Get what you think YOU will enjoy.
Only you and your family truly see and live in your kitchen; no photographers will try invading your space to catch a shot of a good or a bad kitchen.

I am thinking of putting in a green island. I never loved green till this year and DH is not sure. It isn't a common thing, but I have debated between cherry, black, or green and I think green will make me smile.

Get what will make you smile. There are enough threads going about here that ask if "white is passe." If you get what you think is in style, styles change. If you get what you love, who cares what the magazines say.

Best to you and post your new kitchen when it is done!

Thanks to both of you....I really liked the darker cabinets when I first started and looked through the hundreds of magazines I could find, but when looking at everyone's beautiful lighter cabinets I am 2nd guessing myself.

But I guess you could drive yourself crazy 2nd guessing all of your choices!

I know what you are going through. My husband wants light colored cabinets but I want dark burgundy ones. I have compromised a lot on our decisions during the process of plans for our renovation but not the cabinets or the quartz reflections countertops I want. We haven't started our process yet or I would have posted photos for you. Good luck.

Everyone is giving you good advice and I just want to second and third it: get what you will love!

There was just a couple of dark finished kitchens posted on here this week and they look great. 2nd guessing is almost impossible not to do because there are so many beautiful choices out there.

Wallycat, WillowDecor (that's her blog name...think it is her GW name as well) is doing a white kitch with a green island. Sounds like it is going to be fantabulous!

Back to the subject: We did a walnut stained pine in our last kitchen. I loved it loved it loved it and would have done it mostly the same this time (but with white uppers/our ceilings are low and kitchen has a porthole's worth of natural light) but couldn't easily get the kitchen replicated. Well, not easily enough for me and now we are a week away from install so I won't second guess. No no I won't. Really.

Check out Sochi's walnut kitchen. Dark cabinets and possibly one of the most amazing looking on here.

The cabinets are a major component of the kitchen but they aren't everything. You can have white cabinets and still have an ugly kitchen. You can have dark cabinets and have a kitchen full of natural light and have it feel great.

You know your house. You know your tastes. Go for what works for you!

Here is a link that might be useful: walnut stained pine cabs

There are many kitchens with dark cabinets on GW, cherry, walnut, black or almost black painted cabinets. Yes, the main trend here at the moment is white and there are dozens of gorgeous white kitchens on this site, but you absolutely see evidence of both. Go with what you love, white, dark or pink, whatever.

I've posted a couple of pictures of my dark kitchens. The first is the kitchen I did in my last house (six years ago), cherry cabinets with a dark stain. The second is my still unfinished current kitchen, natural walnut cabs. Both of these kitchens are quite modern in design, but don't let that scare you - boxerpups or others could find you dozens of gorgeous dark traditional kitchens. I did fit some white into my current kitchen, as you can see in the last two pictures.

Good luck!

old cherry kitchen

new unfinished walnut kitchen

When I made my cabinet decision over five years ago all the cabinets here were lighter woods and I wanted very dark cabinets. I loved this look because it wasn't what everyone else had and it's what looked just right in my house (which had dark wood work). I went with dark and I still just love it five years later. I started to get a little concerned after I made my choice because dark cabinets then started becoming pretty popular here. I really didn't want to have someting that was the popular fad. So I'm happy to hear that dark apparently didn't really catch on and is still more "rare".

I think it's easy for many people to want to do what's safe and maybe middle of the road since kitchen reno is such a major expense. Probably takes a little more guts and independence to do what you really love even if it doesn't seem popular. If your choices are high quality and tasteful and in keeping with the overall look of your home I don't think you can go wrong getting what you really want. In some ways you might be even better off as I think something that is never totally popular doesn't ever become totally dated.

listen to your gut and go with what you want/love. I have absolutely no regrets and love our dark cabinets.

there's plenty of us "darkies" here, maybe not all yet in the FKB, but run a search at the bottom of the page and you'll find some older threads

Thanks everyone...I'm definitely feeling more comfortable with my decision...and the pics posted so far have been really beautiful!

Mairin - what are your countertops - they look great!

Ann,

Here's the link to the FKB (Finished Kitchen Blog) maintained by Starpooh and volunteers from this website. The kitchens are listed by alphabetical order of owner's name. BUT, there's a great feature that categorizes every possible aspect of the kitchen. This link I've provided goes to the wood finishes. Check out all of these cabinet finishes of current/previous GW members, and you'll have great photos of all kinds of darker kitchens.

This is such an exceptional resource!

Here is a link that might be useful: FKB cabinet finishes

I'm second-guessing everything. I think it's part of this process. One reason we went with wood and not white was marks, dirty fingerprints. I have young ones here. Our entryway has all wood trim and I can clean the woodwork on my schedule, not because of glaring filth like I do on the white trim in our kids bathroom. So, there's another reason for dark. You won't see grime or nicks. Old English solves everything.

Your first impression is just that...the option that speaks to you the loudest....and it is best to listen to the voice. There are so many options that also look interesting and would be a fit for us...but our first love is the BEST fit. If you like the dark woods...embrace your attraction and your long relationship with your kitchen will be a good one.

When I was seriously house shopping and I saw the model I bought, that kitchen was in dark woods. I love dark woods and it looked wonderful to me, but my first love is a white kitchen...then my first choice was a pale green countertop. When I went to the design center weeks later to get it all set up, I changed my mind on the countertop and chose a white with black and gray highlights as I thought that would blend with the gray wall-to-wall carpeting. I could not sleep that night as I just kept thinking about that green countertop. The next day I called the design center and changed back to the green..and I am very happy with my white kitchen and the green countertop...it is good to listen to those voices in your head.

GO DARK....LOL ;~]

I'm planning a dark-cabinet kitchen too (once DH gets on board). Like Gibby3000, the woodwork on two floors of my house, including the kitchen level, is dark and stained in the hallways and other rooms, and I think continuing that into the kitchen will enhance visual flow and be more harmonious with the feel of the house. I love looking at all the white kitchens here, and I learn lessons from them about layout, light, appliance placement, etc., which translate no matter what color your cabinets are.

Stick with your vision, if it feels right for you and for your house.

I have had white kitchens most of my life. Before we built this house (completed 4 and a half years ago), I recall telling a friend, "I like a white kitchen." Flash forward. The house is actually composed of several buildings. The central building holds the kitchen and family room and one must walk by the kitchen to get from the formal front parts of the house to the less formal rear parts of the house. Most of the furnishings are dark woods. While the house was under construction, I realized that a white kitchen would be too jarring amidst all the dark woods of the rooms linked by the kitchen. I chose a dark burgundy stain, which provided continuity with the dining room furniture, especially. We love it! Bear in mind, the kitchen only has upper cabinets on two walls. The other two walls have windows. So, there is lots of natural light. The floors are medium wood, many of the uppers that are there have glass fronts, one of the counter tops is white marble, and there are stainless appliances. So, there are plenty of light and reflective surfaces to break up the darkness of the burgundy. I did not discover Gardenweb until a year after we moved in. I'm not sure whether my choices would have varied had I discovered it earlier. (Since I am in a rural area with limited access to contractors, some of my initial choices were absolutely precluded, but that is another story.) Anyhoo, this long-winded narrative is my way of saying that you really need to do what your gut tells you to do, based on what works in your environment, with the needs and sensibilities of your family, the labor pool and skills available to you, and the visuals that make you gasp in delight every time you encounter them--as my kitchen still does me after four and a half years. One other note: Sometimes I see photographs of kitchens that are exquisite and I have a fleeting sensation of shouldIhavedoneoneofthose. I've come to realize that it's often the photogenicity of the kitchen that I'm attracted to, rather than how I would actually feel were I to cook in that kitchen on a day-to-day basis. I realized that, after having many white kitchens, I simply did not want to cook in any more white kitchens. So, it's kind of a know-thyself thing. No, I'm not by any means bashing beautiful white kitchens. You just need to follow your own sensibilities.

I totally agree that you have to ask to yourself "Would you like to live in that kitchen?". When I look at pictures I always get a feeling if I could live in that kitchen or not. I love both wood kitchens and white kitchens and when you think about it those are the two kitchens that we have been deciding on for years so I don't think you could go wrong either way. Just decide which one you'd rather live in everyday. I'm showing my pics so you can see that I have both, mainly wood but I did a white cabinet too so I get to experience both :) Good Luck to you, and don't worry you'll pick the right one for you.

Well, you are getting sort of a "white" with your choice of island. What you described sounds pretty. (And getting Brookhaven cabinets, it's bound to look good no matter what.) I guess I can just echo what most have said and tell you to look around more, and if you feel that you are continually being drawn to the dark cabinets, then it's fate!

I am doing a reverse of your plan, off-white glazed perimeters and a dark stained island. Sometimes I wish I could just do the whole thing unpainted (stained), but we live in a 1970's house w/8ft ceilings, no "open floor plan". If I put anything but light/white cabinets in, the kitchen would be really dark.

Looking forward to your finished pics...

While I agree that you should get what you love, I find it odd that everyone is ignoring your DH, whom you had to talk out of white cabs. In his mind, he wants to get what HE loves. Now, if he doesn't feel very strongly about it, then by all means, get what YOU love since only YOU would feel passionately about it. But if you BOTH feel strongly about your preference, then you both need to sit down and hash it out (e.g., each of you show pictures of what you think looks nice and see if you can come to a consensus somehow). You're both going to live in your kitchen, so you BOTH need to love it...not one love it and the other kinda sorta growing to love it.

So the issue isn't really whether you should get what you see most on GW, but whether you and DH can mutually agree on cab color without one party strong-arming the other.

Good luck!

Get what you want and enjoy it.
GW is a great place but it is easy to feel like you might
have made a mistake. Don't second guess yourself. You are
doing the kitchen you love and you won't regret it.

Here are more dark kitchens with beauty and elegance. Even
prettier than the whites (and I have a white kitchen )
~boxerpups

Harboursidekitchens

Kitchen Siri Evju

Beverly Staa

Decorpad

Sophisticated Stone HGTV

Bardon Cabinets

Nassetta CA

Decorpad

Greg Delory

Tampa Kitchen and Bath Designers

NBKA Winner

Subzero

Do visit the finished kitchen blog for inspiration. I have a galley kitchen with dark cabs.

Thanks everyone. All of the pics are beautiful - thanks for sharing. I guess with a kitchen renovation, you are probably always 2nd guessing all the choices you make...and until it's all finished, it's the unknown of how everything will look together!

Thanks to everyone who posted pictures. I am trying to figure out what to do re dark vrs light too and it is hard to find inspiration pictures in magazines right now. I love the look of white, but we have three kids and a dog and the KDs I have talked to say that after a year or two white will be chipped/dinged. Any thoughts?

I never fell into the category of undecided. I have always been drawn to dark woods. My cabinets are in, but that is about it. The granite will be installed in about a week.
Hope my link helps you make a decision.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cherry cabinets and other parts of remodel

In 1977 we installed very dark wood cabinets in an old lake house we were remodeling to be a year-round residence. I loved them for a lot of years, but by 2001, when we decided to tear down and rebuild on the same lot, I simply couldn't do a dark wood kitchen again! I struggled for weeks until I saw a white kitchen I loved. I'd never considered paint: "Wood should be seen!" but we did the white kitchen and loved it.

We moved in 2008 and rebuilt. I would have reproduced exactly the 2001 kitchen if I could have, but neither the cabinets nor the countertops were available. I realized I wasn't tired of white, so we did a different white, and added a charcoal island. The two-tone look may be outdated quickly, but this kitchen is for ME, not for some style guru.

Follow your heart! And realize that you'll always be second-guessing . . . because there are so many truly lovely choices out there!

I just finished my white kitchen (but not in FKB yet) and I am so happy with it. But when I saw kitchenaddict's kitchen I had a major moment of OMG I should have done that! It has dark cabinets and it is stunning. So I understand your angst (only the opposite color).

But think of it this way, if you had yours planned out in your head and then you saw tons that were just identical to yours here, maybe you would feel you were doing just another one like everyone else. Yours sounds beautiful!

We did dark stained cherry in 2007 when "everybody" was deciding that natural maple cabinets were passe and going with glazed white cabinets. We put the trends aside and chose what we loved.

Here is our dark kitchen

{{!gwi}}

thank you stevie...and let me say that I still sigh when I see a beautiful white kitchen...The OMG moments happens to me all the time.

allnewappliances...I went through the same thing. I was moments away from ordering white cabs. My DH was allowing me to make the decision, even though he preferred dark. At the last minute, I went with dark. The moment I changed my order I felt the knot in my stomach disappear. I knew deep down that it was the way to go. I don't regret it at all. They just go better with my decor throughout my home.
heres mine