Both of the images you shared are lovely. I think it comes down to your own personal taste. The all white example is light, clean and contemporary but not sterile. The sample of the dark island looks more traditional, but not because it is dark in my opinion but the details, such as turned legs, what looks like a marble-style counter (thought it may not be marble and marble can be contemporary too!), panels above the stove and the decorative accents. You could do a dark stain island which can read as traditional, but consider all the new kitchens with the "espresso" very dark chocolate stain. You could also paint the island black or choose a natural finish island - walnut if you like dark, maple or birch if you like light, cherry if you like reddish. You need to decide if a finish or the cabinet style makes something more contemporary to you. I have a white island and natural red birch perimeters. I wanted light and contemporary, but a nod towards the period of the house (turn of the century.) This is what I see from my "eyes" but imagine others might see it differently. Good luck.

Yknow, IMHO, I wish we all could drop the "D" word from our vocabulary. If we love it , if its well made, if its functional - then a place can be found for it, period. In other words - your china cab is just fine, and it does look good on the side rather than viewed head on. That said of course we like our rooms freshened up now and then - but I think you can jazz it up in other ways incl choosing a new color ILOVE greens/browns/tans, but the pea soup color Im kind of tired of. (or so it looks on my monitor anyway, which has been known to be wrong.) Definitely think about going deeper richer. Dont know if Penny's or Anglo's deep dark colors are good for you but it gives you an idea at least of what deeper/richer could do for you. If all else fails maybe you could just take the living room color and just go a few steps darker/more intense with it. Let the DR be cozy and intimate complete w/ a big china cabinet - why not? The DR should relate well to the LR, and that would be one way of doing it. Minor quibble - I would think about that wall space where the china cab was - is there a third pic that could fit in there? With cabinet moved, that wall becomes very significant. Not liking just the two pics , needs to be 3 I think..... Or some other wall decor or arrangement .... minor thing, so perhaps just wait for the inspiration or right thing to come along.

I have dark kitchen cabinet uppers, lowers, and island (maple stained charcoal grey/brown) and a fairly dark granite. However, my floors are light light cream/grey/beige, my walls are white, and we have lots of natural light (one wall is a multi-slider solid glass, 3 windows, 6 can lights, 2 pendant lights, and under cabinet lights). It still reads a bit dark. Also, grey can become very drab. We are balancing it by adding a warm cream island wrap (back half is white sheet rock) and a warm brick-look backslash (also fairly dark). We’re happy with the overall look but it’s certainly not a “light and bright” kitchen. Sorry no updates pictures but here are the elements.

Here's the SW Simple White in a room without a lot of natural light (and in this photo no additional lighting yet installed). The window in this room is NW facing and the photo was taken around 1:30pm. On the far left edge of the photo is the door trim in SW Pure White for reference.