We recently (if you consider a year and a half ago as recent) finished a kitchen remodel with walnut cabinets. How dark are you thinking of going?

My kitchen is a mess right now due to concrete dust, but here is a pic I posted a few months ago.

walnut & white

Even though I adore my balsam green Sonoma Tile backsplash, I wish that I would have chosen a lighter backsplash and a darker floor tile.

After the sun goes down, the backsplash seems a bit too dark, and since we have a black cat, and the floor shows every cat hair.

ck_squared - I LOVE your cabinets and the stone countertops are beautiful, what are they? I don't know exactly how dark we are going to go yet but I love the color you have. What brand are your cabinets? Or are they custom?

Texas_Gem - Your cabinets are a beautiful color, what type of wood are they? And your kitchen doesn't look like a mess at all! You should see mine...

Gaucho_gordo - That's so interesting how you have the walnut cabinets with the white!

read_more_books - I love your cabinets, they are beautiful! It's funny that you wish you had a lighter backsplash and darker floor because I definitely want a darker floor (we have a dog with dark hair) and a light mother of pearl backsplash. It seems we are on the same wavelength. :-) What brand are your cabinets? Or are they custom?

OP - the counters are Fantasy Brown Quartzite. Cabinets are walnut, mocha lite stained from Plato. They are custom. We chose them because they are a local company, but Plato sells all across the US. Thanks for the compliments. :)

My kitchen isn't 100% done, but here you go:

momof2princesses- my cabinets are ash. They were custom built and I stained and finished them myself using general finishes rosewood.

ck_squared - The fantasy brown quartzite is so pretty, do you have a close up picture of it? Also, did you take your upper cabinets up to the ceiling? If so, do you have a picture of that? I'm thinking I want to take at least some of my uppers to the ceiling, but we have 9' ceilings so I'm interested in seeing pictures of what others have done to see how it looks...

my_four_sons - It's looking great even though it's not done yet! The cabinets are very nice, I especially like the glass. What kind of wood did you use?

my_four_sons...just wanted to say WHOA...your cabinets, hardware, seeded glass cabinet, soapstone...seriously gorgeous!!!

Thanks, momof2princesses and dcedward89! It's been a long, long process. The cabinets are quartersawn oak. I love white cabinets, but our house is built in the 70s with lots of wood, and a weird mishmash Spanish style, so white would haven a no-go.

Love these kitchens! Are the dark cabinets hard to keep looking cleaning? I.e. High maintenance?

sorry to high jack, but I'm dying to know and going to cabinet people next week. :-)

We have 10-ft. ceilings in the kitchen so we didn't take the cabs to the ceiling.

Close up of counters:

Captncars - I love your cabinets with the white stone countertop on your island! Is it marble or quartzite? I also really like how you lightened things up with the white glass tile backsplash. How tall are your ceilings? Is there a reason you didn't take the cabinets to the ceiling?

Thanks!! That's exactly what I was thinking when I mixed in the white tile and stone.. Brighten things up! The stone yard we bought it from called it a granite - Mont Blanc. Does etch and scratch a little though... Not too noticeable though, still love it! Our ceilings are 10ft so our cabinets are pretty high, I have to get out a step stool (aka bar stool) to reach the top shelf! We were going to put lighting above the cabinets behind the molding, but it ended up getting cut from the budget

captncars - I love the Mont Blanc granite, it's beautiful! Do you have a close up picture you can share?

My kitchen above is 5 years old. Full overlay shaker style doors in cherry. Countertops are Typhoon Bordeaux granite. Backsplash tile is Jeffrey Court crackle subway tile; forgot the color. Interior of cabinets and ceiling center are natural maple.

cpartist - Your cherry cabinets are beautiful! I think I might be leaning toward cherry cabinets myself... The countertop is kind of hard to see in the pics you posted, do you have a close up you can post? Also, do you have 8' or 9' ceilings? I also love the accent tile you used behind your range, what is that? It really pops.

The backsplash behind the stove was designed and created by me. I used some of that mesh they put mosaics on and the yellow/white/beige tiles I pulled off of premade sheets. The black pieces I also pulled off of premade sheets but then I cut them to size. Once I was finished with the whole thing, the tile guy hung it. The border around the backsplash is a daltile glass tile. I think I have one more pic of the counter. Let me see if I can find it.

Um my counter is busy but I love it. In fact I chose another busy granite for my new house. Oh and the black pieces in the mosaic are more of a very dark chocolate color.

Funny I was all set to do off white cabinets with a cherry island in my new kitchen but now as I look at all these gorgeous dark cabinets I'm second guessing myself.

Meris- dark cabinets show dust more than medium tone cabinets, I can't say how they compare to white or other painted cabinets as I've only ever had stained wood.

I don't think it is high maintenance personally.

If you check the "Read Me" thread, it references and provides a link to the "Finished Kitchens Blog". You can then search among the many GWers' finished kitchens. There is a "category" search to help you refine your search.

I think you will find many similar Kitchens there.

(The Finished Kitchens Blog is not on Houzz - but it's a blog a GWer started so those who designed and built their Kitchens with GW help can post the finished product.)

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Read Me thread: New to Kitchens? Read Me First!

Just stained oak cabinets expresso....love it

Ours are 3+ years old cherry with a darker glaze.

My 4 sons, I die for beaded inset cabinets, but I really love the bead on the edges of your overlay cabs! Really a nice detail.

Angelazuill, I'd love to see a close up of your cabs. I love hickory's grain, and with a darker stain... Wow!

I started out with a painted kitchen (not white). Love love love it, but I got into stripping some reuse center, beaded inset cabinets and OMG. Changed my life. Ok, just my kitchen, but it's important. I am now in love with my perfect, weathered oak finish. (Ask me. You can do it, too, without it looking like someone did a bad white wash finish.)

Unfortunately, I also stripped some cherry down to chocolate brown, so I have a very different, (used to be called "mismatched" but now it's "eclectic" or "bespoke") ... environment. I also made maple butcher block counters, so what a ... variety ... of woods. :)

Be warned about the Finished Kitchens blog. It'll suck you in like Pinterest and Houzz. I suggest Pinning everything in one place, though. It helps with sanity not to have to run all over to find that "one" picture.

CEFreeman, here is a closeup (phone) pic of our bathroom cabinets- same wood, same stain as the kitchen. We are so happy with them!

Those are lovely. Let alone inset {swoon} such beautiful grain! I can see it would make you smile every time you ran your hand along them. Who needs to pet countertops with cabs like this!?

angelazuill, love your bathroom cabinet!! Is that hickory with walnut stain? Who made the cabinet?

Thank you Linelle! They are hickory with a walnut stain. Our cabinet builder is a local guy here in middle Tennessee. I felt so lucky to have found him. So talented. He picked the less "rustic" pieces of hickory to use. I like the grain of hickory but didn't want it to overwhelm our kitchen/bathrooms.

Here is my kitchen. So many changes need to be made, but it's a good start.

Here's our natural (unstained) walnut cabinets/black galaxy granite kitchen completed in early 2013

We are still working on our kitchen remodel but here are my Dusky Mahogany cabinets.

I have Alderwood on the perimeter cabs and a glazed ivory of the interior cabs where all the appliances are. For some reason I haven't any pix of the glazed, only the Alderwood.

Our are a few years old. Refinished maple, custom stain. Seafoam green granite, crema marfil marble backsplash.