Hey, there's a cute couple. What a nice space you're working with. My suggestion is by all means go for what you want--do your antiquey black cabinets and dark red island but keep those colors to the lower cabinets. And to not do upper cabinets at all, or very few supplemented if needed with a couple of open shelves. That'd keep your room much more open and light in feeling, larger too. Walls could be red or a light color that harmonizes with the ceiling (can always repaint and retry this area), accented with art or pottery on those nice open walls in your favorite colors, not forgetting the contribution of the green from outside.

ajpl: Seeing the pic of you in your work clothes and eating sitting in your lawn "furniture" looks sooo much like us. How I wish I had taken more pics... We are still using the "lawn furniture style" decor. We don't want to put any good furniture in until we get the real dirty stuff done. Hopefully the sheetrock taping will be done soon (we are subbing most of that) and we can start using some nicer furniture.
As for the cabinet choices. I know exactly where you are on that decision also. Thank goodness I was able to convince DH to let me pickle the ceiling in the kitchen/DR area. That brightened it up for us. I knew white cabs would brighten it up but .... somehow they just looked too ...uhmmm??? feminine?? European?? Manufactured (even though ours are). They are truly beautiful in other homes, it just didn't work for us and DH didn't want them anyway.

If you went with lighter wood cabs and painted the walls very light it should work. You will be better able to make a decision after the sheetrock is up.

The red with black antique island sounds great. I can picture that with some simple open shelving with baskets.

I know it is the hardest decision we had to make. And it took 2 years to make it happen. In the meantime we set up a 'dorm' kitchen in the basement (the sink was upstairs so there was a lot of running up and down).... I am in heaven now that everything is working!!

Good Luck.

You seem to have a pretty specific vision in mind and I think you may always regret it if you don't do what you dream of. Will you put dark counters on the black perimeter cabinets? A lighter counter there, or including a bit of butcher block, a lighter backsplash and/or accessories can lighten/brighten things up. Your good natural lighting and good lighting for night or darker days will keep it from being cavernous.

Our Kitchen is all dark colors except for light backsplash and counters, and a lot of natural light. Like Rhome pointed out, you'll want to work in something light for contrast, be it the wall color, floor, counters or cabinets.

Here is a link that might be useful:

You know, you'll only have a dark scary chasm at the end of the house if you don't install appropriate lighting. You can have any colors you want as long as you plan your illumination properly.

Do what you like and just be sure to budget for undercab light and the right number of ceiling/wall fixtures for your space.

Is your ceiling stained in the pictures? It doesn't look dark and I personally think what you are planning sounds beautiful for a post and beam home. You have lots of natural light and you can put in lots of electrical lights. We too have a post & beam kit addition and we have hugh beams. I am planning dark red cabs with dark red planks running to uppers and soapstone counters. To lighten things slightly I am doing window trim and wainscot in BM lenox tan. Good luck.

What if you painted the planks in the ceiling a light (white/creamish), and kept the beams natural wood? That with proper lighting will help keep the space feeling to dark and closed in.

I think you should go with whatever vision you've been thinking about. I like darker, denser colors than many people do. I think it looks rich.

We were always advised to paint light colors in a dark, or small room. I guess that's a hangover from the 50's and 60's and before because there wasn't all the lighting options that there are today. Years ago, I moved away from that advise and started using dense, darker colors even in small 1/2 baths with no windows. In one 1/2 bath I did a dark green faux technique to make it look like you were in a pond or local river. Everyone who sees it raves about the esthetic feel that you get in that room.

So upon my own experimentation with color, I would tell you to go for it but be sure to design many different kinds of lighting for your kitchen, as one other poster advised.

Wow, thanks everyone for the suggestions! I do agree with the comment that if I don't follow my vision I'll regret it. I do have a few limitations I didn't mention. The beams are already dark and the ceiling will remain natural. I love the look of flowerchild's ceiling but DH will not go for it and the wood is his thing. I also have some lighting concerns that I've been trying to solve. I'll have a wall mounted light above the sink and two ceiling mounted fixtures in the middle of the room above the island. I'd like island pendants but may hve to go with something higher and brighter b/c it's all I have. The plank ceiling is sort of hard to work with when it cmoes to electrical.

I'm not planning uppers so it does give me an expanse of light wall. Maybe a yellow of some sort would look nice with the black and red? Or cream.

I think I'd like light counters on the black cabs but DH really doesn't like the idea. He did tell me to do what I want but I don't want him unhappy either. I might think about butcher block or other wood though. He'd like that I think but I'm not sure if I do.

I'm going to take some of the suggestions and play around with photoshop maybe and see what I like :)

Your space is a nice size and will be fairly poorly lit with only three fixtures.

You might try some of the very modern fluorescents. They can drop down from the ceiling on cables and have zero glare.
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I picked this because the exposed wiring becomes part of the design. If you hunt, there are really nice ones available.

You want to have something over the counters as well as some fixtures for general illumination. Your general illumination fixtures could be mini-chandeliers (3 to 5 bulb fixtures with short heights).

Depending on how rustic you're feeling, you might also like to mount a repeating pattern of lighting using fixtures like the ones shown here.

How nice to hear you're not planning uppers. Of course, I think that's a great start. Regarding bringing in light accents, it only takes small but definitive ones to enliven a room of dark rich colors. Be careful not to break the picture apart inadvertently by placing light surfaces where their position and size don't contribute to the overall composition. If you can, making a priority of placing your main work spaces according to availability of natural light and specific main lighting fixtures, as well as vice versa, should help make it a light, pleasant place to work in without using more electricity than you would with light cabinets. And not having uppers will eliminate the need to light any shadows under them. Come to think of it, just eliminating those will contribute to the overall light level in the room.

I think it sounds great, and with cream walls it will look beautiful and not too dark. I would not shy away from color. Ironically, my kitchen is mostly white, but my living room is orange, so go figure! LOL! Also, with 2 different colored cabs (and no uppers, so you'll have at least 3 different "main" colors in the room), I might stay with a cohesive color for the counters unless the room is enormous. There will be alot going on with wall color, perimeter cab color, island color, the colors of all the stuff on open shelving (if that is the way you are going) and then 2 different counter colors. I am no expert, so this is just my $.02. In any event, I say GO FOR IT! There are times when I wish I'd done the red or black! FUN!

Take a look at some of the "inspired designs" at homeportfolio at this link. Do the ones of the Connecticut barn or the Vermont Log home sound like something you've been describing? I think a rustic contemporary may be what you are describing but am not quite sure of your vision. Perhaps some of these homes will trigger something?

bmorepanic, I absolutely LOVE that lamp. Beautiful.

I am a huge fan of color, color, color. And I have been known to get really carried away. What I've learned from my mistakes with color is that you should really have three colors to work with, one dominant and two accent. And, at least one of the colors should be used in the adjoining rooms to help transition from room to room. I had one designer tell me to use the same three colors (although different depths and tones can be used to liven things up a bit) throughout the house, but to alternate the dominant and accent colors (to add interest). This helps make the rooms feel like they belong together and can make the home feel both cozier and more spacious. I've not had a chance to try this myself yet, but I have seen examples in magazines that seem to work this concept beautifully.

If you have too many colors going, the room starts feeling very "busy" and the eyes have no place to rest, which is also important. Think about when you go to an art museum that has tons of pictures all over the wall. Your eyes start to get tired and you will get into a visual overload, where you don't even really see what's going on anymore.

I really like rhome's idea of using a white or lighter countertop on the black cabinets and you could go with black on the red island. If you really do want to do black on black, go light with the backsplash and wall colors and make sure your floor offers some contrast against the cabient colors.

You've gotten so much good advice already, but one unifying concept could be to keep the horizontal planes (floor/counter/ceiling)all in natural wood. I am installing a birch countertop from IKEA that would look fantastic with red and antique black (and cream if you add that in). It seems to glow and would look great with dark cabinets. You also can't beat the price $169 for a 96" length.

Here is a photo of my countertop.

Here is a link that might be useful:

Your ceiling isn't dark!!! My parents had a gorgeous home that was self-designed by an architect in a 'genuine' Early American style. Now talk about dark!!! All the ceilings were exposed post and beam, but they were dark dark brown- I'd call yours medium at most. Now the ceilings were also about 15 or more feet high, so that probably helped, but my Mom had dark furniture, brick floors and a huge floor to ceiling almost walk in size fireplace. One wall was almost all windows and she had yellow wallpaper and yellow counters and the cabinets were dark brown with yellow wallpaper inserts. The pantry and french doors into the sun room were all white.

It never appeared dark or dingy in there whether it was daylight or night time.

I say go for it!! Embrace the rustic nature of your house--don't make your kitchen try to fight against it. As I read your description and the colors and feel you were going for, I immediately thought of the spectacular kitchen of GW's own pabiabi:

Here is a link that might be useful: pabiabi's kitchen

Our new house has some rooms with wood plank & beam ceilings, and we installed track lighting. Our tracks go with the direction of the planks rather than the beams. You can add as many or as few lights as you need & where you need them. Also think about using a dimmer, as it gives you lots of control & can save energy.

I haven't read this entire thread so forgive me if this is redundant. I advise friends that if they have dreamed of a specific color or look forever that they should try to adhere to that vision, with slight modifications as necessary. For example, I used very dark, stained cabinets against wood beam ceilings and had to argue with my contractor and his draftsperson, who both thought the overall effect would be too dark. I mitigated the darkness with a light backsplash, light wall color, several glass-front uppers and swaths of stainless steel. I also have a large, hanging pot rack full of copper, which is a light reflective surface. I'm thrilled with how my kitchen looks (and functions) after two years of using it.

Here's a link I think you might enjoy.

Here is a link that might be useful: For ajpl

bmorepanic, the lights can't be changed that way because there is no where to put the wires after you reach the ceiling. The would have to drape along the underside of the ceiling to reach the walls. It's a major issue in post and beam construction and most builders suggest a false ceiling or illumination by wall sconces which I don't want. Our current house is post and beam too and has all switchable lamps for lighting which totally sucks. I'm happy that this one will have some overhead lighting.

rosie, I think the no uppers makes a big difference. Thanks for the advice on not breaking up the look with the bands of light colour too. I didn't get any time in front of the computer last night but I really need to play around with the ideas.

socalthreems, the room isn't huge. It's about 16.5X10. DH really wants the cabinets to be one colour so it's a definite possibility - especially if I make a big deal over the faucet I want in my other post.

mindstorm, I've never seen that site before! It has some great photos. Neither of those is exactly what I'm thinking of but share some of my ideas. If I Can get on the computer at home tinight I'll try to post the two photos I've saved that I really like.

sarschlos, thanks, that makes sense. In my case I think think I'd like red to be my main colour but I'm not sure if I'm brave enough. I did have a purple living room once and people who visited either loved it or hated it. In this house we'll have a lot of wood but red is a colour I have a lot of in pieces of art.

birkie, that countertop is really nice. Do they ship it or do you live near an ikea? I love shopping there but the nearest one is in MOntreal and it's been 6 years since I was there :(

holligator, that kitchen is beautiful. Some of it wouldn't work for us but in general the black, yellow and red is just beautiful to me! thanks for reminding me.

gizmonike, where do the electrical wires hide in your house? I've been posting for ideas about this in the electrical and building forums.

kitchen detective, I think you are right! I don't want to sit around wishing I'd done something different.

ooh, thank you flowerchild! I'm off to browse. So much for getting work done this afternoon.

I feel your frustration with the obstacles in having two people with two different style ideas. I feel like saying, "Look who spends most of the time in the kitchen?" or maybe I should say, "Let's make a deal. You design the TV room and I'll design the kitchen." He will spend more time in the TV room. But....on the other hand I do want him to be pleased with the results because he has put so much labor, time and thought into the whole house project. I could have already had the kitchen finished if the decisions had been left up to me... Sorry just venting.

Let's NOT forget how much FUN this is.....?????

LOL, DH just said I spend more time in the kitchen and I enjoy my time in there as opposed to his cooking style which involves getting out as quick as possible. He thought that meant I should do what I want within his ability to built it.

I'm relatively sure he didn't mean I should spend more money though ;)

Oh, and the link you gave me? I like the primitive and the collected styles best.

ajpl,

On the IKEA wood countertop, you can do a "Direct Order" and have it delivered. You could call them for info. 1(800)434-IKEA I've heard that every once in a while they have a sale on shipping!

They have birch, beech and oak countertops.

Here is a link that might be useful: IKEA Direct