Sadly, neither of the sample you're showing work IMO. They're all lacking the warmth of the alder. Do you have a cabinet door you can take to the store to look at next to their samples before you bring samples home? You still ultimately want to look at the samples in lighting conditions similar to what you'll have in your house (flooring showroom lighting is not it), but maybe you can cut down on bringing samples home and taking them back if you start with a door at the store. I know when we put LVP in our basement 4+ years ago there was only one kind that went with our furniture, so sometimes it's not easy and you may not be able to choose between multiple good options.

Why not just go with tile floors instead? Porcelain tile is inexpensive and you won't have too much wood on wood going on.

Husband took a door back to the flooring store, but sadly did not come up with much better.

@Sabrina Alfin, there is 1400 sf between the rooms stated above (kitchen, eating area and great room) plus a powder room, pantry and 2 small hallways. We are in snow country so porcelain tile is not a great option. Under floor heat for those areas would be cost prohibitive. The great room itself is approx 20x30 so there will be large expanses of flooring without any cabinetry.

My thought was for a contrasting color for floor, but most “warmer” floors either too brown or pulled green. Once the workers leave for the day, I’ll try and get a picture of the open area to post.

How about a vinyl floor tile that looks like stone. It is really difficult to find different wood species (with different stains) that will go together in harmony. Might be best to contrast.

I'm not a fan of cold ceramic floors (we too live in snow country), but we had grouted vinyl tiles in our last home that stood up really well. More recently I've seen larger tiles that don't need grout. So maybe that's something to explore.

I do have to be honest, I did miss the heated, ceramic tile mudroom that was in our previous home... dried wet boots/mitts by leaving them on the floor overnight! I didn't realize how awesome that was. Perhaps heating a mudroom floor could be worked into the budget?

@ihmarmot, we will have heated floors in the master bath, shower and toilet room. There will also be tile in the mud room but I never thought about heating it. Great idea. Hmmm, never thought about vinyl tile for the main rooms. May have to think about that.

Here is two different views of our common area where we need to decide on flooring. Cabinets are in the process of going in, so there’s lots of construction stuff in the pictures.

D Dawson - We recently replaced most of our house flooring due to a leak. It was challenging to find a good mate for our wood cabs which aren’t as ’busy’ with grain patterns as yours are. We did order a box each of our 2 finalists & are thrilled we took that step as it saved us much unhappiness. The difference in seeing the small sample vs a box of planks laid out is huge. It enables you to see the pattern repeats in the flooring & get a good sense of how much busy detail there really is. I personally think that @lhmarmot suggestion of looking at stone look vinyl is a great suggestion. It’s a new idea you likely hadn’t thought about but the look of a stone floor with all your pretty wood should be so pretty.

It isn't impossible. Just depends the look you want. I'd also want no less than 60 inch planks

https://commercial.floorzz.com/products/mohawk-hot-and-heavy-secoya-9-in-x-59-in-luxury-vinyl-sierra

You don't mention your counter tops.......and don't forget area rugs either.

Truthfully, I might have done a painted island, but the island will have stools?

again..... what are the counter tops ?

IMO the cabinets are the issue such busy wood needs a very plain floor or as mentioned a tile look flooring maybe coulld be the answer Can you post a pic of the flooring you had chosen so we can at least see how that worked . The floor Jan posted could work just as plain as possible Maybe a tile look that looks like polished concrete could work pretty plain easty to care for and neutral.Centura makes areally nice one.

I think your cabinets are beautiful. I'd be keen on a stone or tile, as well, but understanding your feelings on the matter, perhaps a tile-look isn't a bad idea.

I think you can find an engineered wood floor that would work, but you need to look at more niche brands. See if you can find a Legno Bastone dealer in your area and look at their Luisa stain color. Most of their floors are very uniform, so it would go well with your busy cabinets.

That floor was one of my two finalists, but I ended up using a DuChateau wood floor because it was a bit more rustic and fit better with the look I wanted for my house.

You need a super quiet wood, with little to no graining or knots. A plain charcoal tile would be far better.

I agree with the advice to look for a charcoal, slate look vinyl tile. Large scale, little variation. Be careful with the patterns on LVT. They often have shading that ends up looking like lines or dots when the tiles are laid out.

Your cabinets are very busy; the last thing they need is a busy floor and/or countertop. You're getting excellent advice to change direction.

Let's hope they shimmed up the cabinets to accommodate the thickness of the floor or you may have appliance hell. You can't put a floor in front of an installed dishwasher.

Thank you all for your thoughts and comments. The countertop is Freedom Calcutta by Daltile. It’s light in color but not white, with very small veining. The backsplash is Cloe tile in white. The island will have stools and is obviously the biggest piece of wood. On the far wall of cabinets, there is a section of glass fronted cabs on each end so it will cut down on the amount of visible wood. I was hoping to do something like this photo, but will now see what we can find in a stone look vinyl.

This is the product we had originally picked and ordered a box. We loved the floor but picked it with only a very small cabinet door for sample of our chosen stain. As previously mentioned the Acura Max in this color is on backorder, but the thinner “Rigid” is available. But I think it may be too matchy. In the showroom the sample appeared much lighter.

A wide plank french oak LVP might work, as you discovered, you really need to look at a sample in your space.

I like my gray tile version better but it is going to darken up the space.

Jan Moyer here is an online pic of our counter, along with a pic from a small sample. However, we actually made our choice by looking at the slabs in person.

I'm suggesting a very light lvp that doesn't have an orange or yellow tint.

9x72 with 40mil wear layer Flooret Modine Yuzen. Direct to consumer

I 100% encourage you to consider LAMINATE! I am in flooring sales and it has come so far and the look and feel of laminate over LVP is so much closer to actual wood! It's more scratch resistant, just as "waterproof" (LVP is not actually waterproof despite what HGTV tells you!). Additionally, it is better for the environment.

We have a large showroom and recently had the Cali laminate installed in a section of our store. I knew it was laminate but had I not known I would have thought it was engineered wood for sure! The look, texture, feel underfoot, etc. was just WOW!

Cali Laminate Options

As for color, I don't think you have a winner yet in your selection. You need something lighter in tone without being yellow or pink but still has some mineral streaks or knots, character that ties in with the brown in your cabinets.

Karastan makes some nice laminate (Belleluxe Waterproof). Here is their full line https://www.karastan.com/shop/laminated-wood?flooring_type=Laminated%20Wood 

I copied one of the pics from your post and used Roomvo to show how the Farrington Crest in color Lodge Hickory would look and I feel it works (but you'd need to see in person - I never trust a screen mockup!)

Cynthia, Dan and deegw, thank you for your mock ups. Looking for a light color floor that does not pull yellow, green or pink has been the problem. That Lodge Hickory looks like something that would work, although I’ve often thought hickory was very busy.

Thanks again everyone for your thoughts and ideas. I’ll keep you posted on how the treasure hunt goes.

Has anyone used the Karastan Lodge Hickory? If so would love to see pics. I really like but. Concerned it might be too busy?

Looks great! Very wise that you heeded advice to buy sample full boxes. Unbelieveable the difference between a full box actual view & the tiny store sample or online photo view of the flooring!

Congrats! Looks really nice. I changed my lightbulbs from warm to cooler tone and made a big difference in how the floor samples look

I am getting this floor and I’m trying to figure out a stain color for my kitchen island that will contrast nicely with it. Do you have any suggestions on that ? using Merrill at cabinetry

i think there are too many variables to correctly answe that question. What type of wood, what color countertops, sun/light exposure? There are a lot of color variations in these planks, so a lot of different colors would work. Sorry, not fam with Merillat