Have you checked the Finished Kitchens Blog? I've linked a search for stainless counters below. Here are 2 of my favorites:

Baxawax's:
http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=5761366&uid=1099604

delmobile's:
http://finishedkitchens.blogspot.com/2005/07/delmobiles-kitchen.html

Here is a link that might be useful: stainless counter kitchens in the FKB

I don't know about warming up a kitchen WITH stainless steel, but I do know from personal experience that a warm inviting kitchen can be had with it. If I could go back and get the old SS counter from my old bungalow kitchen for my current new one I'd do it in a heartbeat. BTW, the more scratches the better, and the sooner the better.

These sites have some photos of kitchens with stainless counters, too.

http://www.specialtystainless.com/residential/index.php

http://www.jaxoncustomstainless.com/index.html

If your conscious about maintaining a warm feeling, I think it can certainly be done with stainless steel countertops. But I DO think you'll need to keep that consciously in mind or you will risk looking cold. 'Industrial' doesn't necessarily have to read cold, but can if you're not careful. A painted Bluestar panel and blackboard fridge sounds like 'Industrial funky' in a really cool 'urban lofty' way.

If you look at the photos RHome posted, you'll see that both use lots of stained wood to keep things warm.

Not to second-guess your stainless idea, but it does sound like you're over-estimating the amount of 'trouble' light granite countertops are to seal and maintain. If you're really serious about sealing them regularly, all you have to do is clean them once a year with a good stone cleaner, spray on a sealer, then wipe it off. That's it! If you're less serious, do it every two years. Or whenever you see the first stain or water starting to soak in.

Thanks - the specialtystainless.com site was especially useful for a sense of how it looks.

Here's my all-stainless-counters-with-glossy-backsplash kitchen : {{!gwi}}

Nothing cold & industrial about it. I'm puzzled why stainless counters aren't used more often in a traditional style kitchen. The contrast between the counters & the traditional elements is an attractive one, I think. And the patina that the counters eventually develop takes on a textural character of its own. My counters recede visually, so that helps to keep the warm & homey elements in the forefront.

Your wood floors & blackboard fridge will do a lot to add the homey feel you're after. Your cabinets, of course, will have the biggest impact. Are you getting painted or wood cabinets? Are you planning on adding a rug too? I love the look of an oriental rug in a kitchen, & think it would be fabulous with stainless counters.

In short, no, stainless steels do not automatically equate with "cold & industrial."

I used stainless in my last kitchen to invoke a period look. It was a 20s house and I was convinces SS would be a nice counter after seeing the Edsel Ford house's kitchen. Sure, they used expensive "German silver" which requires a bunch of servants to keep untarnished, but it's a lovely look.

We used medium cherry cabinets in a traditional Shaker style, natural oak floors, and arts and crafts-inspired backsplash in white handmade subway tile with springy green floral accent pieces. We thought it was a nice look, although not a true period kitchen, it fit in very well. We had a marine edge (a bit dated perhaps, but that was the point, aside from being very functional) and a brushed finish that we enjoyed getting even more of a patina on.

A great surface. Nothing clinical or cold about it!

Fori, I'd love to see pictures of your last kitchen. Sounds lovely.

Below is the link to my kitchen just in case the picture doesn't show in my previous post.

Here is a link that might be useful: stainless counters, homey kitchen

There's a kitchen with stainless counters on this site that's a favorite of mine. I think the yellow warms it up.

Here is a link that might be useful: Yellow kitchen with stainless counters

awm03, are your counters finished in a different way than just standard 'plain' stainless? They always looks darker...antiqued or something to me. That's the only reason I didn't link yours as one of my favorites, because I thought I remembered you'd done something differently to yours. They really are wonderful and make your kitchen even more extra-special, since I already love your cabinets and backsplash.

One way of being warm is by using warm colors. Sounds obvious, but the difference can be really striking. You didn't say what color the glass tile backsplash will be. Or what color you were thinking of for the range. Bluestar number 8023 and 8004 are very warm without being primary, and most of the colors under 5000 are also warm. If you coordinate your backsplash tiles with one of them, the kitchen can't help but have a warm feeling, even if you painted the cabinets ice blue :)

On the other hand, icy, wintry colors are going to give you that cold look that you don't want, so stay away from pale blues and purples, greys, browns and blacks.

You can also warm up the room with bright, cozy accents, in warm colors, like a cookie jar, fun clock, or bright colored small appliances. The trick to making it not look industrial is first to have a few things out, rather than all put away like you would in a sterile environment, and then to be sure the things you do display are broken up in color, rather than monotone.

I chose to post the items below because they show the principle of broken up color. Whatever your taste is you can do this, except if it's "clean, industrial", since that's what you're trying to get away from.

Basically a "warm" look is opposite to a "clean" look.

I'll look for a picture. They're all on another computer so it might take a while. I also used yellow on the walls and ceiling. It was awful before the cabinets went up! hehehe....

jane-o: ohmygoodness: I am in the same boat.
My DH feels the same way about SS counters: too industrial.
I want it because I want an integrated sink/love the patina, don't need to worry about sealant/grout.

I am also thinking about getting glass backsplash, like this: {{!gwi}}

funny: I just posted something about paneling my freezer/fridge with "chalkboard"/blackboard.

Would love to see what you end up with...

Gosh there's no reason for stainless counters to look any more industrial than SS appliances! In fact, because counters sit a good 3 feet up off the floor, the projected visual impact of counters is in fact much less than their square footage would have you believe. In fact, when I wanted to photograph my counters, i had to get up on a ladder so that I could capture enough of impact of the stone. Indeed frequently in the pictures database when you see the cool granite shots, you'll see they are from an elevation. Conversely, the normal elevation shots are very much like you see in the pictures above - much less "impactful" than the cabinets or even the floor.

Goutgrec has posted pictures to one of my favorite stainless counter not-cold kitchens also. rococogurl's BS is not glass but you can use colored glass tiles in either the same way that rococogurl has or else along huango's picture above - amazing look that huango! Smoking hot look.

We have stainless steel countertops along the walls.

We wanted a very durable surface for the working area of our kitchen & expect it to patina. We chose granite for the island, because we wanted a different look to signal the more "public" area of the kitchen that faces an open great room (family & breakfast area).

I think ss counters are gorgeous and not at all industrial. Gizmo, that's a very Euro looking kitchen. What flooring did you use?

It's limestone, called Buxy Beige, and we have it in other areas of our house too.

Glad you asked this question since I've been thinking about stainless too.
The choice of cabinet finish will affect how cold the kitchen will seem. I LOVE stainless with natural wood cabinets. The book "Kitchens for the Rest of Us" has a really beautiful cherry cabinet/stainless cabinet kitchen.

With white painted cabinets, I do think that stainless can look chilly.

Seeing these pictures has been great - and I think I now understand better DH's issue: we won't have an island, we'll have a peninsula that marks the transition to the next room, and that people will sit and eat at. We can't make it a different material from the rest of the counter because it'll be tricky to seam (different materials expand and contract at different rates), so we'd have to have that area be ss, too. Whereas it works well in most of the kitchen pictures I'm seeing because the ss is in the work areas, and there's stone or something else at the island transitional/eating area. thanks again for all the pics!