I don't think there is a rule so you could do either. You know your floor already. Do you have a vision or pic of a kitchen you like? If you had a countertop you loved, then you could go from there and find the cabinets to go with that and the floor. If you haven't even thought countertops yet, then I'd pick the cabinets next so those could get ordered. It is still helpful to have a general idea of what you would like for the big things that will all go together.

I also think it depends. Do you have a firm vision of what your counter or cabinets should look like?

I have white perimeter and cherry-stained island cabinets. IIRC, I chose my granite first, then the stain for the island so it would tie in.

I do know that I want shaker-style cabinets but keep going back and forth between white/grey cabinets and stained cabinets.

Hmm...then I'd firm up my vision for the cabinetry first, then decide on counters.

Are you going to do all the same color/stain cabinetry? Same counters throughout?

I am going to do the same granite, but am undecided on the cabinetry. I am open to either option.

I chose my cabinets first, but I knew exactly what I wanted. The counters took a bit. I looked at everything before I decided on color. Once I decided that I wanted white, and fell in love with Calaccatta marble (but not it's price) I got help here and went with quartz counter tops.

I started out choosing my cabinets first because I had a firm vision of the design, color and hood being the main focus. The countertop was going to be something to blend in and enhance.

I then fell in love with a quartzite that was distinctive. It has a lot of movement etc... and the color was completely different from my original cream, brown, and green. I had already purchased upholstery fabrics to match too.

I had to throw out the entire color scheme and focus on colors that would harmonize with blue. My cabinets choices are now to complement the countertop and I had to buy different upholstery fabrics.

You have to look at what you want to be the focus of your kitchen. As cpartist said, is your countertop going to be spectacular or a background player.

Yes, what do you want to have as the "star" in your kitchen? In some kitchens, it's the range/hood and the tile behind it, in some it's the island, in some it's the floor, in some it's the cabinets. In my kitchen, it's the big bay window over the sink as my kitchen is too small and cut-up to have it be anything else.

Once you identify this, the rest will fall into place. ALWAYS start with the things that would be the hardest to match, i.e. easier to find a paint color for the walls or the cabinets that goes with your island, countertops or backsplash than the reverse.

Chose the thing with the least amount of selections first. That way your selections are always increasing. Nothing is worse than a customer in love with a wallpaper border and trying to go backwards to get cabinets and tops to match it.

I would pick out the one that is more important to you.

Follow your heart. Fall in love.

From what you have stated, you are not in love with any particular cabinet quite yet, so go look at countertops. Maybe you will fall in love and then your cabinets will have to march to the countertop's directive.

When I was doing my kitchen, I remember reading an article saying find one element you love and design the rest of the kitchen around it. For me, it was actually the backsplash, so I chose my cabinets and countertop to work with the tile I loved. I don't think it matters what that element is, as long as you choose things that all go together and don't feel you have to "love" each piece equally.

Is that your home or just an example. Do you have stained woodwork?

I feel in love with soapstone the first time I saw it in an historic home that remodeled with it. So, now that I am doing my kitchen remodel of my 1920s home, my countertop is soapstone. I guess you could say I picked it out 20 years ago!

Salespeople love customers who are in love, believe me.

Salespeople love customers who are in love, believe me.

Especially when they pick out one of the more expensive quartzites like I did! Sigh.

But in this case, I have one star so can cheap out on the backsplash tile. :)

For me, it was a combination of both. I knew I wanted light countertops regardless of cabinet color, either granite or quartz. I knew I really wanted white cabinets deep down but wasn't sure if it was in our budget so I also looked at stained options just in case. Before we knew pricing, we picked out our favorite quartz counter and also went to a slab yard and only saw one granite that we both liked. We did this so we could make a decision right away once we found out pricing. We figured if they were close to equal in price, we'd have to really think about which one we liked more, but if one was quite a bit cheaper we'd choose that one. Once we found out pricing we knew we could do white cabinets (with stained island) and ended up choosing the granite because it was about $1,000 cheaper and we liked both of our choices almost equally.

I would probably visit some stone yards first to see what kinds of granite/quartzite/marble you have available to you in your area -- we don't have every option available that I've seen online so that right away narrows it down a little. If a few catch your eye, take photos of them or write them down. If you fall in love with a slab...you can then determine whether you're okay with basing your cabinet selection around the stone, or you may realize that you want to keep looking because you do want those white/gray cabinets afterall and this stone wouldn't work well with painted cabinets. Going out and physically seeing the stones makes it so much easier to me -- I saw so many online that I loved but when I saw them in person I couldn't believe they were the same!