There is really no way to disguise oak, so I'd try and use it to your advantage. Adding hardware on the cabinets would help - something pewterish to tie in your grey floors. I think a warm countertop would be nice. Maybe not a granite with a lot of movement, something subtle becaus the oak is busy. I'm not loving your wall color (it could be my monitor). Good luck.

IMO you might not be able to disguise oak but you sure can minimize it with paint. So I would paint the cabinets a white that works with the floors and wall color which BTW I don’t like with the floor. Add some cool drop lights over the island and choose a counter that works with the floor and the new color for the cabinets

Thanks, Patricia. Are drop lights on a high ceiling ok? I've only seen them on shorter ceilings and this one is either 14 or 16 ft.

You absolutely need some large pendants...those can lights don't give you much light.

Acm has great advice. You definitely want to go and pick the granite first and make sure it goes with your flooring. Also one photo looks like your walls are blue and another beige? Maybe it is the monitor. What color are your walls?

There is really no way to disguise oak, so I'd try and use it to your advantage. Adding hardware on the cabinets would help - something pewterish to tie in your grey floors.

I thought you were going to say, stain them. That's also an option. I hear oak cabinets are coming back.... and with a light granite? Pretty.

This combo wouldn't even need stained. ;)

Thank you all!! The walls are called "ashen tan". Here's another picture of the color in the kitchen (the one on the bottom is the same paint and floors, just wanted to show how different the paint looks in different lighting of the same room). My husband really wants to do the "Americas best finishes" stain in Java on the cabinets and has done a ton of research on it. I'm pretty nervous about it because I feel like we've already made a misstep with the wall color.

You are judging the project before it is complete. I think the reason the paint colour is getting a bad rap is because without contrast on your cabinets, everything looks bland and your neutrals are from both the warm and cool tones so they are conflicting. If your cabinets were either lighter (white/ cream) or darker (perhaps the java if it picks up the same hues from the darkest streak in the floor but darker) add stainless hardware, and the speckled granite similar to the one in the picture a acm provided, it would look stunning.

I think the wall color will look much better with the java cabinets. And then add some large modern hardware to make the cabinets appear more updated.

Go with the Java....Gel Stain(recommendation from pros on Houzz)....You can ALWAYS repaint.

Not sure if you on doing the painting/staining yourself but I found gel stain really hard to work with.

I'm also not a fan of gel stain. It may have improved since I used it last.

Ok it’s months later and we’ve decided to get the cabinets professionally painted white. Everything else is the same as of now. Should I match the cabinet color to the pantry door and trim (see second picture in original post)? Those are Swiss coffee. We’ll add hardware too, not sure on that either but will review previous posts!