Thanks for the post, skmueller. So you are doing dark cabinets, but not as dark as the floor? I was thinking this might work in our case as well. Our flooring is verging on black, but there is dark brown tones in there and I thought we may be able to do our cabs that color. Do you have a picture that is similar to what you plan to do? I've been trying to find some good pictures showing a very dark wood floor with cabinets that are slightly lighter than the floor...not finding many. To go darker then our floor we'd basically have to do black, which is why we were thinking of doing white uppers. Personally, I'd like to do a very dark stain on all the cabs. Nothing against white paint, but it bothers me a bit that we'd be covering up the grain of the maple cabinets. If possible I think I'd still like to do all dark cabs with light paint, backsplash, and countertops.

I'm not sure how dark that granite is. From one picture on the web, it looked kind of medium colored. We have a fairly dark granite backsplash and really like it. Our cabinets are natural cherry so they aren't dark. We really like it and we don't find that it makes the kitchen dark. It is less than 18" of the 8' wall height. We did it partly for easy maintenance (no grout), partly because we really like our granite and this features it more, and partly because we liked the continuity. We also used the granite for the window sill and the pass through shelf outside the kitchen (this picture has the temporary black wallplate, I don't have one taken showing the shelf taken after we put in the granite wallplate covers):

As a home shopper, there are some things I am so tired of. Grey. Just do not. I love the white cabinets instead of wood, but never, never vessel sinks. Medium brown floors, I've had the darker shades and it doesn't work with dogs. I have other things to do with my life than Swiffering twice a day. I like the new ribbed wall-to-wall carpets with a high ceiling, I'm tired of hearing echoes. I despise wall tile in the kitchen that runs horizontally, that reads 10 years old to me. I'm not liking the oversized subway tile with the dark grout, too trendy. For the same reason I won't even tour houses with the grey bleached wood floors. I like the white marble tile look in bathrooms, I think it's timeless. I prefer a subtle granite to quartz. I like light and bright. I'm actually incredibly picky about the flooring. I like tile that looks like medium wood, or engineered wood that has some texture. But I'll take a high quality carpet over a bad engineered wood floor any day. And any time I see a free standing Tub like the one you used, I pass. Too hard to clean behind and dangerous to climb in and out of, and I know that from experience.

Please don’t paint the cabinets!! They look gorgeous and modern. We are building and I chose espresso cabinets and white quartz counters. Contrast makes a house look nice IMO.