My cabinets are a warm brown and my island is off white with a mocha glaze. I love it.
Jo

Hi

My kitchen isn't in yet so I haven't seen it "in the flesh" but I two toned my cabinets at the last minute. I hadn't planned on it in months and months of planning but for some reason when I pictured it in my mind my peninsula just wasn't "there". I could picture exactly how I wanted everything else but not the peninsula. When I decided to two tone and change the cabinets in that area... "there" it was! I could imagine it perfectly.

The main part of the kitchen will be light cabinets- birch with a frost glaze, slightly distressed look. Countertop is mystic black Zodiaq. Peninsula which has eating area and cooktop will have very dark oak, almost black cabinetry with Lunar Pearl Zodiaq counter. Lunar pearl is kind of cream colored with black flecks.

I am really excited about my kitchen now.. wasn't before.

Good luck with your decision.

A great resource is the Finished Kitchen Blog here at garden web. Google Finished Kitchen Blog. Lots of great pics of gorgeous kitchens.

I'm going to have natural fir on main perimeter cabs, gray immediately around the rangetop (to emulate a hearth area or large range), but then my whole wall with dbl oven, mixer counter, bfast counter will be burgundy. The island will be cream with a fir top. We're just installing cabinet boxes now, as dh makes them, so I don't have the long term experience in the kitchen to tell you about...Just months of 'living in' the 3D renderings. You should ask this on the kitchens forum, as there are several people with more than one color cabinet there, who'll be glad to tell you how much they love them... I haven't found one person saying they wish they hadn't done it, although not everyone is brave enough or has the interest in trying it.

We have a natural knotty alder permimeter and a black painted island. I lost sleep over that decision, but absolutely love it! It breaks up all the "wood" and anchors the kitchen. It helps to look at all of the beautiful kitchens in the finished kitchen blog. Many great examples. Good Luck!

Sage cabinets, black island, cream rangehood. Three countertop materials -- sage painted wood, imperial gold granite, mahogany butcherblock.

Just get your wall color right before you decide on putting a lot of colors and textures together. We've lived with ours for two years. Recently repainted the walls from a light celery to white and it's so much better.

Here's ours....

Perimeter cabinets are maple with hazelnut glaze. Island is cherry with chocolate glaze. Counters are venetian gold. We've been in this house for two years.

Next house I am planning on three colors!

I agree with the posters that say to go with it. I feel two colors breaks up an all wood look. Mine will be installed next week and are currently sitting in the barn. I have a stained maple for perimeter and a distressed, glazed sage green for island. Both have soapstone counters. I can hardly wait for the install after looking at them in the barn for the past month!

Teresa

My thinking must run along the lines of all you posters~it's nice to break things up and create a unique kitchen. Sounds to me like all of you have a kitchen created by your own creative thinking and not necessarily the ideas of a KD. Homeagain, thank you for sharing a pic of your magnificent kitchen! It gives me a real good idea what mine could possibly look like. My counters will be 'new' Venetian Gold~was there an 'old' Venetian Gold that I don't know about? LOL

I checked out the kitchen blog and 'drooled' over several of the kitchens. Frenchkitty's was very *awe* inspiring, as in awwwwwwwesome!! Maybe i'll be able to add a few of those embelishments after the fact. Sure a lot of good ideas for kitchens, though.

When we built, we did two colors for our kitchen cabinets. It looks great and does indeed break uop the room.

Raam, sorry, but I can't see your pictures. ;o(

Call me safe or boring... We have IIRC an Autumn stain (although this could be the darker in the rest of the house) on the kitchen wood, all of it. Since I wasn't the one that spec'd the house, it really wasn't an option. I do know I didn't care for what they picked and changed the stain color, but liked what they picked for the rest of the house. What they'd picked was a tad darker then what I wanted our kitchen to be. The builder about had a cow that we wanted it changed.. since when do we let people go to the design center that bought a quick move in home... lol

I love a medium toned wood. To me it's classic. Years ago I had a friend that used blond stain every where, which really dated it IMO. Since we plan to stay in the house for about 10 years, I had the long term thinking, hoping the color will still be decent.

A lot of the houses we walked used either the dark / cherry woods or the light / white / cream woods. When we do sell, I hope our choice still looks good & more classic then what's hot now; if that makes sense...

My new kitchen has two distinct areas, ovens/stove on one wall, with sink/dishwasher on the opposite wall~i've chosen an ivory glazed finish for these two areas. On an outside wall is a separate bank of cabs that stand alone and 'out' of the perimeter of the work space. For this space i've gone with a stained cab close to the dark stain color the wood floor will be.

One of the models in the community we bought at has a set up like this. On the model house they used the same wood through the whole house, including the bar in the finished basement. The color is close to what we've picked and I love the house. I could see picking a different color in that section though and think it will be fine.

Nice to see you back.

Here is mine. The center island and the wall with the refrigerator is a distressed black and the front island and cooktop/oven wall is stained chestnut. Cabinets are made out of Alder, even the black ones because I wanted to see the knots under the black paint.

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We did three. S-W Hush White, Restoration Hardware Green and stained pecan.

I have three in the kitchen, another color between the kitchen and laundry room. I love the difference in paint colors and finishes, even after 2+ years.

Here is a link that might be useful: FKB Photos

How come my pics wont come up ?? They came up on the preview. Sorry folks I'll get it working. Here's the link though

http://home.comcast.net/~thomas9780/erase1.JPG
http://home.comcast.net/~thomas9780/erase2.JPG

Raam, Kelly, dallasbill, and Allison(i've *always loved your kitchen!!), thank you for the pics of your beautiful kitchens. They all look as though a lot of thought was put into them. I can only hope mine turns out as well. There won't be any extra goodies such as a coffee station, but if it's a possibility, maybe add one later.

Hi Sue, good to see you here, too. Are you as excited about your new house as I am? I looked at a color that was Autumn Spice, and I loved it, but didn't work with the color of the wood flooring I chose. The AS was a little too orangey for the warm brown color of the floor, and the stain cabs I chose are definitely a good match with the floor. I didn't want the complete kitchen in the cream/glaze cabs cause I thought it would be too much, although the only upper cabs are on the side where the stove/ovens are. The bank of cabs on the outside wall have upper cabs though. I also thought with the floor being a dark wood stain, all stained cabs would make the kitchen too dark and dreary. The kitchen in my condo was never bright, so I guess i'm trying to make up for the lost light I never had. LOL I added glass to the upper stained cabs, so that will also add some brightness.

I've had this kitchen planned in my head for several years, and hope it turns out as well in reality. Some of the things that were too costly for me were a copper range hood, faucet in wall over stove, 6 burner stove, and fluted/braided trims on the cabs. I'll just be happy cause I have a house! ;o)

homeagain, love the look of your kitchen, although I'm too safe a person to do something like that for myself.

I looked at a color that was Autumn Spice, and I loved it, but didn't work with the color of the wood flooring I chose. The AS was a little too orangey for the warm brown color of the floor, and the stain cabs I chose are definitely a good match with the floor.

Looking at my notes we ended up with cabs called Radford Saddle & Radford Autumn, both have a slight arch (etched) on the top of the door. I wish they'd picked the rope or braiding, those are my dream cabs! Mix with a few glass doors (which I still have no clue about) and I'm set with my kitchen lol From what I remember, it wasn't orangy.. now I'll have to see if I took pics of the choice we made when we changed it.

Are you as excited about your new house as I am?

I'm excited but it hard to get really excited. Once we move, I think things will be easier for me. I hate being unsure if we'll qualify for the mortgage with him out of work but am pretty sure that they won't sell our house out from under us and he will be working very soon.. so it may set us back 2 months.

I didn't want the complete kitchen in the cream/glaze cabs cause I thought it would be too much, although the only upper cabs are on the side where the stove/ovens are. The bank of cabs on the outside wall have upper cabs though. I also thought with the floor being a dark wood stain, all stained cabs would make the kitchen too dark and dreary. The kitchen in my condo was never bright, so I guess i'm trying to make up for the lost light I never had. LOL I added glass to the upper stained cabs, so that will also add some brightness.

I can't wait to see pics of it! Our kitchen will be in the back of the house, a window over the sink (IIRC) with a French door to the left of the cabs, so hopefully ours won't have a light problem.