There is a small kitchen on this forum that was a DIY for $1,400 that I trully love. The cabinets are painted very dark, yet the rest of the kitchen is light. It has a small window over the sink. It doesn't look caveish at all. If you search ...$1400 the thread will come up . The user name is enigmaquandry...you can also put that in the search box. I don't know why it won't allow me to attach a link..I think I'm computer challenged at times! Maybe someone else can do it?? HTH

Here you go ...

Here is a link that might be useful: enigmaquandry's thread

Luceestar's Kitchen is similar... Her kitchen is 8'x8'

Here is a link that might be useful: FKB: Luceestar's Kitchen

My kitchen is only about 10x10, and our cabinets are sort of darkish, they are carbonized bamboo, I would post a pic, but they aren't installed yet!! I'm also going to go light with the granite, probably Giallo Ornamental, and the floors are, what I would call a light to medium stone look.

I say go with what you like.

idrive...you're a peach! Can you tell me how you did that? I should change my user name to "computerchallenged"!

In the box below the reply box (Optional Link URL:) paste the link to her page, and in the "Name of the Link:" box type what you'd like to call it. You're welcome!

I think it might be too much dark. I would go with lighter cabs and darker countertops.

I like dark cabinets. And your kitchen isn't small! (and even if it's small, what's wrong with small rooms?

I cant help thinking, get a stackable washer and dryer, put them where the dryer is now, and shrink the laundry closet so you can get an extra two feet of countertop & cabinet space to the right or left of the fridge. If it weren't for that water heater, I'd blow away the whole laundry closet.

Your kitchen looks a lot like mine pre-remodel - though I think it's bigger/wider. I replaced my dark cabinets with new dark cabinets. Whether or not it's "too dark" is really up to you. Do you want a warm, dark, rich feeling or a light, bright, airy feeling? I wanter the prior.

I love dark cabinets and with the photos posted above it just shows how stunning they can be. Starting June 7th we are demolishing our kitchen and have ordered dark burgundy cabinets with caesarstone quartz reflection countertops and also doing the light colored backsplash-everyone has told me it's going to be dark but I don't think so and it is what I want....and after 27 years of marriage, that is what I'm getting! I say go for it!

Thanks so much for the advice everyone! I am going to go for it!
I'm definitely going after more of a "warm & cozy" look, not "light & bright". Nothing against light & bright, I've just always wanted a warm kitchen with a coffee inspired color scheme.

kitchenaddict & idrive65- thanks TONS for pic of enigmaquandry's kitchen. Its gorgeous and doesn't look dark at all. It totally reinforces my idea that having a light wall & BS will prevent the dark cabinets from taking over.

lee676 - what a great idea about the stackable w&d! I've had a lot of ideas about this kitchen but none have been about remodeling that laundry closet. Condensing that closet could make things open up quite a bit. That's certainly going to go on my long-term project idea list!

I'll be sure to post pics once its done! Thanks again!

Don't have too much to add, but we had Diana Pearl in our kitchen before this remodel.
We had stripped down the dark oak cabinets to a lighter tone just to "update" it, so they weren't dark,
but as you can see the light Silestone did brighten the area. We did the full bullnose.

Here is one of my favorite dark cabs kitchens. It's a DIY. Really, really gorgeous.

Here is a link that might be useful: RT Paisley kitchen

There is a school of thought that dark cabinets/walls can actually make a room look bigger.

I don't know if it's true, but I'll lay it out for you.

Light colors accentuate features, that is, draw attention to them.

Dark colors make features recede, that is, draw your eye away from them.

So if you are in a room, your eye will sort of pass over the dark colors, making the room seem bigger.

Watch your proportions, take care with the lighting (you want well lit, not LAX/autopsy suite) and enjoy your kitchen, no matter what you decide.

socalusa - thanks for the diana pearl pic. It looks great! And I love the sheen it has. I've looked online but haven't had much luck so far finding real pics of it in a kitchen. If our budget allows, we're going to do a bullnose too.

shelayne - thanks for link to pics of RT Paisley's kitchen. I saw one of them on FKB this morning but hadn't seen the rest. WOW! you're right - that is gorgeous and doesn't look like a cave at all.

growlery - what an interesting idea! I think if dark colors are done right they can give a good depth and balance to any room.

Thanks for all the advice everyone. I'm getting more and more confident that dark cabinets are the right way to go.

From the first time we viewed this house I started thinking about how to re-do the kitchen. My gut idea was dark cabinets but I quickly dismissed it. My next idea was to do a dark countertop (and leave the cabinets as-is) but none of the dark quartz colors were in our price range. I realized we'd have to go with one of light quartz since they were cheapest so I started re-thinking the dark cabinet idea. I guess it goes to you to stick with your gut sometimes!