I would suggest to stain them in dark espresso and add nice contemporary satin chrome hardware, they will look really sharp and elegant with contrasting pulls and knobs. if they are already painted then go with dark color chocolate or dark green and you can either do glazing or distressed finish to add little more charm of old world. in this case you can go with funky hardware.

Stain/glaze the cabs gray... PIc for inspiration. Add new hardware-pulls in pic are great. CheerS![houzz=]

what type of paint would I use?

You could have glass put in them, and paint them black

http://www.ehow.com/how_6534180_glaze-oak-cabinets.html