There was recently a poster in the kitchen forum who did white cabs with different shades of brown paint--darker in the kitchen and lighter in the family room. I know you said you have oak, but you should take a look... Stunning! Can anyone point this poster in the right direction? In fact someone here linked it to the decorating forum not too long ago. One more suggestion--on the gallery section of this forum there is a thread called taupes and browns. There are a lot of different colors on that thread. Good luck!

I can't speak to the issue of refacing vs replacing, but I did want to say that I am at the last 5% of a total kitchen renovation done through Kitchen Solvers. They've been absolutely wonderful to work with. They are very knowledgeable , pay good attention to detail, and have been able to do as much or as little as I want. They have their own flooring, drywall, granite, etc people, but will let me use others if I have a preference (we have a painter we really like, for example). I could have even just bought their design and used my own cabinetmaker (I didn't). They've done designs or total renovations for 2 of my friends too, both of whom were very happy with them.

Oh no the sparkle is definitely very subtle. In the 9x13 sample I have there are only a few of those sparkly flecks so its not very noticeable really unless the light hits it right. It’s not at all like those other “sparkle” quartzes. I had my heart set on it was so sad when I discovered it’s more off-white 😢 the Stonemark I assume is the same as the MSI Perla White (I feel like stonemark and msi must be the same company?) and I considered that too but up close it was just too cloudy looking, imo.

Same thing happened to me. Now I am trying to decide between Monaco, Valentin and Prado. The background of Valentin and Prado are almost exactly the same color as my cabinets (creamy white) but Monaco is a little greyer. I don't know whether I should try to make it match or not. I am so overwhelmed.