Hey melrogirl,

It depends, I think, if you want the new pendant lights to be the focal point of the kitchen or not. If you do want these new lights to be the focal point, then have them not be brushed nickel but the Tiffany style or the red colour.

If you want some other part of the kitchen to be the focal point, keep with the brushed nickle style.

In our kitchen we want the flooring (dark hardwood) and the counter top (quartz) to be the focal point, so we have light cabinets and all hardward (faucets, cabinet handles, etc.) and non-recessed lighting (i.e. pendants) are of the brushed nickel (actually, come to think of it our kitchen sounds a little like yours, except we have no red). And, the cabinet handles are thin so they blend in and do not draw visual attention away from the countertop and flooring. Heck, even the kitchen sink matches the off-white cabinets to it does not attract attention (reminds me of a kitchen sink joke :-) )

The eye will gravitate to contrasts. Its a question of what you want the eye to gravitate to.

I've included a link below to one of the articles on our blog about our recent kitchen makeover experiences, including pictures of our kitchen, which may help.

Dan

Here is a link that might be useful: Kitchen Remodeling - Colour Coordination Critical

Thank you so much for the link. Very helpful.

I want the pendants to be the focal point. I guess my concern now is if a black pendant light (stem) would look bad with all my brushed nickel finishes. I can't find many pendant lights that I like with anything but black.

Have you looked at Besa Lighting? Their pendants come in brushed nickel and bronze. The link below is to their pendants, and then you can look at their stem pendants or their monopoint pendants. IOW, look around their site for the shape and color shade you want.

Here is a link that might be useful: Besa Lighting