We have a smaller kitchen (11x11). We used charcoal on the bottom and cream on the uppers. We did our kitchen almost 5 years ago now and I have absolutely no regrets about colour. I love how the dark stained lowers ground the space and resist marking (in fact, we don't have one mark on the lowers) and how the light uppers open up the space and keep it feeling airy.

We didn't have a big budget to do fancy appliances, etc. so our colour scheme makes it special. Two of our neighbours have loved it so much that they did the same thing. One painted her lowers black herself and the other redid everything and went with a dark cherry stain on the lowers and a brighter white on the uppers. They both look great.

My kitchen is not done yet (but close) however I can't imagine having regets because I already love it. I'm doing butter yellow on the wall cabinets and dark cherry for base cabinets. My dogs like to lay around the floor while I'm in there so for me light cabinets on the base would not work...unless I wanted to clean every five minutes. I live on a dirt road in a somewhat country setting.

daisychain & jterrilynn - I'd love to see pics...your kitchens sound so pretty! Thanks for your input.

I'm adding my plea to melaska's: please post photos, daisychain01 and jterrilynn! I'm also strongly leaning towards a painted upper/stained lower look so I'd love to see your kitchens.

I've thought about white - we have white woodwork in the house - but our house is full of color (no white walls, saturated colors on furniture, in paintings) so I think white cabs would look too stark against our palette.

Gosh I feel bad because I took some pictures last night with the new pendant and I can not get the pictures to go through. I have an old post (yellow kitchen progress diy). If you go to bottom of post there is a better picture to give you an idea...but we are much further along now. I'll keep trying.

jterrilynn,

I'll post a link to your thread below...thanks! :)

Here is a link that might be useful: jterrilynn's progress pics

I have white perimeter and stained lowers. Don't regret it (been in for a few months). Stained cabs show light dirt (flour drips), white cabs show dark dirt (molasses drips) but I just clean it up and it is okay :)

We love our white cabinets a year later. So far, nothing has "stuck" to the paint...be sure to get the best, high-quality lacquer or paint you possibly can. Our island is stained, and it's great, too, but it does show dust on the lower trim (we have furniture-style cabs without toe-kicks).

I get schmootz in the inner corners and crevices along the bottom of the doors on my island with the light paint. It's very tough to get out. I can see where having light paint only on the uppers could be nice. My wood base cabs are more forgiving about not having to be 'perfect' to look nice.

Here are a couple of our pics. I must be the world's worst photographer, but it gives you an idea.

Thanks, daisychain and jterrilynn!! Love what you are doing.

daisychain, will you be adding your kitchen to the FKB (asks she hopefully)? Please? I want to see more!

Did either of you get flack for doing painted uppers, stained lowers? I had a KD tell me point blank that "it would look awful." Yeah, I'm not working with her (little wonder, right?).

Thanks, daisychain...I love your mix! I like your first pic even though you don't think it's good...I like the 'dreamy' quality - I've seen that kind of soft focus on pictures and they are beautiful. This one really shows your beautiful mix of cabinetry...LOVE the white! I guess I'm just going to have to put white SOMEWHERE! :)

Most of our kitchen cabinets are stained but we did the hutch, hood and island in white to add some contrast. It's another option to having stained lowers and white uppers.

Thanks so much for the comments. I didn't tell anyone, but dh and kd about the two tone until it was done. Kd was very apathetic and probably wouldn't have cared if I'd said I wanted blue and purple. Good for you for running from a kd who couldn't see your vision.

The first part of our reno was done just as starpooh was creating the FKB and I kept thinking "after I do this one thing, then I'll post pics in the FKB". First it was making the island, then finding the perfect antique cabinet, then making the upper cabinet to go above the antique cabinet and on and on. I'm hoping to strip the doors on the wall cabinet I made (used antique doors and built the cab around them) and paint them the same colour as the rest of the cabs - then I promise I will post pics in the FKB (but will obviously have to hire someone to take the pictures ;-)

daisychain01--Please tell me the color of your granite on your black cabinets. BEAUTIFUL!!! I'm trying to decide if I want a cinnamon stained island or a black distressed island and now that I've seen that granite on black, I think that's the way to go!!