Personally, I'm a fan of natural oak floors. And since that's what you have through the rest of that floor (mostly), it will look nice and tied together. It will darken a bit anyway. Since you have darker stained cabinets and dark perimeter counters, I think the lighter toned floor will look terrific.

The darker the floor, the more the dust shows.

Ditto linelle, I vote for natural wood to match the rest and for good contrast with your cabinets.

Thank you for your input. I know, my logical voice tells me the same thing...keep it the same...but then this teensy little voice says "a little darker won't hurt a thing", "you love the warm tones".

So I make myself second guess and I will probably do so for the next day, until I have to give them a final answer on stain....so anyone else out there who can chime in either way would be great!

Is the kitchen floor continuous with the next room? If so, that's another reason to keep them the same color -- no awkward transition. Besides, I don't think it is possible for oak not to be warm, even unstained. :) If you have unfinished wood now, it'll darken up a bit with the finish and with time.

Is the floor in the back of your kitchen near the wall the old wood or the new?

I am no style guru and you will be the one having to look at the floor so this is just my opinion -- but I am thinking that two different floor colors might look better with two different woods, instead of having natural oak in one place and stained oak in another.

Would you be changing ALL of the wood or just the kitchen? If you have natural everywhere I'd probably leave natural but I do love a little darker myself : )
I have Provincial and it's really nice without being overly dark.