Oh Dmwbcc -- You've hit one of my hot buttons! (Look out -- Duck!) The whole 'different color cabinets / different countertops' trend got its start from the 'unfitted' kitchen look that mixed in actual pieces of furniture with traditional kitchen cabinets. This look worked beautifully in old homes with antique kitchens, in charming vintage country kitchens, or even in high-tech modern kitchens, and was a welcome change from the 'matchy-matchy' look that got to be just too much in today's huge kitchens. As the look grew in popularity and more and more people insisted on having islands, the trend morphed into having the island be different, then into 'gotta have something be different, with the whole underlying rationale having gotten lost and buried. Now everyone seems to feel they have to mix cabinets and countertops or risk being left behind... Besides, why choose only one when there are sooo many gorgeous options to choose from and it's so hard to choose? But often these mixtures fall short of our dreams, (sometimes far short) and I expect we'll see these failures very clearly in about ten years when the trend becomes passe and we ask ourselves "Why did I DO that?!..." And I think that's exactly the question we need to ask ourselves now: WHY are we doing that? If you want your island to be different from the rest of your kitchen -- -- if you want it to look like a separate piece of furniture that you bought in a quaint little antique store one weekend in the countryside (or at a chef's warehouse or found in an industrial site or whatever)-- THEN it makes sense that it wouldn't match your kitchen cabinets. The wood would be different. The top would be different. The door style would be different. It would have legs or feet or base trim. It would not look like a collection of standard kitchen cabinets in the middle of the room. And it would NOT have toe kick or (good grief!) sheetrock. Different colored uppers? Same question -- Why? Do you want it to look like a fabulous cabinet you found somewhere? Then make it look like a fabulous cabinet you found somewhere! (Or risk having it look like you bought your uppers and lowers from the 'Clearance' section of the cabinet warehouse and they didn't have enough of one color.) This is why a different color cabinet scheme usually work well on hutches -- it makes sense that a hutch would be different. Please know that this rant (yes, I admit - it's a rant) is not a wholesale attack on cabinetry islands with sheetrock and toe-kick. Or even on multi-colored kitchens. Not at all. Just one poster's strongly-stated opinion that cabinets and islands that look like kitchen cabinets in layout and design should be content to look like kitchen cabinets in finish. Kitchen cabinets are great! There's nothing wrong with kitchen cabinets, so don't try to pretend they're something that they're not. That looks fake, and 'fake' is a look that's very hard to pull off. Now butcher block on kitchen cabinets is a great look -- authentic, natural and functional. One that doesn't push the unfitted look into 'fakey-fakey' territory. There are enough functional reasons to use butcher block that it doesn't scream 'attempted unfitted look'...

Lavender, I know you've seen my kitchen (probably too many times) but I did want to chime in about having a wood counter with a sink. Our main and only sink in the kitchen is antique pine. DH just went over it with fine steel wool and Good Stuff For Wood for only the 3rd time since we built 6.5 years ago. (There is a second, small sink in the black hutch - coffee station - but we literally never use it.) No, we don't leave wet towels or sponges overnight. Or dirty dishes and glasses. I'm a clean as I go girl and DH is pretty good to get his things in the sink if not to the dish drawers. I do not regret in any way, shape or form getting wood counters. The coffee station has pine (new). Honed Golden Leaf granite is used on either side of the range and pine hutch. It's also used in the laundry room, which is off the hallway where the black hutch is located. In all, we have three counter materials, three painted finishes and one stain. (Not including the laundry room cabinets, but they are similar in color to the fridge section.) You don't have to stick with solid counters if you use more than one counter. It can be done, but has to be carefully planned. Have you ever seen wood-look concrete counters ? I am in love with them! If only I lived near New Jersey!

Got it, that makes sense. The kitchen cabinets are not fully installed yet so I don’t have a completed picture but here’s a progress update. The island has a matching shaker door, but in black (see original post for exact door), and the quartz countertop is pure white with black veining (see in original post). There are wood shelves in the island as well to break up the black and wood floors in kitchen and both sides of island. The faucet is brushed brass, the sink is white apron front, and the drawer pulls will either be brass, black, or leather. For backsplash, I was worried that tile grout might be a pain to clean, but maybe it’s not that challenging? If we went with tile, I was thinking of zellige square style / hand cut tile, perhaps dry stacked (maybe white, maybe a bold color?!) . I’m happy to wait on this part, but I just know that these tiles can take weeks/months to arrive so trying to get ahead of that.

What did you decide to do? I’m in exactly the same situation!