Are you building or renovating? What do the adjacent rooms look like? What type/intensity of lighting do you have? There are so many variables, including personal taste, which will have a role in your decision making. There is no one right answer.

It’s a new build. So once we decide our kitchen we’ll decide the rest including lighting.

IMO your style overall is a major player in the decision....what is your style?

How much natural light will there be in your kitchen?

When you're talking about a light or dark kitchen, am I correct in understanding you're referring to the colour of the cabinets? A kitchen should always be "light-filled", regardless of the cabinet colour. The lighting plan shouldn't be the last consideration in your building plans and natural light needs to be taken into account. Have you collected more than the two pics you posted for inspiration? Does your collection skew more towards light coloured cabinets or dark ones? Count them and analyze the colour/light balance in your favourite pics: e.g. "dark" cabinets but light elements everywhere else; white cabinets but a "dark" island, etc. Analyzing the play (or mix) of light and dark materials might be the key in helping you figure out your preference. The choice is never just the colour of the cabinets. Have you made a pros and cons list of each cabinet option and considered the upkeep for each? Are the materials the same? You might want to search this forum and read other users' experience when deciding on a new build. As others have said, there is no right or wrong answer but there might be a best option for YOU in your new build.

Please get a kitchen designer now and I don’t mean a cabinet sales person or you architect but an independent KD . I love white high gloss cabinets mixed with walnut ones but we need to know your style. I went to your idea books and you really can’t decide.If you decide to go dark please do not do espresso colored cabinets they are dated and almost always cheap Chinese crap.

wood cabinets : and what is wrong with medium stain shade? then light counters and backsplash. but if you gravitate to darker stain...as long as space is not really small, you can layer those contrasting light counters and backsplash against the dark wood if you want. Get a medium toned hardwood floor....a couple shades lighter than the darker cabinets you select.

Darker stained cabinets. White is so overdone now.

I disagree with vinmarks. White cabinets have been in kitchens for 150 years. People who like wood cabinets often say "white is overdone" to be deprecating, rather than just saying "I prefer wood cabinets for these reasons...."

To the OP, a lot of this decision depends on what natural light you have as has been mentioned, what kind of windows, and how high are the ceilings, and if 9' high or taller are you going to be stacking cabinets, or what will you be doing.

If you go for wood, I think the wood you pictured in your OP is dated. The more natural wood look, whether light or dark, is current rather than a faux stain. Also, as Spaces Into Places mentioned, you can do a combo of wood and white. Here are some inspiration pics (I know they are very grand, but they give ideas):

Some architectural styles lend themselves to a stained kitchen more so than others so I would start there and also take into consideration the orientation of the kitchen windows and the number of gray days that you have. You need to think through the lighting and windows first so that you don't end up in a situation where you often have to turn on the lights. Think about what you really like - warm and cozy or light and bright. I like walking into my east facing white kitchen in the morning.

And, I like walking into my warm, stained wood kitchen any time of day. The beautiful graining of wood, makes my heart sing.

Layers of lighting makes for a bright warm kitchen, even in nighttime. Click to enlarge.

Thank you everybody for the comments, helpful critiques, advice and pictures. I really appreciate hearing the good & bad. The white kitchen in the picture is actually a model of our kitchen. We went with the same amount of windows and lightening. So as for lighting it should look very similar to the picture of white kitchen as well as the same layout.

How much do you use your kitchen for cooking? How many people at a time? How intricate of preps?

A white (or very light) kitchen will provide much more even light and fewer shadows across all surfaces making it much nicer to work in. A darker kitchen requires a lot more light in general (typically 2x to 3x lumens), many more source points of light, and more care in lighting design to achieve good results. This is why commercial kitchens and residential kitchens of more serious cooks will almost always be some variation of white on all surfaces above counter height..

If your kitchen is mostly for show and hanging around in with only light cooking then go with whatever you prefer. If you do a lot of cooking or baking and you want to go darker, especially above counter height then pay extra attention to your lighting design.

Also, how long do you plan to stay in this house and how old will you and your eyes be then?

this is a no brainer. Do both. white cabs w/dark island.

or, do a darker wood floor, all white cabs, and darker wood butcher block.

or, do darker lowers and white uppers.

if you go with darker stained floors, I'd do the white.

if you want more natural, French Oak type of flooring, then do the darker island and wood trim on the hood.

Personally I love the white oak island and white cabinets. do a more natural white oak floor

these pics are all combos of what I mentioned. see if you like any

this is white oak island, french oak flooring, White cabinets, and Silestone black quartz.

two tone. this is white oak, but if you want darker use a darker stain (or choose walnut)

darker accents.

darker stained floors, chunky medium stained oak island

Making those stacked uppers glass-front doors with intra-cabinet lighting would add dimension and light regardless of what cabinetry color you chose. One of the best resources I've found for non-standard colors and unique kitchen elements is an online magazine run by a lady named Jane who went by @rococogurl when she was active here at Houzz. You can read more about here here. This woman has been a managing editor of some major interiors publications throughout her career, and this website was her hobby project to collect all her favorites. You will undoubtedly find some inspiration there if you have time to browse the kitchen section: https://www.atticmag.com/category/kit/

My favorite kitchen ever was just west of London and was mostly medium green and dark green. I loved being in and eating in that kitchen. The woman who owned it said that preparing simple stuff wasn't a problem but more complicated meals needed more light than she had.

Go with the white. If you don't like it, wear sunglasses . . . any shade.

M Miller, I'll revise my original post. The white kitchen the OP shows is over done. It looks like the many white kitchens we keep seeng on here. White cabinets are timeless. Its the rest of the stuff used with the white cabinets that are overdone.

White. Your inspiration photo is gorgeous. It's a kitchen not a troll cave.

We did Maritime White with medium stained cherry butcher block counters on the side cabinets and cherry floor. We love it. A nice combo of the two.

Do you like a house filled with natural light? Or do you like to be in a dark house with the lights always on?

The white kitchen in the picture is actually a model of our kitchen.

It appears, from the photo, that there isn't a window inside the kitchen itself, just in adjacent rooms. Is that correct?

If that's the case, and if your architectural style supports it, then go with lighter cabinets (light stain, white, sky blue, whatever). :-D

We did two tone, navy blue lowers and white uppers!

I had white cabinets in our old house and they always seem dirty around the knobs and pulls and overall door from the kids touching them with dirty fingers. It was driving me crazy! When we moved in 2016, I made sure to have stained cabinets in the kitchen.

I'm not a professional but just my opinion is the wood cabinets. They look classical and cozy. White always looks institutional to me.