Maybe this will help a little. I wanted to keep my new white birch cabs light and I didn't want them to yellow. I spent an afternoon working with my cabinet guy coming up with the right stain for me. He was great about mixing up different combo's for me to see.

I call the color driftwood. It's a mix of white,gray and blue. My idea was to have a cool toned gray that would be easy to work with when I wanted to change my decor. Notice that the wood tone comes through also. At times the cabinets look very gray and at other times they look beige/gray. The wood you use can make a big difference.

Are you doing custom? If you are, look for someone who does a conversion varnish. It's very easy to clean and has a very silky finish.

I'm also on water...

Nancy

I would say to paint the white walls a color if you are concerned about too much white. That way if you don't like it, it is easier to change than changing cabinet paint.

Blue? That's my colour. But I don't know how much help I'll be, since the LAST thing I ever wanted was a white kitchen. All my life I've lived and cooked in bland and boring beige or white kitchens of someone else's choice. So when I finally got the opportunity to renovate, I was determined to have COLOUR!

Sorry, I can't help you with paint brands or #s, but these cabs were painted over new unfinished birch, then glazed with "mocha." The blue was the first element chosen, then everything else was picked to coordinate.

We are doing stained blue cabinets in several rooms (great room, dining room and conservatory). We are also doing painted blue accent cabinets in our kitchen. Unfortunately, nothing is even close to being installed yet so I have no pictures. I say go for it and do the stained blue. It will be beautiful and unique!

I know you prob would not want to go this intense but here are some beautiful blue cabinets:
{{!gwi}}

I think of my kitchen as "white" since my main cabinets on the perimeter are white with marble counters, but my back wall has tall blue pantry and utility cabinets flanking the fridge and the island and breakfast room hutch are cherry. I like white kitchens, love the warmth and character of wood, but wanted some color, and that turned out to be what worked for us.

If you don't want white, I'd try samples of your color and also try the slate. It is slightly more neutral so you don't get as locked in on such a large element as cabs.... Unless you are fully committed to it after you have had time to sleep on it...Blue is a fairly strong color for cabs, so I'd caution you to do it only if you are in love...

I just got it! les yeux bleu Anyway...

Riverstone is cool. {{!gwi}} How about Pearl Gray? {{!gwi}}

I kind of like the lighter, more blue stain, but it really depends on your kitchen and your tastes. You're right, you don't see it often, but Florida, on the water, it seems like a natural.

My hat is off to you for being brave enough to pick a color that you love but also you are picking a color from a sample. That is my only concern. I would want to see a finished kitchen before deciding.

I was going to say, "go for it!", then I saw the Pearl Gray. It sure is pretty. ;)

Are your cabinets configured so that you might consider a mix of colors?

The blue here was not achieved with stain (which poses particular challenges in the realm of color control) but with milk paint.

I agree that staining will be problematic. Painting would be your best choice. I think that you can use different shades of blue in the kitchen, not just blue or white. Use an intense blue for an accent piece like an island or hutch. Use a soft blue elsewhere for a sink base and glass cabinets. Use white for one cabinet run. Use a mixture of lots of different blue tiles for a "rippled sea" backsplash look. Look at beagles kitchen if you want to pick up some ideas of how to integrate blue and white together.

Oh! Honorbiltkit, that kitchen is so pretty!

Here's a mock up of our kitchen so you can see where we are integrating the blue:

As you can see, each wall has a blue accent piece but the main cabinets are white. The blue we used for the kitchen is color matched to the blue granite slabs (we used a small piece of the granite in SW's paint matcher thing).

The stained blue that we are doing in the other rooms has much more variation in color and some of the wood grain shows through. We wanted it that way because those are smaller cabinet areas and not a whole kitchen of it.

I personally love the riverstone. Get a test door of your cabinets and try the stain out. I suspect from the names of the stain examples that riverstone is more of a gray than what is shown. I also like the verdigris, but this too may be a very green teal. Will depend upon the wood species.

Honorbiltkit....What is the name or source of the hinges on the cabinets in your photo? I'd love to use those.

Regrettably, that is not my kitchen. It is one whose colors I tried to replicate, with results so bad (this is how I know how wrong colored stains can turn out) that I had to go another direction completely .

The kitchen is by Timeless Kitchen Design. They have a web site and a blog, and even a proprietor -- Kevin Ritter -- who may be able to identify the hardware. For anyone who might yearn to have one of his wonderful kitchens, forum member honeychurch has posted here and on a blog about her experience.

The irony is that the photo that so won my heart is actually somewhat distorted from the original, which is slightly warmer in its coloring.

Here is a link that might be useful: Timeless Kitchen Design

Here are some ideas to get your blue on.
~boxerpups

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I really LOVE the blue cabinet idea, but then I think most things should be blue. The problem with staining wood is that the same color stain will look different on different types/species of wood, so you would really have to test first.Paint, specifically milk paint might be an option.