I cannot show you any pix but I have seen on HGTV site a kitchen with Med cherry cabs and a dark green or olive green granite. It looked fabulous though I think it would also darken the room.

Therefore my suggestions in the order of preference:
- olive green
- any dark grey->black slate
- orangey slate (I only put slate last because colors would look great but not sure how texture would mix).

Best of luck -- and show the pix when you pick it.

I have medium cherry w/polished black counters. Dust can be a problem if you don't wipe the counters daily...we do so we haven't had a problem.

We have medium (maybe a little darker than medium) cherry cabinets with Peacock Green and I think the dark granite looks nice. We do have a very well lit room so with the medium cabs and dark granite (though, under natural light, the granite isn't as dark as it might appear to be) doesn't make the room dark at all, especially with the light floor as well.

We have natural cherry cabinets that are by now (18 months post-installation) sort of medium. We used Verde San Francisco which we love. I wish I could post a phote but am severely challenged in that area.

The granite is olive-y with black swirls. Looks much like the photos posted, a bit greener, perhaps.

Good luck!

I have medium cherry shaker cabs with a lighter countertop (copper), to give you an idea of a lighter tone that could work too:

We have medium cherry cabs and Impala Black granite. I went with black to cool off the look of all the orangy-red. I felt anything in the brown tones would make the kitchen look too dry. Does that make sense? I wanted something with a cool, nearly blue color without actually being blue. This granite fit the bill perfectly. It's really a dark gray, is not fussy (i.e., no movement) and there was no stress hoping, wondering if the seams were going to match up.

Jodi-

We have light- medium cherry Cabs withn Ocean Green(Stone) which is a drab olive green with lots of white and grey movement.

THanks, everyone. Super pictures, gorgeous kitchens all. I'm really helped by seeing all these photos. I think I'm closer to deciding now.

Not many people use 6 by 6 tiles, I guess. Anyone?
cheers
Naan

Nann,
Tiles = Grout = Cleaning grout lines...
Fine for a back splash, but I had one kitchen with tile counter tops and will never have another.

I just used 6x6 marble on bathroom floor because it seemed more in keeping with an old house than 12x12. If I were using tile on a kitchen counter I'd either go with 4x4 and have it look like a classic tile counter (nothing wrong with 6x6 either though!) or use 12x12 or larger with very narrow seams so that it looked more like it was solid. I recently saw a beautiful medium dark grey porcelain tile counter with larger tiles and narrow grout lines -- very nice.

Hi Naan ~ Here's my 2 cents . . I have med. stained cherry like Buehl's and we have polished Absolute Black granite and it looks fabulous. My first choice for granite was Ocean Green, but when the fabricator tried to place the template on the granite, there wasn't enough so I had to jump quickly to Plan B which was AB. For a backsplash we are going with rhomboids by Sonoma and we are using 3 different colors, cream, pale yellow and lt. yellow randomly placed. Wish I had pictures but the tile hasn't come in yet.