SFGate

Cynthia Taylor-Luce My sincere sympathies with what you've gone through. I think the flooring will look beautiful. You can't go wrong with classic white cabinets. What about doing a black and white scheme, with white cabinets and subway tile backsplash and black countertops in quartz? Some really beautiful cabinet hardware and lighting, and stainless steel appliances will look beautiful and timeless. Have a look at this kitchen (and the rest of the kitchen photos that accompany it) for some ideas.

dcer I am so sorry to hear that your house was flooded. I would suggest white, off white, sage or grey cabinets and neutral counters to set off your beautiful flooring.

Cynthia Taylor-Luce Where did you find the photos, dcer? I tried to click on them to save them in my kitchen ideabook (they are beautiful) but couldn't get them. If they're on houzz, I don't have a problem.

Monique Jacqueline Design Hello!
My sincere sympathies as well! Very trying times, but also, in not looking back, enjoy this process! The floors will be beautiful! I agree wtih Cynthia Taylor-Luce but I would steer away from black countertops. Shiny Black surfaces are very difficult to keep streak-free and if you have hard water, the spots are difficult to deal with. I have some kitchens in my portfolio with white cabinets, they are beautiful! As for countertops, the choices are endless! Soapstone could be beautiful as well!
Also, natural cherry cabinets could be beautiful with this flooring as well, I do see a lot of red tones in the flooring, this will provide you with many stain options. The one thing that I would keep in mind, should you decide on stained cabinets is to keep the grain detail to a minimum to not compete with your flooring grain. Oak tends to have a heavy grain detail.
Would love to answer any other questions that may arise!
Cheers!
m.

designideas4me How are things going for you now? Glad to here your rebuilding at this point. My mother recently relocated to california to live with me from Staten Island. I grew up in New York too so am familiar with the area. What section are you located in? I am curious if the insurance company gave you enough to rebuild or how that worked. I hope so. If I was closer I would give you my honey oak cabinets I dont really like much. But in my kitchen the floor was linoleum in a tan beige to go with the honey oak cabinet. I suppose you could go with the redish tone or with white as she mentioned. I found a link for you with tons of pictures of kitchens with these floors.

http://www.houzz.com/honey-oak-floors-%2Bkitchens/p/8

cavecay I too am very sorry for all you are going though. I'm glad to hear you are rebuilding and hope the insurance company is working with you. I live in Fl. and have been through hurricanes, very hard. It's very nice that your brother was able to give you the hard wood oak floors. I think it would look beautiful with the white cabinets and speckled granite or quartz. I put speckled granite in my kitchen and it is very forgiving (I have a husband and 3 German Shepherds ) :-) !!! White subway tiles for the back splash is a very classic look, can't go wrong. FYI, I've had black granite and it streaks and never looks cleans, that was my experience. Good luck. I know everything will turn out beautifully!!!!

lisa407 Thanks Everybody! Your ideas are appreciated. We are doing well. We live near Asbury Park NJ. We just need to do alot of repairs. Not much from insurance cause no flood insurance here. FEMA was kind thou. We will need to take a loan out for these repairs.

I'm warming up to the idea of white or grey cabinets. Cool colors are good because we get late afternoon sun in kitchen and its gets hot. We also have a golden stained door leading to mud room and a white door leading to back yard in our kitchen. And we have golden stained trim openings plus a double window over the sink that overlooks our small backyard.

Can't really spend too much so Im not sure about painted cabinets? But I am going to research. So golden honey wood floor and golden trim thoughout.