I went through a similar dilemma myself. I have cream cabinets and a black island and had my heart set on ORB hardware. It really looked bad with the black (to my eye anyways) so I went with brushed nickel. I'm really happy with the end result. I think so long as you have some contrast between the ORB and your dark wood it should be fine, but try it out on a sample cab somewhere to see how it would look.

I agree - do not let the brass influence your decision. I think ORB will work very nicely throughout your home. However, if you want brushed nickel in the kitchen, then go for it. I would strongly suggest you choose your counter slab first though! if you got a slab that called for nickel hardware - you can still do ORB lights in the kitchen, as they will flow with the rest of the house. I love the notion of mixed hardware for cabinets - I used Colonial Bronze knobs, which allows you to choose 2 finishes - one for the outside of the knob (eg. ORB) and one for the face (eg brushed nickel). Just an idea. I know you need to choose your hinges now tho. If you have an inkling of your granite choice and you know ORB will be the finish of choice, then go with ORB. We had all brass throughout our 1950s house too - and we are slowly but surely changing everything out to ORB and we love the result! We do have satin nickel/pewter in the kitchen, nickel in 3 baths (2 polished, 1 satin) and 1 polished chrome in another bath. All main doors and hinges will have ORB hinges and levers when we're all done. Good luck!

Lovely kitchen in the making but that light fixture for over the table is just too too much. Will you need pendants over the island?

There are all kinds of high-end finishes that can be done with covering wood holes, and it usually involves an artistic level of painting with multiple colors to match the grain in a faux-painting style. For just a solid color, there's not much you can do to hide it if you are just going to do a wood filler.