Just depends on what is important to you. For me, the stone is more important than the cab color. The stone is like a work of art. Once you find a stone you love, cabinet colors are so much easier to figure out. I had an idea of what I wanted to do stain wise on the cabs but found a stone I love and the cabs are going to work around the stone. If that stone is calling your name, I'd go with it. Good luck!

It's so hard to make these decisions! I can tell you how I made mine and why.

For me, the countertop was the most important. I work a lot in my kitchen, the countertop is my work surface and what I am staring at for hours at a time while I am working in it. So I fit the cabinet colour to my stone choice and was very specific about my stone. That's not to minimize the importance of the cabinet's impact on the overall feel in the kitchen but there are a million colours of stain/paint for the cabinets, and I could find SO many that I would love in my kitchen. To me it seems a no brainer that the stone choice takes priority over the cabinet colour. But that's just me! You'll find lots of opinions that are the exact opposite so in the end it depends on what YOU like and want in your kitchen. There are also a multitude of different countertop choices out there, and I had several that I liked and that I know could have really looked great and performed well in my kitchen. So if you really want the caramel coloured maple I have no doubt you can find a stone to complement it well that you are really happy with if you have the time to look around a bit. But if the Bianco Antico is calling for you ...

It never occurred to me to pick out stone first but I think that is not a bad way to go as long as you're not wedded to a particular cabinet color. Fourteen years ago I painted our original cabs white and wanted a change with the remodel but needed to keep it light because the kitchen is small and not a lot of light so went with natural maple. it was hard to find a granite I liked that was neutral but had the golden tones of the cabs. Loved Delicatus but it didn't go. Am happy with what I found, but you might just be doing things in the right order.

I already had my cabs and was only replacing counters. I chose
a granite that would make my heart sing and of course
go somewhat with my white cabs. I chose JetMist.

In my next house (we hope to build) I am chosing my
granite first and cabs after. I agree with others above
that for me the granite is like a piece of art. I have
to truly love the stone and all the other elements
can fall into place.

Below I posted images of Bianco Antico first with different
cabs and then further below ------- you will see some
Creama Bordeaux's with different cabs. I prefer
Bianco A with a dark cab and Creama Bordeaux with a medium.
But this is just me, you might love a totally different
combination.

Good luck on your granite search hope these ideas help.

~boxer

Bianco Antico

i wish I had a better pic for you. Can you see the
color of the cab on the left hand side? I prefer the
darker cab above.

love this combo

------------------------------------------

And creama bordeaux

Chloe's mom's kichen from GW. In this case she
chose a perfect slab for her dark chocolate cabs.

Bianco goes well with the dark stains and with the white and creams. I think it would compete with the caramel.