I'm looking at pulling my carpet up and putting down either Braz. cherry or Santos Mahogany in my living room. This floor butts up against ceramic tile flooring in the kitchen. I'll be just buying the wood, and having someone put it in, so I want to make sure I get it right, as the place I'm getting it from is 250 miles away.

Questions:
1. What height hardwood should I be looking at to match up with the tile? Does the height have to match exactly? Can I use 3/4" wood or won't that work?

2. How will either of those woods look with the existing golden oak trim I have? I also have a raised hearth for a fireplace finished in oak as well in that room. Will they work together?

Thanks much.

#1) The type of hardwood you should use depends on how your house was built. If you have a raised wood foundation, where you have either a crawl space or a basement, then you can have a solid, nailed down floor OR and engineered floor. However, if your foundation is a concrete slab foundation, you will probably want to glue or float in your hardwood flooring. Most floors that are to be glued down are engineered. Same with the floating install method. Some say you can glue solid hardwoods down to concrete and it is possible. But you need to take every measure possible to ensure success, like having a moisture barrier applied and have the MC of the slab double checked. Using the correct adhesive is imperative as well. But your question was about butting to the tile. Measure up from the subfloor ( or slab ) to the top of the tile. That is the thickness that would be ideal if you need to have the wood floor and tile the exact same level. IMO, it doesn't need to be exactly the same as you can have a T-molding installed between the two floors.
#2) That is a subjective opinion. Some may think it is just fine. I never liked mixing dark and light woods together.

Thanks for the reply.

This is on the main level of a two story with a basement, so it's a plywood subfloor. It'll be nailed.

How much of a height discrepancy can a T-molding accomodate? My options are 3/8" and 3/4". I'm assuming 3/4" would be preferable, but would it be too high? I think I read somewhere you can figure 3/8" for laid tile.