Hi, Marion. Congrats on getting to redo your kitchen!

I would say for the flooring that medium brown is the most timeless. I believe dark wood is a bit of a trend that may be on its way out. (no offense to anyone that has dark wood floors and loves them!)

ditto on the gray/black/white color scheme. again, no offense to anyone who has it, but the design blogs etc that I have read say that that trend has peaked and is going out. of course, the new trend of the moment (whatever it is) will be outdated in about 10 years! so I would say pick what you like. i believe white is the most timeless / classic.

re the black stainless appliances - i have read that the black part scratches off and you can see the stainless underneath. i would avoid.

No matter what you choose to do for the flooring, cabinets and counters, selecting paint always comes last and you shouldn't worry about it until all of the elements are in place so you can sample colors next to the fixed elements. There are literally hundreds of paint colors to choose from. Your choices will be more limited for your other elements.

You'll have to decide whether it matters to you that gray cabinets are a fading trend. Some people really like gray and didn't get rid of it during the beige phase of the early 2000's and some people really like beige and didn't get rid of it during the gray phase. It's your money, so if you have always loved gray, maybe that will be right for you. If however you just started thinking about this, keep an open mind and see if something else appeals.

If you already have wood floors elsewhere on your first floor, the best thing to do is to continue them into the kitchen. If you want to refinish them to a different color you can do that as part of the kitchen project, but they should all be the same color.

I would go with off-white cabinets. Gray color is out of style.

Personally I’m so sick of gray. I agree with everyone above.

Every time I see a gray kitchen i get depressed.