Both of the images you shared are lovely. I think it comes down to your own personal taste. The all white example is light, clean and contemporary but not sterile. The sample of the dark island looks more traditional, but not because it is dark in my opinion but the details, such as turned legs, what looks like a marble-style counter (thought it may not be marble and marble can be contemporary too!), panels above the stove and the decorative accents. You could do a dark stain island which can read as traditional, but consider all the new kitchens with the "espresso" very dark chocolate stain. You could also paint the island black or choose a natural finish island - walnut if you like dark, maple or birch if you like light, cherry if you like reddish. You need to decide if a finish or the cabinet style makes something more contemporary to you. I have a white island and natural red birch perimeters. I wanted light and contemporary, but a nod towards the period of the house (turn of the century.) This is what I see from my "eyes" but imagine others might see it differently. Good luck.

How exciting that you're building a new home! Congrats! What sort of style/feel are you gravitating towards? Warm or cool? Modern, traditional, rustic, etc.? There is so much more to cabinets than just colors. There are also finishes and styles. For example, gray rustic kitchen cabinets look very different from gray contemporary kitchen cabinets. Usually when people don't mention the style they're thinking in a traditional style sense, so I'll take a guess that you're coming from that angle. With a lot of natural lighting, you can get away with having darker kitchen cabinets and still having a kitchen that feels open and bright. In my opinion, light countertops look best with dark brown cabinets.

You may also find it helpful to consider paint colour from a different perspective. Every grey paint is a knocked-back, greyed-out child colour of an identifiable, fully saturated Hue Parent. That information alone gives you useful detail about a colour. Knowing where within that Hue Family a colour sits can also give you an idea if you are potentially dealing with a colour which may hint more peachy or more greenish for example. And thirdly all the colours you mention are near neutrals and therfore far more susceptible to changes in light quality than their more saturated relatives. All have the potential to shift colour in imbalanced lighting. In order to know how each will behave it’s important to test carefully in your space with your light. See the Colorography Lab at The Land of Color for further info on some of these colours key attributes, so that you might be able to filter out some possibilities before sampling.

For the flooring, you can work with a STONE LOOK or a TILE LOOK vinyl. Not an issue. That means you do NOT have to worry about fake wood against real wood. Please, please, please REMOVE the tile before you put in a vinyl floor. PLEASE! Vinyl, like all rigid floors, requires 'flat' and level. Your tiles are NOT flat. They have grout lines. Those lines remove your 'flat' surface and turn it into a roller coaster ride. If you leave the tiles in place, you MUST have them coated (at least the grout lines filled) to get the 'flat'. Here's the breakdown for costs: A. $2/sf to remove old tile OR, B. $2/sf to grind surface, prime, fill grout lines Either way, you need to spend $2/sf to deal with your existing tile. If you get rid of it today, you NEVER have to deal with it ever again. If you COAT it today, you still have to deal with it TOMORROW. Sigh. And that's another $2-$3/sf you need to spend at a later date. The other issue I worry about....lost value. The tile you have right now is (looks to be porcelain) a high-end Versailles Pattern. That's a floor with an inherent value of (roughly) $18/sf. A replacement vinyl floor is worth the cost of the material = $3-$5/sf. I know this is a refresh of your current space. I get that. I know you wanted hardwood but that fell out because of overall costs and the other hardwoods do not need refinishing. I get that. Please remove the tiles before adding anything else. I know you were told the vinyl could go over top. Technically ANYTHING can go over top of ANYTHING ELSE....but it's not 'best practice'. You will not be able to salvage the tiles. They must be coated in cement. They will be void of value. And if they DO NOT coat them in concrete...you run the risk of your Versailles pattern showing through (telegraphing) to the surface of the new vinyl. We've seen it. It is horrible. No one likes it and it just gets everyone upset. Please ask your builder what they have in mind for the tiles. Listen for 'we'll coat them in cement'. If you don't hear it....it ain't happening. Guaranteed.