I just saw a photo in a book showing cabinets in a rich shade with black knobs. I don't know whether the knobs were painted or stained, but in any case, they had a nice sheen to them, and they weren't too clunky - their dimensions fit the overall size and shape of the cabinets in a very graceful way. I thought the overall look was very elegant. Like farmchic says, though, either black or ORB would probably be fine. And anyway, worse comes to worse, and in the longer run you're not sure your choice is the best one for resale, you can always buy new hardware if you think it's necesary.

Hi boxerpups, I'm glad you like them. I do think they would look nice in your space. I love that they are pretty without being too overwhelming. They are nice and small... which I had a hard time finding something I liked (with the right price because we needed 5). Since we were putting them up in multiple, I didn't want something too big. They are a dark bronze, which I think blends nicely with our dark grayish/black counters. I'm sure you could spray paint them with a matte black if you wanted them to be a true black. Luckily at $19, you could test one. Here is photo of the pendants as they came originally... the original shades were a bit bigger in diameter. The clear glass shades I ended up swapping were also from Lowes for $3. If I remember correctly, they may have been in the section with the glass bathroom shades (on the same aisle as the rest of the lights at our Lowes).

This is what I had originally wanted too. I decided to use one counter top in the whole kitchen because of the two different cabinet colors. A few different people suggested one color counter top. I will post pics in a month when I have my cabinets in!

If you don't want stainless, don't get it. Don't get talked into something you'll regret later. The brown Blanco silgranits I've seen are GORGEOUS! The brown is rich, deep and yummy. Again, I think it would work with what you describe. Can you take a sample of the Ceasarstone and paint to a plumbing supply showroom to look at it in person? Or you could call/email Blanco for a sample of their darker silgranit. I did that, and samples came very quickly. The samples are small, but at least you have a hands-on visual to show GC. I had a white sink before demo. They are classically beautiful. I loved it, but it got scratched over the years and my water here leaves orangey/brown marks around the sink-mounted faucet. Undermount would have alleviated that problem for me. Still, it showed dirt and any little gray surface mark all the time. For a while, I scrubbed it every night. Now with the little kids, I don't have the energy to do that. A dark silgranit sink won't show all that stuff! Someone here wrote that they actually had to REMIND themselves to clean the sink because you couldn't see the gunk! Hey, maybe GC says to do stainless because he's never done silgranit before!