I love two-toned schemes (want to do one someday) and would definitely stain the island dark specifically for continuity. Kitchens are so cluttered and busy when we're working anyway, and the look's dramatic enough without turning the contrast scheme upside down in the middle, although you don't say what color your floor is... I think it'd be a real good idea to only finalize our designs after we've drawn in a mess-test: load the counters, island, sink, stove, etc., as in a typical dinner or party in process and see how the design handles the challenge. :) The wall, both light and dark sound nice to me. Either way the contrasting color could be carried up on it in whatever was displayed there. Handsome!

Thanks for the additional advise! Well, we were sure we wanted the pewter color for the island, so I ordered enough of that for this purpose. It looks great on the dark blue/grey and looked good on the then still wooden perimeter cabinets. So I went ahead and ordered the additional ones needed for the perimeter of the kitchen. Now that I’m nearly done painting (some more drying time for the doors), and having seen a white kitchen with black hardware again at the big blue Swedish store, I revisited my decision. I didn’t unpack the ordered hardware yet and ordered a couple of the wrought iron/black ones today. I’m holding off on installing the doors until the black ones come in to have a side by side comparison. I’m still within the return window of the hardware and would only lose the shipping costs. So we’ll see.

I love my two tone. I like stained wood but didn't want to feel surrounded by brown. I like things a bit mismatchy and seemed like a good fit in my older home. I did the tall cabinets white like the uppers so that everything at eye-level is the same color. Especially because the tall cabinets are right at the entrance to my kitchen (seemed like it would feel too "in-your-face" to have the wood there). I prefer two tone kitchens with the tall cabinets matched to the uppers rather than lowers, but I don't think it's terrible to match the lowers. You can find pics of kitchens done either way. Agree to do a little contrast with the wood floor so it doesn't all blend with the lower cabinets. My kitchen floor was stained to match the rest of the house (IMO it's more red than I'd like, trying to tone it down with the rug), so I did lighter cabinets. I think it would be too much for the floor and cabinets to blend together.

Thank you, nosoccermom and jdesign_gw! jdesign_gw, I was told by the cabinet people that doing synchronized grain would be much more expensive - I am not sure by how much though, as he never gave me a number and discouraged me from doing so.... does it mean a lot more work for him, perhaps? nosoccermom, I think that at this point, I may be sticking with glossy white cabinets but use wood accents throughout, rather than splitting the color. I am going to have to figure it all out quite soon!!!! Thank you again.