I have to finalize a lot of kitchen decisions in the next week and could really use some advice. My kitchen is completely open to many other elements of my home and I'm afraid that I'm not taking this enough into consideration.

This is new construction. We are doing a white kitchen, undecided on countertops. Our floors are going to be waterloxed walnut. My appliances are Wolf stainless steel.

Hard for me to answer how much light I have. The entire back side of my house, where the kitchen is located, has a LOT of windows and french doors with transom. I have 10 foot ceilings. That being said, my lot is heavily treed and blocks a lot of light. My neighbor with the same trees and original 1920 house thinks my house is very bright. My friend with an 80s open plan vaulted ceiling clear cut lot house thinks it is not.

I like a lot of different variations of the "white" kitchen so I don't feel like I HAVE to have marble, or HAVE to have soapstone, or have to have creamy, etc, etc. My bigger concern is making sure my kitchen doesn't look like a big white marshmallow next to the other rooms in my house.

We have an L shaped perimeter of cabinets and a large island buffering our family room. Our backwall that is shared by kitchen and family room has three French doors that are, I think, mahogany with a Jacobean stain. My family room furniture is greige with maybe a little bit of olive. (Think furniture you buy so kids and dogs can sit on it). Also some brown leather chairs and a brown leather ottoman coffee table. The fireplace which is on far wall directly opposite the kitchen island is Old Savannah brick with a white wood mantel.

Colorwise - this is the look of our family room, only the back wall has more stained doors and less white:

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/wall-color-dsvw-vd~345480-

My first thought was to paint or stain the large island a non-white. However, even though I love the look on a lot of GWebbers kitchens, I don't trust myself to pull it off.

My second thought was to stick with a marble or quartzite countertop on my perimeter but do a walnut countertop on my island to help the kitchen have some of the "wood" look of the other rooms. But I don't know anything about walnut countertops - cost, durability, practicality. My island will have the main sink and dishwasher.

Now, about what color to paint the cabinets. I think I am going to have to choose the same paint for my kitchen cabinets that I choose for the trim for the rest of the house. There's just no good stopping point to transition the color and no way do I trust myself to try to coordinate different whites. So, the white of my cabinets will be the white that trims Jacobean stained doors and Old Savannah brick fireplace. Is there an obvious choice white here? I currently have samples of BM White Dove, Cloud White, Marscapone, and Chantilly Lace. I thought I bought a Simply White sample also, but can't find it right now. I am painting some sample boards to take with me countertop shopping tomorrow.

Thank you for your help!
Maggie