I think that looks really nice. But if you want something you love and you are "not sure" and "vacillating," maybe you need to keep looking. Going "safe," though, will rarely result in something you love.

Good advice above.

White tile is never boring, especially when it is paired with a high contrast color like dark grey. That makes it a strong design element, IMO.

I am not the best at visualizing things, but I wonder if grey uppers (especially if a darker grey as your pic shows) will seem too top-heavy in the room.

No, you don't have to go with "safe brown"! Is it possible to bring in a lighter shade of grey on some of the elements for a touch of variety? And, for me (who loves lots of color in a room) accessorizing with big pops of color would be essential.

What I'd want to do is get the cabinets and flooring into something I'd enjoy for as long as I own the house. Those are the big ticket items (tens of thousands of $).

Accessories, fabrics, and wall paint are easy to change. Backsplash tile usually isn't too hard to replace. Countertops can be changed but at a price. Cabinets can be repainted. I try to keep my redecorating urges in these areas.

Hopes this helps.

if u really love gray and white then go for it....i personally really like it.... if u are unsure of the gray uppers, then switch it and do gray lowers and white uppers. the bottom cabs get dirtier than uppers, so doing gray lowers and white uppers makes a lot of sense and what was said upthread is also true. the gray might "weigh" it down. but truly that will depend on your ceiling height. if u have really high ceilings i think the gray will be fine for the uppers.

i really like where you are going with this and sometimes u just have to trust your instincts and go with what u love!!

I think you should make all cabinets the same and stain or paint island a different color. It's too much grey regardless of whether appliances or backsplash is separating them. It's not going to look cohesive.

Your pic shows grey walls, not grey upper cabinets. You are mixing too many things and it'll look choppy.

My dream kitchen was going to be gray base cabinets with marble look countertops and white wall cabinets for a two-toned look.

I chickened out and played it safe with white cabinets and did black countertops because dh didn't want white countertops with white cabinets.

Do I like my kitchen? Yes.

Is it my dream kitchen? No.

Do I regret it? Yes....when I see gray kitchens I still swoon. But, I'm ok....content.

If I had a do-over would I do my gray kitchen? Without a doubt...yes.

Do what you love.

Absolutely do what you think you will love. Do not play it safe with browns if you know you won't love it! I think your gray & white plan will look wonderful.

Have you always loved gray and modern cabinets? I wouldn't do the dark gray on the uppers with white lowers. It will look top heavy. Stop everything until you are sure.

I love grey and the grey look.. I love that picture too.

I think - in this case - do what you love - you are not talking about really out there colours either. I just downloaded the app TAP GLANCE and you can input your room and design and play with colours, so maybe try that to really see what different cabinet colours will look like (it costs about $10 but you can use it on iPad and input your own colours etc).

When we built our first house in 1988, gray was huge and I loved it. I was told by a designer that it was the new neutral. I used lots of gray including on my kitchen cabinets.

A few yrs later I really disliked that kitchen when gray was not huge anymore and I got tired of it.

just sharing my experience. If you love gray and want to use it...do it. But, pick a gray that is neutral. Lots of great examples on this board.

I wanted to clarify my comment. I think if you like grey, you should get it. But just don't break up the uppers and lowers the way you suggested. Keep all cabinets one color with island another. You can do a soft grey colored cabinets all around with a stained island and white countertops. When you start breaking up uppers and lowers with different colors then breaking up counters it starts to look disjointed.

Actually I think the way you want to break up the cabinet colors will be dramatic and add a lot more interest. As mentioned just be sure you LOVE grey and are not being influenced by the grey trend, especially since the grey trend is about 5 years old already and after about 5 years, trends start on the downslide.

Is there anyway to play with a paint ap., and change the colors in the pic you posted to what you are proposing? It might help you visualize it better. I think your ideas sound good. I wouldn't be worried about the cabinet colors, but I might be nervous about the grey countertop. I might make it white, but then again the grey countertop will contrast with the white backsplash. I might also think about making the counters a fake marble, but that might not give you the look you are going for. The whole grey trend thing would not sway me.

We just did a rather modern two tone kitchen. After studying a lot of pictures, I believed that in order to to get the sleek, modern look I wanted, I needed for the counter, backsplash and upper cabinets to all blend together. We did that with a dark (wood, in our case) bottom, and white uppers and counters and a predominantly white marble backsplash. I fear that the problem your kitchen will have is not the gray cabinets but rather the contrasting elements at every intersection which will prevent it from feeling sleek like your inspiration picture. Certainly, if you want gray, go with gray! But think about how you want the kitchen to feel and whether you think your choices will accomplish that. Best of luck! We just built and there are so many choices but it's all worth it in the end.

My 2 cents - if you're coming to a site like this then you're probably interested in design in general and kitchen design in particular at this moment. For people like us, everything will ebb and flow in desirability because we stay connected to design trends and most people can't help but be influenced by what they see. For example, I loved my beadboard natural maple cabinets and brass lights when I did my kitchen in '92. Ten or so years later I was wishing I had heavily glazed painted cabinets with oil rubbed bronze everything and curlicues everywhere - but thankfully I didn't paint them and add appliques. Wanting that look was a very short lived time for me and I developed a renewed appreciation for the country-ish look I had up until the day we moved from that house. You may not LOVE what you choose every day forever more no matter what you pick, but you can love it. There's infatuation and there's love.

You have a great 'canvas' here for your new kitchen design. When considering color, go with what matches the rest of your decor and you won't be sorry. Gray is really popular right now. White and off white are always popular. The countertop should pick up on the cabinet color of course.

Here are 2 kitchens in these colors that will give you some food for thought. Gray on the island and white on wall cabinets will also give your new kitchen a WOW factor. Go with a dark gray to create contrast. Happy remodeling!

Of course! We're here to help in any way we can.

This has been so helpful- argh I wish I had posted earlier instead of agonizing for weeks. I thought I had a long post yesterday after about half the comments came in but may not have hit submit so repeating some info.

I did not think about the dark cabinets weighing down the room and lower whites being more susceptible to dirt. we talked about that a great deal yesterday evening.

I'm still trying to distinguish whether I really like grey because I am seeing it everywhere or if its something I can live with for a while- right now the answer is yes of course as I have been planning this kitchen for almost 3 years but plan on going back to look at other colors with a more open mind.

I included a pic of what the kitchen may look like with current revisions. Grey base for island and cooktop. White uppers. Initially thought the cabinets on the right here would also need to be white but grey looks nice. Also mine will be a lot less grey as the refrigerator/freezer columns are SS front so only about 5 feet of cabinet.

The one other thing I should mention is that I plan to have bright colored pendants over the island to provide pops of color there and in other spots around.

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I'm still trying to distinguish whether I really like grey because I am seeing it everywhere or if its something I can live with for a while

Does it affect your thinking if I tell you that Ikea is supposedly discontinuing their glossy gray slab cabinets (ringhult) this summer?

What kind of weather do you have and is there a lot of natural light in the room? The first picture has a lot of glass and light coming in. This last one does not. It could be rather dreary to live with and work in year after year if gray has not always been a favorite color of yours.

Thanks writers block and snookums2

We are in the sf bay area so fairly temperate weather year round.

The wall facing the kitchen has a lot of light (about 10 feet of glass) and there is a skylight between the island and cooktop as well.

Going to mull over the Ikea grey discontinuation!

If you do go with the IKEA, might be a good idea to get extra doors to store....especially if they're being discontinued. There are also company's that will make doors for IKEA cabinetry.

Yosemite, what are the colors you gravitate to when you go clothes shopping?

Or when you go into a store like BB&B, and you go looking at comforters, what colors do you gravitate to there? Use those colors as your go to colors

For example someone here recently did a MCM kitchen with wood and a teal accent color. It was stunning and I'm going to assume the person loves the color teal so it will stand the test of time.

I personally gravitate to deep red, a light Limey grey green and tan and have for years. The only thing that changes is which of those colors become more predominant. In my last house it was the tans, and in my new build will probably be the greens.

When making decisions about our home, I had to constantly evaluate whether my design choice was truly my taste or influenced by the present trend. When tempted by gray I had to remember that in 2006 I removed all the gray from our new house , replacing it with brown. Of course the gray trend emerged three years later and then when we moved in 2014 I absolutely hated the brown trend and was influenced by the gray trend. UGH!

For me, I've learned that I tire of color and pattern very very quickly--the only colors I've always loved to live with are darker blues, so that's what I'm doing in the new house. I have to have just white and medium toned wood in my kitchen unless I want to make changes every 5-10 years.

You can drive yourself crazy with finish choices. If you truly love your gray/white kitchen inspiration (and you don't recall un-graying a house like me) I say go for it. Worst case scenario is that you paint the gray doors white someday or replace them (costly, but easy as a trip to Ikea.)

Thanks design savvy, chartist and benjesbride

We are not getting ikea cabinets and I'm sad about because of the ease of swapping out doors!

I gravitate towards very bold colors and I am not sure how they will fit in my kitchen other than accent colors lighting etc (bright orange, purple and red, electric blue ), however for the past 5 yrs my master bedroom has been grey and white-

this is only the second kitchen we are remodeling so I'm just not sure if we will tire of it:(

really appreciating all the thoughtful comments!!!

Yosemite, have you considered keeping to a white kitchen instead or a white/black and maybe doing an accent of red or orange or whatever is your favorite color for the backsplash? If you tire of the backsplash in several years, that's fairly easy to replace. Then since you are happy with gray's right now you can always paint the walls gray.

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I think gray can be a really nice companion to bold color, but it can also be a bit bossy since it can have a blue, purple or green undertone that won't go with all colors. If you go gray, just be mindful of undertone and how undertone works with your favorite bold colors.