One of my artist friends painted his kitch cabs satin black, then refaced the doors (inside the trim) with bird's eye maple veneer. He finished it off with protective polyurethane. It was gorgeous! I think life is too short to not have at least some of what we want if it's within our means. Go for it! Can you do something with the doors you have without replacing them? Got a picture of your cabs you can post for us?

Hi. Here's a link that might help. There are a few threads about this, do a search in google for: white uppers dark lowers, mixing cabinets, mixing finishes. Boxerpups has posted many photos in all styes, transitional, modern, traditional, rustic. I'm doing this too. good luck :) Here is a link that might be useful: mixing light uppers...

I'm interested in this as well, looking to door white uppers with stained lowers in my new build. I have an open floor plan, but small house overall. I agree that the lighter cabinets should be on top. I think it gets tricky when you add full length pieces, like a tall pantry or fridge surround. Here is my inspiration pic where I think the two tone look works really well And then this one which is a little more modern than I'm looking for, but gorgeous nonetheless

I love my two tone. I like stained wood but didn't want to feel surrounded by brown. I like things a bit mismatchy and seemed like a good fit in my older home. I did the tall cabinets white like the uppers so that everything at eye-level is the same color. Especially because the tall cabinets are right at the entrance to my kitchen (seemed like it would feel too "in-your-face" to have the wood there). I prefer two tone kitchens with the tall cabinets matched to the uppers rather than lowers, but I don't think it's terrible to match the lowers. You can find pics of kitchens done either way. Agree to do a little contrast with the wood floor so it doesn't all blend with the lower cabinets. My kitchen floor was stained to match the rest of the house (IMO it's more red than I'd like, trying to tone it down with the rug), so I did lighter cabinets. I think it would be too much for the floor and cabinets to blend together.