Live with it as is for at least 6 months. You may hate the layout and the way the works for you and now stuck with new cabinets, tops, backsplash in a crap layout.

Back up - what is the adjacent floor finish in the other rooms? Wood? Carpet? Vinyl floors? For a smallish kitchen it’s always best to have the floor finish flow and be the same as the adjacent rooms. With that being said, if it’s carpet obviously you wouldn’t do that here - pick your floor FIRST!!! Do this before you pick your final white cabinet color and especially the counters which is where patterns and whites can clash. Take your time with this as you will love with your decisions for awhile it sounds like.

Also, since you are doing new cabinets you can tweak the placement of appliances so best to post a fully dimensioned plan for best advice because I see pinch points with placements as it currently exists. You may wish to live with the kitchen for 6 months to a year to work out all these planning issues and budget accordingly.

You might even like those cabinets if that floor wasn't there and the walls were another color!

The floors in the rest of the house are light oak. My husband and daughter love the cabinets, I very much do not. I cant live with them. we are taking out hte opposite wall that leads to a bedroom we dont need to make a family room off the kitchen as well.

Wood floors and run them through the entire fist floor unless you can match them to the existing floor. A white kitchen with wood floors looks great and classic.

Match the kitchen floors to the wood in the rest of the house. Then pick your white cabinet color, countertop and wait for the backsplash. Have everything in place - especially lighting - before picking the backsplash.

Agree. When you have a sample of your white cabinet door, go to a stone yard with an open mind. Many of us just “fall in love” with an unknown stone which makes the kitchen sing.

First choice wood, second choice grey tile.

I second the vote for wood extension, both in kitchen and dining area. I definitely understand your desire to get new cabs, but yes, make your selections slowly, not all at once, and bring a door sample with you to the stone yard when you pick your counters. Good luck!

We are definitely not doing the wood right through, it was my first thought, but husband is worried about damaging it with all the grandkids. So we are going with tile with heated floor. I love the last photo by kandrewspa, thank you so much for that it has made me rethink my choices.

@sushiallure Your grandkids will not ruin a wood floor unless they drag your furniture around without putting something on the feet. If you are set on tile do not install anything "marble look porcelain" or "wood look tile". They look dated two seconds after they are installed. If you look online, though, there aren't any tiled kitchen floors with white cabinets that look better than wood floors. Wood floors with white cabinets always look better so why get something worse?

@George I do not disagree with you. I would love the wood floors and they would look best with the white. Also, it would be far cheaper. However, I do have husband to consider as well. I dont consider it ”worse” i consider it different. I am not giving up on the idea, but i need to figure out an alternative if I cant get him on board.

An oak floor finished properly will not be damaged by normal activity of grandkids. I’ve had wood, laminate, sheet vinyl and tile floors, and wood is superior by far to all of them. My vacation home has wood floors since it was built in 1993. It was rented for probably 15 of those years, and when we use it there are kids, dogs and sand tracked in from the beach. I don’t baby it and it looks just fine. Wood floors definitely look great with white cabinets.

You mention this is your retirement home. Have your husband research aging in place flooring options. If you can't sway him from tile (typically not an ideal flooring for aging in place), then choose a tile with a high slip-resistance friction rating and avoid throw rugs (trip hazard) and choose floor transition materials carefully to avoid a height difference.

In the three homes I've either built/bought, I've always had wood flooring in the kitchen and main first floor areas for continuity with children and pets in all the homes. Since you're undertaking a major reno, do read up on universal design and try to incorporate aging in place features while renovating.

@tlynn1960 Yes, we are retiring, but im only 59 and he is 62. Im a squash player and he is quite active. We may make changes down the road but for now I think we are good.

Oh, go with wood for many reasons! Matches the rest of the home. Easy on the joints. A bit more gentle on dropped dishes. It’s warmer and homier looking. And it really is durable if it’s good quality to begin with. I’ve had wood and tile and I’d never do tile again.

we have 100 year old white oak floors in our kitchen - they are gorgeous and refinished beautifully. My kids were tiny when we moved in, and no one ever damaged the floor! In progress photo -

Have your husband read these posts about the reasons for extending the wood floor. He may be swayed by others.

I inherited a tile floor in my kitchen before I redid it and during our first Thanksgiving I had a terrible backache. I only told my sister, who looked down and said “The tile floor is too hard on your back.” She was right. I had wood in every kitchen except this one.

When I redid the kitchen, I extended the wood floors from the great room. Much easier to stand on.

agree with @RedRyder - I've cooked thousands of meals, truly, in my kitchen and with zero back concerns.

@sushiallure - I don't even understand how your grandchildren could destroy the floors - are they going to hammer them? My kids used play strollers, scooters, etc. on them and nothing damaged them. Occasionally we dropped cans and they left a small dent but I loved the patina, personally. Super easy to clean and so warm.

@RedRyder we are going with wood. i showed him all of the photos and he agrees the look is far supperior to the tile. crisis averted

Wood is the best floor choice! Match your existing floors. Are you replacing the cabinets? That wasn’t clear…. If so, why? These look like good Shaker cabinets? Why not just have them painted! It would save you a lot of $ and time.

You might want to post a 2d floor plan so we can help you tweak the plan.

Sorry, I missed your comment about wanting to get rid of the bulkhead and have the cabinets go to the ceiling when I questioned why you aren’t just painting the current shaker cabinets. But - Is it worth spending $ on all new cabinets to get rid of the bulkhead? Do you know if anything critical is in the bulkheads? Yes, would maybe look better if no bulkhead and you do gain extra storage. But if this this is your “retirement” home, are you really going to climb up to use that extra upper cabinet space as you age? Going white, changing floor, countertops and backsplash, getting rid of the white appliances and maybe changing the cabinet hardware will give you a total new look, and honestly, the bulkhead isn’t going to make that much difference. If money is no object, then go for it! But unless the current cabinets are really cheaply made, a cost/benefit trade off would suggest keeping and painting the current cabinets.

And if you want to add one or two more cabinets next to the refrigerator in the current “desk area” , I’m sure you can find a Shaker style match, and only buy one or two unfinished cabinets to be painted with the rest.

sushi, glad you decided on wood.

can you stand to look at a bunch of pics? lol

btw, you said you liked this one. the countertop is Shadow Storm, and the backsplash is a picket style tile.

You mentioned there is oak in the rest of the home? is it the smaller plank red or white oak? Is all of that staying?

I ask, because when I redid my kitchen I took out all of the tile and the other wood flooring/carpet (yikes, I had 4 diff floorings) and put down a wider plank french oak. I've spilled lots of water, have had things scraped across the floor, and it's held up beautifully.

If you do choose something like this, go for the wire brushed. It will hide anything your grandkids do. (and unless they rollerskate in there, they won't harm the wood)

Here's a shot of it w/the white cabinets, marble island and gray quartz perimeter. I also have marble tile backsplash

few other photos of what the whole room looks like when the same flooring is used.

does your current floor look like this 4" white oak?

If you want to keep the smaller plank flooring, you could call in a wood floor specialist and see if they can lace in new boards w/the old.

this will require refinishing all of the original wood floors so they can stain them to match in the new ones.

If you don't want to go through all of that, there are diff flooring options you can do just for the kitchen.

You could buy wood planks in the same wood species as what you have, have them stained as close as possible to the current color, but run them in a herringbone pattern. this way they won't have to match up perfectly

Here are some other examples to consider:

This is a home w/older floors and they did tile in the kitchen.

I like a nice black/white tile framed out by the same wood you have elsewhere.

There are diff ways to do this. this is an entryway, so imagine it for the entire kitchen.

here's a darker one next to the wood floor. I really like this look.

Large pattern format in a Limestone tile

love this look too. the countertops are TajMajal

Or, go for a 24x24 light whiteish/gray porcelain tile (not a marble look tile!) in more of a matte finish

Or, look at a terrazzo-lik tile in a larger format porcelain. tons of colors and looks

I like a darker floor next to all white cabs/countertops. gives some contrast. You can see just a peek of the wood floor off to the side

Or, how about a slate floor tile in a herringbone? this always looks nice next to a wood flor and white cabs

Or, maybe a brick look porcelain tile done in a herringbone pattern as well? (you can look up more examples of these)

black and white porcelain tile that looks like marble. (ChrislovesJulia did a similar floor and it's gorgeous)

@Beth H. thank you so much for the photo's. im not sure what the oak is but its not orange. it does run through the enture house except for bathrooms so im not dying to change it all out and i actually like it. I do like the herringbone my husband does not, im just happy we have agreed on wood, but that dark tile herringbone has caught my eye so we may be back in negotiations.

@chloe00s fortunately money is not an issue and we arent worried about the height. Im short and use a stool anyway. The house is a raised bungalow so there is nothing in the bulkhead and i like the look of cabinets to the ceiling. i have been staring at the listing photos every day for weeks working out how i can fall in love with this house because leaving my home is very hard for me, i love it and have been here for over 20 years.

Then go for it! But one comment about that dark grey herringbone, as pretty as it is. I have dark grey 12 x 24 tile in my kitchen. I love the look of it with my white cabinets, but just a warning… it does show every tiny crumb, and requires constant sweeping up. I’d stay with the wood!

I definitelt would not choose dark tile over wood for comfort reasons and aesthetic reasons as well

Get the wood before hubs changes his mind!

Looking at the photos with the gray floors, they are just (to me) so dreary, cold and lifeless.

Yay! Glad you’re doing wood.
I agree with Diana. Buy it asap.

The only downside to wood floors is …maintenance ..over time..also …with the caveat that the wood you get now is not as mature before being harvested…so it is not as durable…

that being said there are so many different products available for finishing them and maintaining them ..that will protect the wood…just don’t expect the manufactured.. layered …not…solid wood …types will endure as long as solid wood..

also know that some woods are softer..such as pine..a favorite these days..but is the least durable for wear…

Which is the reason LVP and other such products have been increasingly been improved..and accepted as a feasible alternative

IMO all floors need maintenace down the road and as a person 77 yrs old I sure do not want tile floor where I spend any amount of time . Do the same floor as the rest of the flooring in the living space no problem. Do not choose fake plastic stone for a counter there are so many beautiful real stones check them out .

Our LVP floors have had no “maintenance” for over20 years..except dusting and wiping spots up…but I agree completely on the rest..

My wood floors have no maintenance either except dusting, mopping and spot cleaning. They are almost 100 years old and look fabulous. This photo was taken recently; floors were refinished when we moved in 40 years ago.

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Thank you for confirming that the old floors were so superior to the new ones…tho I find it hard to believe you have not had to wax or re-finish them in 40 years

diana, they do look grat! love the stain color too

We moved into a house with Saltillo tiles in the living room, dining room, and hallway. My husband and I are not yet 50 and are both very active, and we can already tell how hard the tiles are on our backs and joints, and multiple people have wiped out on them, including kids. We're no longer a shoes-off household. I think they look fabulous, but honestly, if I could do it again, I would most likely replace the tiles with wood flooring instead of paying to get them stripped/cleaned.

I love every wood kitchen floor I have ever had. Our new home has perfectly lovely slate colored tiles on the kitchen floor. I didn't want the cost or headache of changing them out so have tile for the first time in decades. My back hates it. And damn is grout hard to keep clean. Wood floors are the best kitchen floors hands down. Cleaned them with rubio monocoat cleaner - spray and wipe. Easy,

Actually I wouldn't swear that the old wood floors are superior to the new ones. Here's a photo of the old and new floors in my home--can you tell which is which?

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@sushiallure definitely do what you want to do! If you are still unsure and are considering non-wood floors, consider a stone floor with electric radiant heat underneath. If you would like dark floors but are concerned about crumbs, consider a Roomba and Braava to keep all your hard floors clean. No matter what color they are, clean floors are better than crumby floors. Whatever your floor color, consider matching it with your ceiling color and contrasting with wall and cabinet color to create the illusion of height. Just consider... But do what you love and want. Good luck!

top one looks like originals (only because of the thinner planks)

You're correct, Beth, but as far as wear goes, they are equal. And we have had dogs, kids, and don't baby the floors. Shoes stay on in the house (usually) and we've had many parties and get-togethers over the years.

Using a rug in the sink area preserves your wood floor in the kitchen. Also your back.