One thing I love about the graphite cabinet color I want to use is that it is a stain - not paint. The stain is on maple (can also do cherry) cabinets so you still pick up some flecks of the natural wood color in the stain - which I think would draw in the light stain hardwood floors! I'm looking at Marsh Kitchen Savannah 1 cabinets in graphite - made in NC!! I am attaching a picture. This pic is actually the cherry cabinet because the photo is actually much more like the maple, graphite-stained cabinet as it looks in person. The pic of the maple one looks kinda cheap - doesn't do it justice.

Vinyl......easy to keep clean. Laminate floors can only be mopped with a mop wrung out til nearly dry in cold/lukewarm water or dry mop. My floor never felt clean the whole time I had laminate floors.......I like a hot mop with cleaner in it.

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Nelson Interior Stylists - we have looked at the laminae but from the research i have done the new style of vinyl- particularly karndean gives such a wood look result, it has groves etc to make it look like real wood and the feel underneath is like real wood, its pretty sound proof too. Another plus for us is it is 100% waterproof so we dont have to be so careful with spilt water, cleaning etc. siriuskey and JE C thanks so much for your input, i am leaning towards vinyl i just dont want it to look like a cheap renovation. Many years ago in the UK lots of people used stick down vinyl in rental properties and it just made it look cheap however, as mentioned above the Karndean range and the like actually do look like real wood. Hmmm! Such a dilemma! We are doing the stairs this weekend so that will be a starting point. Another thing is hubby isn't keen on the dark wood look for floors but i love it! With clean white trims and walls i think it'll just look fabulous!