I think it will look great! In our new build, we are putting black cabs in the master and half baths and dark grey cabs in my sons bath. I love dark cabs!

The issue with painting oak is that the grain will still show through. And, yes, gel staining is way easier to achieve a good-looking result than painting. It also wears better and is easier to touch up.

I don't know how far you want to go, but here is a pink and black bathrooms

Pink Bath · More Info

Or light pink walls, espresso cabinet, and silver accessories.

Or light gray/silvery walls, espresso cabinet, and pink/white ruffle shower curtain, like this but with graduated pink and white

gray, espresso, and pink

Ruffle Shower Curtain · More Info

Girl's Bathroom · More Info

I think a dark brown get stain might be the way to go. How intense is your color? Often times but not always, nickle is a warm silver color, your pink will be warmish. I'd go with a warm gray or a dark brown for the cabinet.

Go to BM website and look up cloud pink, they show an option color to coordinate that is brown and a warm gray :) I just looked as I was trying to link the BM color here. It will not post because I can not down load the color to desktop from BM site, and on a Macbook, you cant link images from other sites, to show as images.

pink cloud

I think This link will work to the color and some coordinating options.

The cabinets are very light. I think I'm back to the gel stain because it will be easier to do. We're still probably going to paint our kitchen cabinets but I'm seriously considering paying someone to do it for us.

I've already bought the Java and chose it because it gets the most discussion online. I'm a little worried about it being too dark but I'm hoping if that happens I can adapt after the first coat.

You could also try Antique Walnut. Java is definitely very dark, but I do like it a lot. I think it will look great with pink and gray/silver.

I painted the cabinet in my hall bath gray. It's paint. If it looks dated in a few years, you can paint it again to the colour du jour for $50 and an afternoon of work.

Staining is more work as you'll have to strip the finish off so the stain can soak into the wood. Paint can sit on top, so it doesn't need as much prep.

I'm confused. Everything I've read online states that you have to remove the finish before you paint. Based on the instructions I've found on blogs, it looks like staining would be easier because you only lightly sand with stain whereas with paint you have to sand off the finish. Is that correct? I'd love to find out it's easier to paint.

By sit on top, do you mean you can paint cabinets without sanding? I assume you'd still need primer and to thoroughly clean the cabinets. But not sanding reduces the work significantly.

I agree with amberm145. Painting only requires you to lightly scuff the surface, prime and paint. Easy to change in a few years. I have used gel stains for many years, and you need to remove the finish (varnish, lacquer, urethane) or you will get a muddy fake looking finish.

-Babka

In the kitchen, if you are going to the trouble and expense of painting, I'd look at cheap unpainted doors online as well. Depends what yours are like, but might be worth a look to see the difference in price. If you went with new unpainted it would be easier to paint yourself and you'd save in labour costs.

Yes, with paint, you just need to clean really well, prime and paint. It's stain that requires the old finish be removed. And then you stain, and then you top coat. I haven't used gel stain, but in the other bathroom, I used a stain/polyurethane "one step" product, without stripping the old finish. It doesn't look nearly as nice as a properly stained product. It was almost impossible to get it not streaky. I looked into gel stain for other products, and it looked like the only benefit to it over liquid stain was that it wouldn't run. Not any less prep.

And I googled it to see where someone might have told you the opposite. Young House Love painted without stripping. They used a deglosser, I've only ever used TSP to wipe the cabinets down. It's not the same as stripping and sanding. They did some sanding, but only because they used wood putty to fill cracks and holes. (Another reason to paint vs stain, even "stainable" putty never comes out the same colour as the wood, without a lot of trial and error to get the right putty for your stain and your wood.) The Frugal Girl did a lot of sanding, but didn't remove the finish, either, from what I can see. And it wasn't necessary.

Since oil paint isn't very popular anymore, and banned in many states. I recommend BM Advance paint for cabinets. I have also used a product called Cabinet Coat, which I really liked. But it's hard to get in my area. The Benny Moore stuff is easier to find. It takes a few days or weeks to get really hard, but once it's cured, it's really tough. It's dry to the touch in a few hours, but will scratch easily for the first couple of weeks.

Staining is a lot of work if you plan to strip the wood down to bare wood. The java gelstains that so many GW'ers have used can be applied to prefinished wood, a lot of former honey oak transformations can be found here. I've never used them but I believe gel stain and paint both require a good amount of work to be done right, and make it adhere well. Surface prep is the key - don't skimp on the prep, its the least fun but the most important.

I think we are talking gel stain here, not regular stain that penetrates the wood. General Finishes gel stain requires only very slight scuffing, no other preparation. It even adhered very well to those fake wood laminate sides of cheap builder grade cabinets although in that case, there's no grain visible (because it's laminate).

And gel stain is expressly made for staining fiberglass doors.

GF gel stain