Hi Michelle, Welcome to the Forum and out of lurkerdom, and congratulations on the new house. The colors of your surfaces and their ability to reflect light become very important when there isn't a lot of light. Light horizontal surfaces with darker cabinets generally look lighter than dark horizontals with light cabinets. I'm not getting which color you meant in the cabinet picture. Is it the middle one between the white looking one and the maple looking one? Medium brown with dark cracks? If so this is a nice medium light with just that touch of dark to bring up the color. To help make things look lighter, while having the color depth you want, I'd suggest one of the Crystallines. The Crystalline Pearl would be a great choice. It's not as dramatic as the Shell or Dune, but those are medium browns as are your cabinets, and you probably want more contrast. On the other hand, since your husband likes dark, and so do you, you could choose something dark that you both love and make up for it with really good, energy efficient lighting. Are you going to put in undercabinet lighting? Good luck! JC

terrilynn, I am confused about what to do for the island and also the desk/coffee bar/bar area. I'm going back and forth on wood or soapstone for the island. I'm pretty sure I want wood on the desk and soapstone on the bar/coffee area. (just for maintenance purposes). I'm not sure if I do the base colors on the other areas the same as the island or different. We aren't doing any stainless except for the range, but that desk is pretty cool! Lavender, thanks, and I love the idea of red accents. I hadn't really thought that far, but that will be perfect and will blend with the rest of our house. I guess I need to figure out if I can really do the painted island and how much maintenance that will be. Here are my options, in case anyone else is as confused as I am: 1. Wood colored island with soapstone top 2. Sage/light green island with soapstone top 3. Sage/light green island with wood top Desk: something with a wood top....I'm thinking base should match the island, unless of course the island base is wood tone, and then it would either match the yellow cabinets or the coffee bar area. Coffee bar/bar: definitely soapstone top- either yellow cabinets like the rest of the kitchen, green, or wood colored. I'm even confusing myself, so if anyone is following this, I'm impressed, and thank you for any thoughts!

Hi Ken! I digress. I have Cambria Bellingham and I love it. Quartz is an awesome counter top. Is your heart set on granite? When you looked at pictures and found a granite that took your breath away, what was the granite that was used?

I think your floor and countertops complement each other--a bit busy, but really not worth changing. A plain ivory subway tile with a bit of warm gold--golden biscuit but closer to white with light gray grout--to echo the cabinets and some of the gold and gray flecks of the countertop would work for the backsplash. Think about changing out your cabinet hardware to straight, modern nickel handles and pulls.