Without knowing anything more about your home it is hard to fully understand the decision making process.

First - Bri wax melts and wears poorly - it will turn into a sticky mess on kitchen cabinets. There isn't any real reason to change or tone down the cabinets. There is nothing wrong with having golden oak cabinets and once you have painted they will be fine.

Second - why are you replacing all the floors? It looks like they are wood and from what I am seeing they do not look like they are in bad shape. You might be able to add the room and just refinish the existing floors to match to the new room. What are you planning to use to replace the flooring? Wood?

Third - why are you doing a vaulted ceiling in the new room and not just continuing the ceiling throughout? I might keep the ceilings level but have the texture removed from all the ceilings.

Forth - Are you just replacing the trim throughout the house - not doors? If the doors are all white I would paint the trim and doors the same white throughout the house. Knotty pine will need to be sealed well to keep the knots from turning color before painting. I would not want to have natural or stained knotty pine next to oak floors or cabinets. Even if you get it stained to match it will age differently and the grain is too different.

If you do the vaulted ceiling you could use knotty pine on the ceiling in that room. I would still paint all the trim white.

Why are you letting a "contractor" dictate design choices? I would talk to an interior designer before getting knotty pine.

Thank you Jennifer - the flooring is a manufactured flooring that was here when we bought it. It will be replaced along with the old carpet in the living room that is in terrible shape. I only got as far as the kitchen with painting the trim white. The rest of the trim is oak and the doors are builders grade hollow doors - also an “oak” color. I guess we may replace those.

I would leave the cabinets alone, and stain the new trim to match the cabinets. No knotty pine. It doesnt go with anything in your kitchen. If you must use pine for the ceiling, get pine without all the knots. All knots will have to be primed with a ceiling bonding primer, if you are painting the ceiling. Seems, you are choosing things, that dont go all that well together. Maybe stop, and sit and think about things for a bit, or get someone who has done remodeling, and actually knows what goes together and what doesnt. It doesnt sound like your contractor is very good at it, so dont choose him.

I am going to suggest that you make a long term, whole home renovation plan.

Would you mind sharing how long you have lived in the house and how long you think you will stay in the house and what year the house was built?

I generally suggest that people live in a home at least 6 months before doing renovations. (There are some exceptions). If you are going to be in the home less than 5-10 years you don't want to overspend on renovation when that same money could be being saved for the next home. Renovations almost always cost more than they increase the price when the house is sold. You will get some back, but not all. The expense has to be worth the joy it brings you while living in the home and weighed against the things you are giving up by spending on the house. Family vacation or a new bathroom? Kids college fund or a new kitchen, retirement or an addition? New roof or new car? Money can only be spent once. Make sure to save some money every month toward those inevitable, large expenses like a new roof, new HVAC, new appliances.

You need to know what you can comfortably afford now and over the next 10 years.

Get a notebook and make notes on every room in the house. What you love and what are the pain points. Rate the pain points. Don't love oak, but can live with it. Hate the flooring - needs to be replaced ASAP. . .

When you have the notes complete make your decisions on what will and won't be changed over the next few years, and what may be changed in the next 10 years. BTW - hollow interior doors are not a crime. Sure, most of us would love solid wood doors, but it doesn't make a huge difference in how the home functions and if most of the homes in your neighborhood have hollow doors it may be just an extra expense to change them all vs just painting what you have. Worry about the things that make life difficult, the things that don't function well.

Once you have a really clear idea of the most important changes that need to be done you can design around the things that must stay (love them or can't afford to change them over the next few years).

Pick the most expensive and largest impact items first. Kitchen cabinets stay - flooring must work with the cabinets. Doors and trim can be painted. Pick a white that works with the floors and the cabinets. Think about your aesthetic - what looks you love, what furnishings fit your lifestyle, the colors that bring you joy and how they may be incorporated into your home.

My favorite colors are purple, teal and red. My sister loves fall colors, earthy greens and golds and burnt orange. My sister in law loves soft pastel blues and greens. We don't have our entire homes painted with these colors, but may have a bedroom or bathroom painted in one of these colors, the art and decor that we buy has these colors and our upholstered furniture may have these colors. The main part of our homes are painted with a neutral that looks good with the colors that we love. The greige that my sister picked clashes with the taupe that I picked and the cream that my sister in law picked looks really yellow next to my purples and makes the earthy greens in my sister's home look muddy.

Knowing the colors that you love can help you pick the right neutrals and the right undertones for the flooring, wall color and furniture. Without knowing this we get rooms that don't coordinate well and disjointed rooms.

Lack of planning so often leads to poor and costly decisions and often forces design decisions that you don't really love or didn't want to go through the expense of changing.

I’m not sure if this is what you’re going for but it’s a stab at it.
Color of cabinets is fine and can work with the knotty pine if it’s in the right tone and finish. I’d remove the tray around ceiling fan and add a nice chandelier to the dining area.

he is doing a shiplap ceiling

Shiplap is typically used on walls, tongue and groove for ceilings.

he priced knotty pine for shiplap and trim

Why knotty pine? Maybe for a rustic cabin, but not for your home, and definitely not If you are painting the trim or ceiling.

I would do sheetrock on the walls and ceiling. Paint the ceiling, trim and doors white. That will give you a good clean palette for wall color, flooring and counter tops.

No shiplap that ship has sailed . Get those ceilings drywalled they can often be covered with 1/4" drywall then painted .While that is being done think some pot lights in the kitchen and get rid of that hole where you have the light now.. No knotty pine either anywhere . Contractors are not designers !!!!!!! He probably has agarage full of knotty pine ship lap let him put it in someone elses house. Waht are you planning for flooring I hope a white oak that is in a color to work with the new cabinet color.. My advice while doing all this work get replacement doors for those upper cabinets at least that will take that dated look away.. Choosing paint color is a long way off , you do that after floors are in . If this contractor insists then my go to is Healing Aloe for walls cut 24% if you just want a hint of color and a nice simple white for trim. So STOP now aand really think before one more decision is made and you have a mess .

Jennifer - yes - we have lived in this house 10 years and all of this was here when we bought it. We are small business owners and had to build a shop and office first - the house has been waiting for us to rebuild our savings from that, as we don't like to finance anything (additionally, our first two contractors died before they started their work - not even kidding, our friends call this the "Cursed Kitchen Remodel") We will be here until our kids carry us out to a nursing home (LOL) and the house was built in the early 90's.

Yes - I don't so much care about the fact that the doors were hollow - it's that they are all scratched and damaged up from previous owners dogs (on the inside where you don't see unless the doors are shut - so we have lived with it for now. There will be no visible doors in the kitchen - but whatever trim we do will carry over into the living room and hallway (currently carpet) when we put down new flooring. Replacing bedroom flooring and trim was going to have to wait for down the road. It sounds like I had better go out and explore some other trim possibilities and stick with the golden oak color. Because we also have a stair banister that goes across the back of our living room that where our stairs go down to the basement. My husband is vehemently against painting all of this nice oak trim and I want to respect that. (the trim and cabinets ARE nice wood - the doors are all that are builders grade).

I guess I am really OK with the golden oak trim - it's just that there are a lot of cabinets, and I feel like it casts a bit of an orange hue but I imagine that will be fixed with the paint color. And yes, I am someone that leans more towards the earthy (fall) tones. You have been very kind and helpful and it is very much appreciated.

To Patricia - yes - he was saying shiplap - I said no I wanted a v-groove, he said he found what I was talking about and can do that. I should not have continued to use the term shiplap. I realize paint color is a long way off, I was more worried about what color to stain the trim if I keep the cabinets as they are. Thank you for your input.