When the drywall goes up it always looks this way--the drywall is grey and matte. It also probably feels smaller. It will lighten up again when it's primed.

Lighting will of course make a big difference. Our current kitchen has NO windows, but with white cabs, the lighting is almost too bright. Our next house will have a north-facing kitchen, but it will have windows. We're also going to have a window on the east wall, and no overhead cabs, which should brighten it up considerably.

I am North facing and even though the north wall is almost pure window it looks out to the enclosed porch so there is not great sunlight entering.
I have put a chandelier with 6 holders/cups which actually has compact fluorescent bulbs and it is really really bright.
i also so have under cabinet lighting.
bear in mind this is a 9 7 1/2 x 10ft space

my cabinets are a creamy with brown antique but the backsplash is quite dark as is the countertop

so the biggest effect is with lights

hope that helps a bit

My kitchen faces north as well. I have a large window on the north wall--one of the long arms of the U. My advice is to keep dark colors to a minimum--use them more as accents rather than base colors--on walls, counters, and cabs. Are you doing painted or stained cabs? I have medium reddish stained trim throughout my house so I may go that dark on my cabs but not darker although I'd love to do creamy white painted. Counters & walls I would keep light as they'll help bounce the light around the room. Make sure you have adequate ceiling light. I'm sure once the drywall is primed and painted you'll feel better about your space. Oh, and make sure your window treatment is something that you can retract completely off the window (like a roman shade), that will allow as much light as possible into your kitchen.

Ok, I feel less panicky now. We are doing white painted cabinets, and I definitely think we need stay away from White Dove and lean toward Creamy White. I would like a creamy granite as well, but DH really likes Antique Brown. Good tip about the window shade ... maybe a sheer linen roman shade. Thanks for the tips!

i have a north facing kitchen and i used white dove on my cabs. i love it! we used revere pewter on the walls and bianco antico granite.

this is a pic of the kitchen w/no lights on on a medium sun/cloud day.

I have a north facing kitchen but the white cabinets and picture window have kept it from ever feeling too dark. The soapstone counters and floor are covered while construction goes on but even with the dark counters it seems light enough.

I too have a north facing kitchen and am going to do white painted cabinets. I was considering the bianco antico granite as well. My issue with some of the light granites is that they stain. srg215 do you like the wear of your granite and does it stain, particularly with oil? I was thinking of the bianco antico, arctic cream or giallo ornamental.

Our kitchen faces north, with a north-facing window (view on our green back yard) and two small west-facing ones (view on the neighbor's house and back yard... fortunately they have a very pretty back yard).

And guess what the previous owners did to this kitchen? Yes! They painted the walls putty-colored and the cabinets GRAY, and then they put in a dark gray Corian island, and stainless counters, and white linoleum with a gray pattern. In other words they did everything they could to make it look drab and uninviting. I picture them standing there wondering out loud, "Is it gray enough yet? We need more GRAY!"

We are remodeling, obviously (everything they did was wrong... all I have to tell you to convince you of that is that this is an 11 x 17-foot kitchen and in the ENTIRE KITCHEN there is only ONE DRAWER). So I can't speak from experience yet--I mean I can't tell you yet how it works out--but the plan is to warm it up with golden oak floors and pale yellow walls. Probably we will do creamy/warm white cabinets, with glass in the upper cabinet doors to show off our very colorful Fiestaware (we have one place setting each of about six different colors, and more to come). Our new range is BLUE, yay! (see link below), and I think the key... well, the key is warm wood floors and pale yellow on the walls; there's nothing like yellow tones to brighten and warm a kitchen up--that's the color you're missing by not having direct sunlight.

But I'd say the other keys are:

(1) Everything should lean towards a warm version of whatever color it is. Warm or creamy white instead of snow white/blue white, light to medium-stained woodwork with yellow undertones, and, for example, if you have black counters, can they be a greeny-black (e.g. soapstone that's such dark green it looks black) instead of blue-black?

(2) Have pops of bright color here and there. Like the blue stove, our red tea kettle, an interesting backsplash that's either light or bright colors, and so on.

Here is a link that might be useful: Blue Fratelli Royal Chiantishire

We have a kitchen with a North Corner a large window with a transom that faces NW and a small high window that faces NE. It can be dark, but we are just putting in new lighting and I have to say the 100 Watt large pendant over the window made a world of difference. It has a glass shade that reflects light in all directions, as opposed to recessed lights that direct the light down. Not that you should avoid recessed lights but I would focus more on glass fixtures, pendants, semi-recessed, whatever, that send the light all over, including some on the ceiling. I recall seeing a kitchen in a magazine that used small semi-recessed lights in lieu of recessed and a few pendants and it was gorgeous. Below is an example of the type of fixtures they used.

Here is a link that might be useful: Small flush fixtures instead of recessed lights

Would you be able to bring one or two Solatubes or SunTunnels down to the ceiling for extra natural light?

Anne

I have no windows in my kitchen although it is open to the west facing dr with wall to wall and floor to ceiling windows. I'm not worried because I made sure to put enough lighting in the kitchen. Under counter and overhead lights.

Ideagirl2, I love that stove! I think adding yellow to your gray is brilliant. I actually ran across a blog post today with some great yellow and gray rooms.
Sparklekitty, I adore that fixture and I think the lighting advice is a good thought. We were planning on pendants over the island, but perhaps we should also add a pendant over the sink. Hmm.
Thanks so much for the thoughts!

Here is a link that might be useful: Rooms with yellow and gray