This will be the new flooring color

Strongly suggest you rethink the flooring. The faux wood next to real wood won't look good, and the grey is so cold and unnatural. Plus, that floor has a busy pattern that will compete with the other elements in the space.

The flooring is my number one must remove for the house, it looks dated and seems every house built in early 2000 had it. It is 2 1/4 orange oak, the new floor is not faux wood it is 5" 3/4 solid maple. We want a modern design.

I get wanting new flooring. I'll just point out that while grey wood may seem modern now (actually, it was modern probably a year or two ago and now is drastically dropping in popularity) it will NOT age well. In just a few years it will scream dated not updated.

What would you recommend over gray hardwood? Anything would be better than this orange oak, and we want to get it right as we are spending around 70k on this remodel. We love the gray and white clean look, on trim cabinets etc a d figured q grey undertone floor would look clean.

See if you can refinish the existing floor in a shade you prefer. That oak floor has been in style for over 100 years--it doesn't scream dated. But the color can be altered quite a bit!

The kitchen looks perfectly fine to me. Changing the lights is an option. The floor doesn’t look bad and I hate orangey wood. You can refinish the floor to any shade.

The floor is very orange in person. and it is throughout the entire house, the cabinets look ok from afar, but they are all bubbling and have gotten wet and the MDF has no hold up well. I would like to do it right one time.
We just purchased this house after selling ours which was a total gut and remodel, with everything new and going to this house which is 15 years old it feels like we could change everything.

I would refinish the floors but I know we would not be happy with the narrow 2 1/4" boards.

I would go with a light brown wood that has gray undertones if you want to incorporate gray.

I recommend Shuler cabinets because, as I understand it, they are the same thing as Medallion cabinets which is what I have and love. The finish on Medallion painted cabinets is so much better than on Kraftmade, and they have nicer white options too IMO. I would definitely choose white.

With respect to your flooring, I get your dislike for orangy wood -- I don't like it either. But I think it would be a mistake to go with gray wood flooring. Naturally stained (i.e. brown) wood looks great with white/gray kitchens, and give them warmth, versatility, and staying power.

I like grey wood. My own kitchen/house has creamy grey wood look tile throughout. I disagree about it being on the fast track to bring dated. Real weathered wood bleaches and becomes grey/white. HOWEVER. It’s not ‘modern’ IMO. It goes good with an old world distressed aged aesthetic because it mimics something aged. Coastal weathered beach house. French country old world. It’s falling out of favor as a trendy over used grey on grey ‘modern’ look. I think it’s a bit busy looking for your kitchen and would look into alternatives.

This is what the floor looks like on a larger scale, hand scraped brown with gray undertone, or we can go darker

The one you just posted would look MUCH better than the gray. I wouldn't go any darker than that though. I would actually look for something lighter.

mark, they actually are both the same floor, I think the lighting in the store made it look lighter, the sample in my home looks like the picture above, more brown than gray.

here is the sample against our floor now

“it looks dated and seems every house built in early 2000 had it.”

I have to tell you that gray-stained and gray-toned floors came roaring in about 2013 or so. It became popular and ubiquitous extremely quickly. Because of the speed at which it became popular, it has become dated just as quickly. We have already seen “gray-floor fatigue” on this forum for close to a year, with posts of “not another gray-stained floor!” Your sentence I quoted at the top of this post can also be just slightly altered to say “seems every house built since 2013 has gray-stained floors”.

Not much different is the waterfall edge. It has now become common in mid-level condo developments, installed by developers who want their units to seem higher-end than they are, and all they have to do is install a waterfall edge in the kitchen to do it. Waterfall edge counters fit best in kitchens that have contemporary cabinetry and aesthetic. The Shaker cabinets and farm sink you plan aren’t that, so it will be putting two different aesthetic approaches into one kitchen. I’d just install a regular counter in the kitchen you are planning, just my $.02.

I agree with the others that gray floors would not be right for your kitchen, even if just a gray undertone. I only half-way agree about not doing a waterfall counter. If it is a stone waterfall, then I agree it’s a passing fad and doesnt go with your other choices. However, what has been appearing in upper-end homes with $100k+ kitchens in the Chicago area (and these things can be regional) are wood waterfall counters and light wood Scandinavian-esque floors, whether maple or light white oak.