[Traditional Kitchen[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2107) by Putney Design-Build Firms Kenzer Furniture

I'm with you Wendy on loving the warmth of wood, though I personally wouldn't paint any of my kitchen cabinets just because it's trendy. With that being said, if you do want to paint them have you thought about painting one area top and bottom and giving it the look of a painted buffet and hutch?
I couldn't find one exactly like I like, but here's a mock up that should give you an idea of what I mean. Only in real life I think I'd still keep the hardware matching.

Another idea, though this is all painted so you have to imagine some of it being stained, would be to mix the paint in something like this.

I think there are a variety of ways to combine 2 different finishes in a kitchen, but the most successful IMO are the ones where the darker finish is on base cabinets, and the lighter finish is on upper cabinets..

I've seen more kitchens show up in Europe that have the wood on the uppers and paint/lighter on the lowers.

Remember when the darker paint color was used below the chair rail and the lighter color above? Seems that that rule has been completely broken now.

Here is my old kitchen.
it was spray painted and maghony wood.
loved it. The new owners have spray painted the creamy yellow white. it is also beautiful.

I mixed wood and white when we built our home 10 years ago. Some people like it; others do not (my previous neighbour asked me if I "did that on purpose?").

Here is an old picture I had on my photobucket :

The kitchen is open to the dining area, and I have cabinets there as well:

These pictures are several years old, so some of my décor has changed. I'm also one of those people that actually like oak - I know it is not considered fashionable.

Carrie

Carrie, Im in Iceland and your kitchen could easily pass as one from my world.

Svava, by what I've seen of your current home, which is beautiful by the way, I see very much a Swedish influence. Is that true? Or is it the other way around? Ofcourse I've never been lucky enough to travel to Iceland or Sweden, so I'm only going by what I see.

Hi Becky, the new house is very danish modern but the old one was mix of modern and tradisional.

I thought the new one was very modern. So different than what you see in the US. At least the parts I've lived in. I love your home. Your last home looks more modern than many I've seen too though not the danish influence.

We recently redid our kitchen and did the upper cabinets in a medium-dark stain and the lower cabinets in a cream/white milk paint. We also converted seven of the upper cabinets to window cabinets, which helps blend the two since some of the dishes showing through are also a creamy white; and we used the same new stainless steel cabinet pulls across all the cabinets, which helps pull things together too. We ended up liking the result even more than we thought we would! The upper cabinets have a nice patina/character to them, and the lower cabinets seem modern and clean. Both pair well with the quartz countertops, which look like white marble. Even with the darker upper cabinets, the kitchen looks SO much lighter and brighter than it was before, when the countertops were black and all the cabinets were an oak-y orange stain over maple wood. (Going two-tone this way - in reverse - is less typical, but I did find plenty of photos where this approach was taken in other kitchen remodels.)

Painted lowers, natural uppers.