I'm building also and I'll have a gray island and white painted cabinets on the perimeter. I usually see a darker color on the island and lighter on the perimeter. I don't know if hast to be that way. Another option would be to have stained on the base cabinets and white wall cabinets. I see that a lot also.

There's nothing wrong with mixing & having your island a different colour than the rest of the kitchen. Of course, you want to pick a complimentary colour. Although, most of my jobs are painted, I often see the island a dark colour or shade. I've done a few in natural cherry with a med-dark blue for the island cabinetry & then found a countertop which pulled both the colour of the cherry as well as the blue in the island.

Your KD is the one who can next help

hou with strategies to lower the cost of your project. I would suggest looking for cuts in other areas that can allow you to keep your kitchen at the level

that you want. Kitchens are pretty important!

IMO your kitchen is the last spot to save money and not get what you love. Have you checked out Ikea for decently priced cabinets that IMO are better quality than cheap cabinets from other sources. I do a lot of Ikea kitchens in all sorts of homes many that are high end but the clients are just not into spending 75K to do a kitchen. These are 2 Ikea kitchens that show how nice they can be in a very sensible budgets. The red one was less than 10K for the all the cabinets and counter tops including the sink and faucet. I spent more money on appliances since I run a catering biz .The gray one with the red wall was about the same price but included new flooring ans shows a before and after

BTW you need an actual KD not a cabinet salesperson