Without sunlight, use lighter colors and other ways to merge it with its surroundings when seen from far away. You already have enough dark stuff so it is not an all-light kitchen.

David

I would stay away from dark granite like ubatuba. My kitchen is like yours....not much natural light. My kitchen is on the back of the house with a window over the sink, but there is a sunroom on the back so the sink window looks out into the sunroom (it will serve as a pass-thru for family dinners). Anyway...I decided the granite and BS had to be light to brighten up the kitchen. There are many light colored granites. Take a door and a piece of the floor tile to the granite yard and look around.

We have KM sunset cabinets in our LL walkout. They're back where the natural light doesn't reach them. I kept going back and forth between wanting a light color, and wanting a rich darker color. We chose the light counter, and it really makes a difference. Since we had already chosen the cork floor (same floor as the upstairs kitchen, so that determined the color), we matched the countertop to that.

In our upstairs kitchen, we have KM cabs that are a tad darker than the sunset. This kitchen receives natural light from a triple window that has a 10' porch roof cutting off light from the SE, a triple dining room window facing NW 15' away from where I stand at the sink at the peninsula, and two 10" SunTunnels. We put a medium light green granite, Costa Smeralda which we love, here. The granite was a last minute choice because we got a VERY good price on it since the slabs were cracked and we could work around the cracks. We love it, but I think there are better color choices for the medium cherry cabinets. The over all room still seems sort of dark to me at times. We put a creamy tan marble on the 4'x4' center island (which is cream). It would have looked much better to have reversed the countertops (cream on cherry, green on cream) but it was a major cost issue.

So I'd go with the cream for the situation you've described.

Anne

Thank you all for your suggestions. I have been scouring the FKB and the internet hoping to find examples of what I like, but no pattern has emerged yet. I will keep looking. I was thinking a lighter counter too, but my DH thinks they are too busy...I think I just have to find the right one...I'll save that for another post! Thanks again!

I just had a horrible sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach as I read that horizontal surfaces should be similar in registration and depth of color and stay away from ubatuba for a north facing kitchen.

I'm dealing with existing flooring and cabinets for my kitchen update with a northern exposure. I do have a sky light and sliding french doors. Still, the lighting is subdued. The flooring is very light and all the light granites and brown granites in my price range fought either the cabinet color or the flooring color or just seemed to look very bland.

I ended up choosing ubatuba, because it did not fight anything, but it is high contrast with the flooring which does make me nervous. It will be installed Wednesday. I will have spent a good amount of money on all this, and now I'm afraid in the end it won't make good design sense.

jerseydeb...I would not second guess your decision...It sounds like you thought it through based on the situation you are working with...I've seen lots of kitchens with uba tuba or dark green granites, marble backsplashes, beige tile floors, wood cabinets. I think it works. See link.

My husband wants to go this route bc he does not want to worry about "matching" a lighter granite with a light floor tile. He thinks it might end up looking like we tried to match it, but missed the mark.

I have heard before that floors and coutnertops should be similar, but what about people with cherry floors, cherry cabinets, and light granite countertops? I think that is a nice look and that does not follow that rule.

Maybe caryscott can elaborate on his or her comment?

Again, rules are made to be broken! I just figured since we were having such a hard time deciding some additional info might help.

Here is a link that might be useful: Here is an example I pulled from the FKB

Well, a continuity in the tone of horizontal surfaces can help with a cohesive look, but it's not a disaster if you have light floors and dark countertops, etc. But, it IS a disaster to have everything be in the same tone range. All dark tones, or all light tones, or all mid tones. You need some contrast to break things up. That's one of the bonuses about choosing mid tone cabinets. You can choose either light or dark countertops and floors, as long as you choose some of the opposite tones for other key elements in the kitchen. Like going with a light granite and black iron knobs and chandelier. Or with a light granite and satin nickel or chrome knobs and lighting fixtures. And, proper lighting of any kitchen lets you use dark colors to create a warm and cozy feeling instead of a cave like experience. Dark colors don't feel as "closed in" on horizontal surfaces as they do on vertical surfaces, especially with lighting directly on the countertops from under cabinet lighting.

Want to stress that it is just one school of thought I am sure there are many others and even more exceptions to those that look great. I agree with l_w_o about contrast -we are doing an interior kitchen and chose a deep strong colour to contrast the antique white cabinetry - sometimes you have to take a chance.