oak floors, but the builder installed cheap cabinets that were an orangey stain. I’m not usually one for matching, but being in the same color family is good. We ended up painting the cabinets white, and it looks much more pulled-together.
Great question. I don’t think it has to be matchy matchy…I posted several pictures the other day of kitchens and while most have granite or limestone counters a few have wood/teak counters and they are slightly different than the floors. I think consistency in floor coloring from room to room with accented woods is more important than matchy matchy floors/counters. but i am no expert, at all!
nice kitchen picture, btw…those stools would be super easy to make.
I’m not a fan of wood cabinets matching wood floors. Our floors are a dark cherry color and even though we love cherry cabinets, we felt it would be too matchy. We’re going with white cabinets so the floors and cabinets stand out in their own way.
They should go well together (same reddish color, for example), but I don’t think they don’t need to match exactly. Um… I’m not crazy about wood cabinets with wood floors though! I prefer one or the other in a kitchen.
I’ve seen both and I think that it’s certainly possible to go with the same. However, it depends on the overall look you’re going for in your home. Plus, consider the finish/color – an entire room in cherry might feel a little overboard but a room done all in maple is very Scandinavian.
I have Maple cabinets and Oak laminate floors. I kind of like the difference in color. It’s a good, distinct separation and gives some character to your home.
I prefer the wood stains to be a little bit different…even by just one shade. I tend to like darker floors and lighter cabinets.
The shades should work together but using the same wood is way too much in my opinion. If its not visually broken up in some way, it ends up looking like a log cabin!
I don’t think the question even refers specifically to wood. When I was talking to the “interior designer” at our local Benj Moore dealer about what color to paint my family room, she asked what color the rug is. When I told her it was blue she said “Ok, so we don’t want to go with blue on the walls, or it’ll just overwhelm you with blue when you walk in.”
So wood, paint, whatever, I think it makes sense to have those big swaths of space be different colors…
I think, technically designer-language speaking, all of your horizontal surfaces in the kitchen should be in the same tonal family and likewise for your vertical sufaces. But having vertical AND horizontal surfaces all match is a bit much.
Agreeing with Mary B… too much of a good thing is simply TOO much. LOL.
~Stacy
I think it just depends on what you like. If you are the type of person that has all the wood furniture the same tone, this might work for you. If you are comfortable with having different tones that’s OK, too.
My personal favorite is wood floors and white cabinets (painted cabinets) – but that’s just me.
IMO, no matter what tone, wood floors with match-y wood cabinets almost always lends a woodsy/lodgy flavor. The type of wood & color of stain may dictate whether the feel is more “Old World” or “rustic cabin” or “Scandinavian cottage”, but you always run the risk of it leaning toward being supremely-cozy-to-the-point-of-suffocation. For a more balanced, modern look in a kitchen, stick to the horizontal/vertical surfaces tip.
It seems there are so many variables to take into consideration(natural light,placement in the house, other woods in home…). *Our* kitchen is pretty light. Light floors, warm white cabinets and warm/light granite. So the same tone. I tend to shy away from woods…our home needs the light.
Fun blog, guys! Now go help me with my bathroom…would’ja??
Thanks for sounding off everyone! We love all the ideas and opinions, and appreciate the bevy of responses.
As for our kitchen, our amazing and super-smart kitchen designer had one rule that semi-applies to this convo. She warned us against pairing a tile floor with white cabinets (which we knew we wanted from the get-go). Yup, as soon as we mentioned our white cabinet lust, she advised that we stick with a wood floor to warm things up and keep the room from feeling to clinical and cold. It really worked for us, and we truly love the contrast between our clean white cabinets and our rich chocolate wood floors.
Inversely to the keep-the-horizontal-planes-in-the-same-tone” rule, (which we’re completely intrigued by, btw) we actually went with a pale granite counter that’s similar in tone to our cabinets (and about a million times lighter than our floor) so I guess we unknowingly broke the rule (but we’re super happy with the über result). We’re such rebels. Whatever works I guess!
Stay tuned for more burning questions in the near future, we just love to pick your collective brain!
xo,
Sherry
When we built our home, we chose cabinets my husband loved (dark cherry finish)and hardwood floors I loved (gunstock aka chestnut). It was the one thing I worried about the entire time the home was being built – would they clash and look hideous together? The day they installed the hardwood I came over and pulled off the cardboard they used to protect it and lo and behold it looked great. I have a neighbor who chose the same cabinets with the matchy-matchy floor and although it looks nice, I like how mine is different where theirs is just a continuation from the floor up the wall without any definition.
They don’t need to match – just coordinate, but isn’t that the theory about everything?
I often discuss this issue with my clients. My feeling is that there needs to be some color distinction between the flooring and the cabinetry so that the cabinets don’t look like the floor is simply wrapping itself up the walls. After all, one is the floor and the other is essentially furniture.
I would suggest that there is no rule about which wood is the lighter or the darker. But I would also say that you need to consider the grain of both woods. If your flooring has a busy or strong grain, like oak, hickory, or even an antique pine, a smoother grained wood, like cherry or clear alder would be best for the cabinets. This will keep you from being overwhelmed with too much visual activity in the wood grain. i also think that the flooring is the place for the strong grained wood and not the cabinets.
In my book, Designing Your Perfect House, I discuss this very issue and show a photo of a kitchen where I used cumaru teak for the flooring, with a fairly strong grain, and quarter-sawn oak for the cabinetry. Oak is normally a pronounced grain when plain sawn, but when rift or quarter sawn, the grain is smoother and much more refined. The combination worked out very nicely.
http://www.designingyourperfecthouse.com
I feel that wood cabinets and floors that are too close in grain, tone and color kill each other. Conversely, having enough difference in cabinets and flooring allows the beauty of each to shine through.
This has not been a problem for years, with very light woods dominating; but lately the popularity of medium and dark toned wood cabinets has re-intoduced the issue.