Cream cabinets with black counters is a classic look and a great way to tie in black appliances. Add undercabinet lighting to place light directly on your work surface and it is not going to be a dark look at all. In fact, horizontal dark surface move your eye around a room and visually expand the space. It's vertical dark surfaces that close in a room and can be either cave or cozy depending on the lighting.

For a budget kitchen renovation in a bungalowish house, I ended up with black appliances because I got a great deal on good quality ones that had had little use, to go with my sturdy craigslist-bought to-be-painted-whatever-color cabinets.

I wanted white or cream cabinets but couldn't find photos of nice looking examples. When I sought guidance here, it was gently pointed out to me that there were not photos because the combination generally did not work very well, which is true.

For me, after a huge amount of frenzied experimentation, the solution lay in banishing the huge brooding black fridge to a nearby pantry space and placing the black DW and black range on side walls, so that the kitchen viewed from the dining room did not display great globs of too much contrast.

The result is not breathtakingly wonderful, but I think I can make it work when I finally move in. [Should I enliven the range hood with zebra stripes or a frieze of common loons swimming around the trim?] I have no pics of the fridge in situ, but it is in a slightly enlarged version of the pantry space on the left in the "before" pic down the yellow hallway.

Good luck, cateyanne. If I can craft a space-specific solution, I am positive that you can too.

Cheers. hbk

PS. Atticmag has a bunch of photos of black and white kitchens. It is well worth checking.

Here is a link that might be useful: black appliances kitchen

I'm bumping this up because I know how hard it is to find photos of kitchen with black appliances. I am always searching for photos of black appliances with dark cabinets.

Just because its hard to find photos doesn't mean it doesn't look good.

It's not your color scheme, but here's ours:
I didn't know that stainless was so "popular", until I started watching HGTV, and reading this site! I've always loved black appliances, so when we did this remodel, I already knew I wanted black.
That's Typhoon Bordeaux granite, that we LOVE!

Here's a shot of our recently (October 2010) reno-ed black & white kitchen.

Here is a link that might be useful: Black & White Kitchen Slideshow

Willtv, I was just about ready to post the link to your fun kitchen. Your kitchen shows how fun black can be. Great job!

hi cate....

My sister's kitchen was remodeled about 3 yrs ago..

KA:)

Aloha, Thanks.
We really love the new kitchen.
It's about 1000% more functional than the old one.
I'm attaching a link to the before & after slideshow so you can see for yourself.

Here is a link that might be useful: Black & White Kitchen Before & After

I have black appliances but put in an alabaster cork tile floor (it looks a bit like limestone tile). I also have white walls. Those two elements take up a lot of visual space and go a long way toward balancing the large black appliances and keeping them from being too dominant and overly heavy.

Black appliances are practical and so much easier to keep
clean. I bought stainless and there are some days I think
how stupid. The fingerprints are a pia.

~boxer

bronze

We did black appliances because I just didn't like the way stainless looked with our color scheme. The pics are about 4 years old and the white elephant of a fridge has since been replaced with a black french door model.

Thank you so much everyone for your inspiring photos. I'm glad to see that sticking to what I personally liked will still give me a gorgeous kitchen. So many of you also like the black appliances and that makes me feel better about my choice. If you have anymore, keep them coming. They are wonderful to see.
Catey

We have black lowers and cream uppers. It keeps the kitchen light and bright but the black helps to ground it. This is the only pic I have of the appliances. it is from after a dinner party so not that great a pic. But gives you an idea.
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