Hi! I am a huge fan of just the island a darker/ different color! I’m not sure of the dimensions of your space but lighter, taller cabinets will open up your space and it will feel much bigger. A darker island will give it a lot of depth, contrast and a focal point of your kitchen! Your renderings are gorgeous! Love the kitty lol.

I also only like the island in a different color. However, I don't think the cold gray color goes with the warmth of the wood floor. Is there another color besides gray? Navy, a darker wood?

I’m not a fan of all gray kitchens, but I do like your renderings with the gray island. I also like the gray lowers and white uppers.

Re: dust, dirt, scratches. I have white and navy cabinets. White will show splashes of any sort — coffee, wine, tomato sauce, etc. I am thankful for that because I know where I need to spot clean. Dark cabinets will show dust and fingerprints. I am constantly wiping my dark cabinets in high touch areas (appliance pulls, appliance garage, and any cabinet baseboards). Scratches are also more visible on dark cabinets.

@Jamie Reynolds Zone 9b Thanks! these are renderings from the KD I am working with - he knows we are a multi-pet household. I agree with everything you said about using gray for the island to give depth and focus. One of the reasons we are thinking gray for the other base cabinets, frankly, is because if someone leaves a substance that shouldn't be left on a cabinet, that we think the gray might better hide any permanent stain. For example, we went with a soft white cabinetry in our bathroom four years ago, and there are make-up stains that I can't get off the cabinetry from when my teen and her friends were experimenting with makeup. Pink, red, etc. stick out on the white cabinetry. So I guess I'm thinking of all the other stuff that could be spilled in a kitchen that no one else seems interested in immediately wiping up... spaghetti sauce, ketchup, mustard, soda, gravy, etc. and thinking that since I can't be there 24x7 to supervise kitchen use - getting gray on perimeters might help hide any disasters that can't be easily removed, more so than white. Of course, conversely, since my teen likes baking too - it means that whenever she is making food with flour, breadcrumbs, etc - I'm going to be MORE likely to eventually see it on the gray cabinetry than the white. Argh!

@Design Girl So far, the only finishes I can get my entire family (yes, of just three humans) to agree on is this Cadet gray, and a Cotton white. We've looked at everything in Home Depot, Lowes, several other independent kitchen stores, for a total of about 20-25 lines of cabinetry. Since we are limiting to stained (not painted) finishes, there's only so many colors to go with unless we were spending far more for super-custom cabinetry (such as Plain & Fancy, which is out of budget). It's been a real exercise in frustration - No paint, no browns, etc.

@megs1030 In our household, not everyone is quick to clean up a mess. I mean, literally, I can find pepsi-cola stains on the ceiling.

In terms of kitchen cleaning, everyone feels fine making a mess, but I'd say I end up cleaning about 80% of it, my teen cleans up about 18% of it, and my boyfriend will clean up maybe 2% of it, and for him, it's mostly under extreme duress. I remember his previous car, he had a can of cola explode and it left stains on the interior of the roof of his car. He left it there for YEARS (like 6 or 7 years), only attempting to clean those stains up when he was going to trade his car in to get a new car.

I agree that the benefit of a light color cabinet is that spills etc will be easier to spot - but my worry is that by the time *I* see them, they will be SET in stains - like the stains that are in my white, 4-year-old bathroom cabinets, courtesy of teenage girls playing with make-up.

I have no problem with having the uppers being white - those are less likely to have stains dropped on them. But I can easily envision all kinds of stuff being spilled on the base cabinets and left for me to clean up at a future moment. I'm thinking of stuff I've seen spilled (and left behind) on our current kitchen base cabinets - cooking oil, butter, margarine, lard, various kinds of dough, blood drippings from various meats, canned cat food, tomato/spaghetti sauce, etc.- you get the idea. We all run kind of different schedules in our house - one is up from 4 am to 7 pm, I'm up from 5 am to 10-11 pm, and my teen is usually up from 8 am until 11-12 pm. Meaning messes made in the kitchen before I'm up, or after I've gone to bed - tend to stay there until I see them.

Of course, I could ask to buy a pint or quart of the Cotton white stain, so that IF something does stain a base cabinet, that I can at least try to touch it up somehow.... so there's that as a thought.

Would it look weird to have the bench and the island in Cadet gray, and everything else in Cotton white?

Have you thought about maybe just a woody dark oak stain? I know with the white it might feel more farmhouse than modern, but it might be a happy-medium with concealing spills.

I’m a fan of two tone (uppers different from lowers) but a lot of people say it’s trendy so I don’t know if you’ll end up with a consensus here. The cadet grey is nice but I do worry it might end up looking dark, especially with cabinets to the ceiling and little natural light. Good luck!

Here are some pics of what I’m talking about! The first one is most relevant with the gray cabinets. I personally love the one with the green island, that’s what I’m doing when I’m due for a remodel.

The fact that your renderings include a cat is adorable.

I love the cadet grey all over. You could bring in some brightness by playing with color and reflective/shiny surfaces in the backsplash, appliances, and accessories. I notice your inspiration photo has shiny stainless appliances, lime green placemats and blue glass. These are good ways to give lightness to a grey space. Orange, Yellow, red, and lavender are also good colors to brighten up grey (choose one or two or don't choose and just let your favorite bright colors find their way into the space in whatever amount feels natural over time).

The glass door uppers you are planning on will be awesome for bouncing light around the room. Can the insides be painted with a white wash like the soft white cabinets? That could be nice, though it isn't necessary. I'd definitely put lights inside of those cabinets.

I notice that you don't have a backsplash tile on your rendering. Might just be the render, but it's worth mentioning that with a messy teenager cooking, some kind of backsplash will be your friend. Glass tile is expensive so without knowing your budget I won't suggest it for the whole backsplash, but you could do a small feature wall of glass tile behind the oven to bounce the light around on that side of the room. It could be the same color as your backsplash, a grey like your cabinets, or a completely different color. Whichever way you go on color, the finish of glass will be a nice contrast to the finish of grey stained wood. Large format tiles seem to be in fashion, so if that's your jam, good news! They make large format glass tiles! Or, you could go the opposite direction and do a 2-3" glass lantern or hex to really stand out. Whatever you do for backsplash, I would not do a matte finish. Same with your countertops. It will make the whole room look too flat.

Another thing I don't see in your renderings, but I do see in your inspiration is light. Every counter surface and every walkway needs some amount of direct lighting and you need good light diffusion so that you can see into your cabinets well. You may already have this figured out and just not showing in the rendering - just wanted to be sure it was mentioned (it may also be making your renderings look darker than the reality will).

@Kate Hip I definitely plan on having a backsplash. If I can afford it, I'll want to have solid surface (granite or quartz) running up the wall especially near the stove. Cleaning stains out of grout can be a real pain too, so the fewer grout lines, the better. And yes, lots of lighting. I hate rooms with inadequate light, even more so now that I'm in my late 50's.