I think light, pale wood is not going to look cohesive with brazilian cherry flooring already there. I'd do tile. Please post photos to get some good advice. Show your existing area, your choices for the cabinets, and that will help people get a good feel for the direction you are heading.

In general, simple is often best (as I have learned myself). I might take the money I'd save by paying extra for chevron/herringbone and put it toward new floors elsewhere downstairs. Because it will cost more to make that design.

OK...your flooring will be dictated by your counter top choices. Your counter tops will be dictated by your cabinet choice. And dark cabinets make for DARK kitchens. And brazilian cherry (Jatoba) is a mid-tone floor to begin with. Which means you will have a dark room sitting RIGHT NEXT to a mid-tone dark floor.

With dark cabs (in a colour that does NOT mix well with Jatoba's colour range) and a white counter top...your are pretty much limited to a nice, bright, white floor.

I'm a little unsure as to where the Jatoba starts and stops. You make it sound like the Jatoba is already in the 500sf area....but then you mention doorways where it will meet the new floor.

Are you installing 500sf of flooring in a 500sf kitchen?? How dark is your space to begin with? What colour are you looking at for walls? How 'brown' are the cabinets and how 'red' are the Jatoba floors (do they have the pink/purple look to them...or are they more into the flaming red/orange range)?

Without seeing the space and without seeing your current floors and your cabinet/counter top choices we are going to be offering advice in a vacuum. Some pics of what we are dealing with would certainly help.

And "No." Do NOT add in wood-look tile NOR another wood if you already have a DIVA of a wood floor aka Jatoba. Jatoba does NOT play well with others. It is the STAR! It will yell and scream if you put any other 'wood look' stuff next to it. And it really does not like black/brown (these are often green tone colours) anything. Green-toned browns clash HEAVILY with Jatoba.

Just so you know.

It seems you are trying to match 3 types of wood looks - potential kitchen floor, existing floor, and kitchen cabinets. This might be too many different shades of wood to match. Instead I would consider doing a neutral (white) large format square tile that would match kitchen countertops.

Hi! Thanks for all of your quick responses. As suggested, I've gathered up some references here. I've attached angles of the kitchen side of the room where the cabinets will go, and the living room side of the space. It's roughly 18'x27' with about 480 square feet of flooring, solid natural lighting, and the areas where it will meet with the cherry will be at the 3 doors over on the living room side (though only 2 are pictured; there's a short hallway to the left of the stairs if you were coming up to this floor that leads to a door). It looks like a light floor now in those other connected rooms, but really we just have some mats to cover them while the ceilings are being painted.

Thanks again!

Is it too late to cancel the kitchen cabinets? You should have considered all choices before now.

I agree with others that those are VERY dark cabinets for this space.

As for floors, I would do one wood floor for the whole level to avoid it looking busy. That could mean replacing all the floors with a light wood, or it could mean weaving matching Brazilian cherry into the kitchen. If the later, I would definitely look at using light rugs to help lighten the space while still having the consistency of a single wood floor throughout.

Ah we haven't ordered the cabinets yet, so that's good to keep in mind too, haha.

If you’re going for a modern farmhouse vibe, I’d also mention that black/brown cabinets aren’t particularly modern farmhouse. I associate them more with a modern industrial type of look.

I looked at your link. The photo of the 'adjacent room flooring' doesn't look like Brazilian Cherry. It looks more like Brazilian Teak (Cumaru). Are you sure it is the B. Cherry (Jatoba)? If it is, was it STAINED?

If the photo is accurate, the same colour flooring could be used with your dark cabinets. It would work with nicely. Of course the space would be as dark as a cave - but the cabinet/floor combo would work for sure.

From the photos you posted, your flooring looks beautiful. I would definitely run that in your kitchen, and rethink your cabinet choice. I would personally go for white.

Can your floors be sanded to change the color so everything would be the same?

Hey, everyone! Thanks for your advice! We'll be changing the cabinets to white shakers. They definitely look like it would be a good match if we go with a lighter cabinet.

I'm not sure about the floor material, but it was stained before. I've been running some looks, and I can't quite find a tile that I think looks too great here. We're considering trying to extend the floor, but we'll need to take a piece over to get it matched at a flooring store.

Oh, I wanted to check to see if it would still be weird to go with different floors if all the access into this opened room would have doors separating it. Such as to the other rooms with the presumably Brazilian cherry floors, if we put doors to separate them.

Thanks!

IMO, different flooring, especially wood will make your home look like an Easter Egg. Not a good look. Use the same flooring throughout whatever that flooring is - is the way you should go. If you dislike the existing flooring and its worn out, that would be a necessary replacement throughout the house. Remember doing it right the first time is less expensive than doing it over again.

I would not forgo the open concept because of an issue with the floors. I'd replace all the floors in the place before changing the entire concept of the space.