Stainless reflects it’s surroundings. Which is why it is a true neutral. If you want stainless counters, that would be a great choice. But not gray lifeless non reflective counters.

Walnut can be cool . Any wood has warmth because it has life but grain within the overall can lend a "cooled down" feel . Walnut is one that straddles cool/warm unless the stain you picked has done something. How about find a counter you like very much.

I don’t have walnut cabinets, but I do have a lot of warm toned walnut in my kitchen (it’s all finished with Waterlox) and steel grey leathered counters and a grey island, ss and grey appliances. I love how the warm walnut looks with the grey. Anyways, I thought I’d post a couple of pictures so you can see how they look tougher. Hope it helps you!

Oh dang... I didn’t look at your user name before I posted... you’ve seen my kitchen before. Sorry about hogging space on your post mittenscat. LOL!

Great question - the same problem has been tormenting me. I scoured the earth for a "warm" granite or quartz to harmonize with existing cabinets, but I couldn't love (or even like) any of them. Apparently I'm more of a "cool" person. We just found a light-colored granite with blue/gray swirls that is so gorgeous, I truly don't care about dueling warm/cool tones. I'm sure I'll second-guess myself after it's been installed because I'm cursed with a second-guessing nature, but I know in the end I'll be happier that I chose colors I love.

herbflavor, I worked with our cabinet guy to get just the right barely-there stain to bring out the warm tones in our walnut, so yeah, it's on the warm side!

GreenDesign, my brain definitely registers "BRRRR! CHILLY!" when I look at stainless steel.

Pam A, that is one gorgeous counter. What is it?

skmom, that walnut waterfall is a thing of DREAMS! So yummy! Beautiful kitchen and you cracked me up about "hogging" the thread. I probably had seen your pics before but it was very helpful to see them again (since who can remember anything after 1,000 Houzz photos?!). :)

catilesl, I keep thinking my second-guessing (and third- and fourth-guessing) will come to an end at some point. Alas! :-D Please tell me what is this blue swirly wonder you've discovered??

Sometimes things you like individually don't work well together. I like guacamole.. I like cookies. I don't dip my cookies in the guac though.

In addition to the color tones, you have the busyness to consider. There's a lot going on with the grain of walnut cabinets a plain or simple counter will probably be a better choice to an equally busy counter.

White or marble/marble looking quartz would be fine with walnut.

Wow, weird that you'd mention the guac-cookie combo because I actually do that (as long as there are no onions nor tomatoes in the guac--ugh!). Speaking of warm + cool, I also like a splash of hot sauce on vanilla ice cream.

I should have mentioned: I prefer natural stone to quartz and have been increasingly interested in quartzite.

Thanks, MC. My counter is Blue Ocean Quartzite in a honed finish. This is where I bought it:

http://www.cbsstones.com/products/Blue-Ocean-Honed-3CM/688/Location

You may be able to find a stone that mixes blue and warmer tones, here is one:

http://www.cbsstones.com/products/Aurora-Blue-Leathered-3CM/517/Location

So far, it has been bullet-proof. At first we babied it, but in the last couple weeks I've done shameful things like leaving a french press on the counter with a drip of coffee under it (a ring) all night. It wiped right up. We pan-saute, we use spices, and our drop-zone is made from this same material. For something so soft and serene looking - it stands up to some challenges (oil, intense color, and mechanical damage). I hope you find something you LOVE and that it makes your walnut cabinets sing.

My "swirly wonder" is New White Spring, which seems to have more blue hints than (old) White Spring(s) pictures I've seen. It makes me think of a Van Gogh painting. Yum. If you like quartzite, I saw a slab of Moroccan Night, maybe a.k.a. Maragogi, that almost made me weep because it was so gorgeous. It looked like dusk with a rosy undertone, which makes it warm without being orange or brown. Not that there's anything wrong with orange or brown, but they're not my cup of guacamole.

LOL!!!! :-D

Stainless steel wonderfully pairs with wood. We have natural and silvered eucalyptus, and they nicely match our countertops.

I love walnut and white together why not just a simple white counter and an interesting backsplash.

M! I have been staring at a sample of eucalyptus veneer for the past few weeks and I'm loving it. Wondering how it holds up, though, since I couldn't find much info on it. It's definitely more silvery than our warm honey-hued walnut, so I can see why it goes so well with stainless. What ARE your countertops, btw? Very cool! Thanks.

Patricia Colwell Consulting, "Walnut + White + Bit O' Color Backsplash" was my aim for the past many months and it's probably still Plan A. But at some point I got hungry for something a bit more unique. I think I'm back to the white and walnut plan, mainly because I think a slab of gorgeous blue quartzite or whatever is a little bit wasted on a horizontal surface (countertop). I think best bet at this point is to get a piece of nature's art, say 4' x 8', and mount it on our large fireplace wall so I can stare at it lovingly for the rest of my days... I would consider using it for a backsplash, too, but I think it's a bit too busy?

Most veneers should hold up about the same. They're just a thin layer between the base material and the varnish.

Eucalyptus looks amazing. I really love it. I find it's impossible to photograph though. That's probably partially because it changes color so much depending on light in the room and angle that you look at. The natural one doesn't really look grey. But at times it looks almost orange and at other times almost purple. It's so fun to see it change.

The silvered eucalyptus doesn't change as much. But it still varies between a cool greyish brown and a more warm saturated brown.

Our counters are stainless steel on apple ply. Love the detail.

The backsplash is a solid piece of light grey Dekton. We love the clean look

@M, I so wish I'd seen this back when you posted it in June!!! I ended up playing it safe and going with walnut veneer for my master bath vanity...yet I continue to stare wistfully at my eucalyptus sample! I just may frame the thing and add it to my Wall of Lovely Things (remnants of all the natural stone and other bits I couldn't afford!). LOL.

Also, in your middle photo, I love how you bridged that upper span between white cabinets and the eucalyptus cabinets! Is that your countertop material up there? We also had to do an uneven top edge line of cabinetry (thanks to an odd beam) and I may borrow this idea if the asymmetry makes me nuts once installed.

Not sure if you made decisions yet but here is our walnut cabinets with stainless steel. The steel definitely picks up the warm tones I think.

Thanks. We ended up going with a warm stain on the walnut (which turned out a tad too yellow, ack) and we're most likely going with white quartz counters (Zzzz). The cabinets are still in a warehouse somewhere, awaiting install.

I say get what you love... I hate when everything is too matchy

Also, in your middle photo, I love how you bridged that upper span between white cabinets and the eucalyptus cabinets! Is that your countertop material up there?

Ah yes, that was a big last-minute change. We had originally planned on having Neolith countertops and we weren't quite decided on the backsplash, but backpainted glass was a distinct possibility.

This all fell apart, when people reported that Neolith stopped responding to complaints about cracks and chips. They simply fell quiet on Houzz for over a year, I think. We panicked and switched to stainless steel for the countertops. We're actually really happy with this choice. Goes well with the modern and functional look we were going for, and matches the eucalyptus material really well. But it messed up our plans for the backsplash.

After much running around to different showrooms, we decided on Dekton for the backsplash. The light grey color is a wonderful complement to the rest of our materials, the single big slab gives us a really clean look, and I am less worried using a sintered material on the wall rather than on the counters. No risk of chips, and hopefully very little risk of cracks. It's a pretty thick material, so that should help, too.

Our contractor cursed though having to drill the holes for the pot filler. The big hole was done by the fabricator, but not the four small screw holes. Eventually, the contractor had to call back the fabricator for those small holes. This material is really tough.

@M..

Beautiful cabinets. I have a question about your coffee pot, or is that a tea kettle? Would you mind sharing the brand?

What a good eye!

It's a Bosch TWK8611P water kettle. It's super fast. But it only sells in Europe and it needs a 240V outlet. So, this might not be an option for you.