What a cool house you have there!

I love the original parquet floors.....are you sure you want to stain them gray?

I can see over-staining the floor. The honey-rust is very dominating, hard to decorate around.

Walnut should be enough different than the grayed-oak flooring, to contrast nicely. I like your idea of dark wood and light countertop. Just reading an older thread where point was made, that all of a kitchen's cabinets do not have to be the same -- wood and white for example, can be used wood below and white above.

This is two solid/painted colors, but the contrast is similar.

An island in wood in a white or gray kitchen is another choice, but I think I am seeing a galley kitchen on the other side of the pass-through?

Example of the island treatment

I looked at some examples online of gray stain on parquet, and some of them are stunning. Which surprised me. ;-)

Just play with the stain so you don't overdo it.

To answer your original question, I think walnut with light countertops will be a good choice, and would suit your home nicely.

A more "natural" walnut on lower cabs only.

Thanks! Agreed on the floor stain, we definitely don't want to overdo it or lose the character of the floors.

Leeza- We are actually changing the floor plan, swapping where the kitchen and dining room are. We have a hill country view and no windows to see it from, so we are adding floor to ceiling windows where the kitchen currently is. I am adding before and after floor plans so you can see.

Our kitchen is going to be an island, a peninsula and some wall cabinets (so no uppers). I was considering doing the wall cabinets in white or gray, and the island in wood. Not sure which grouping the peninsula fits with from a material point of view. What do you think?

We have original parquet floors in our 1950s home that we've restained. Just so you know, not all parquet is thick enough to stain. Have you checked with a flooring company yet? Also, because the grain of the wood goes in different directions when they use the sander there will be some marks going in the wrong direction. This makes it difficult to use darker colors of stain. Honestly a natural look would have been best but I went a little darker anyways. Ours came out pretty well, we've had people say they came out amazing for parquet, but it is on a lower level walk-out. If you get lots of sun in your space I'd have them test sand and stain a portion close to a window so you can see the issue. Btw only one flooring company told us about this when giving their quote.....

A good reason to switch to tile or marmoleum when you get to the new sunny kitchen space...

Thanks! Leemiller - I have checked with 2 different companies and neither had any hesitations around sanding and staining the floors. do you have pictures of your floor you could share? I didn't realize we might have sanding issues!

Dana --

Love your remo! You have made some great changes -- from three bedrooms awkwardly sharing two baths, to a true master suite and a "public" bath (used by guests). Also like the pocket doors.

And nice changes to the kitchen! I would make the wall or half-wall with the sink the same finish as the wall with the fridge and tall cabs = white or gray. So the island stands out as different. That would be similar to the pic 'under' the "Example of the island treatment" link in my first post to you above... possibly lighter wood? depending on if stained vs. natural walnut.

This is going to be a much more livable house when you are done! Huzzah!

I love the choices you have made . We actually swapped our kitchen and DR in our 1956 MCM ranch and got this amazing kitchen space that I love everyday.

Here is what I'm talking about. I hope this helps. I'll try to add a better overall shot later. This isn't what every tile looks like but I thought this one shows how the grain runs in two directions.