You have so many options and a lot of great advice here. Think about all the colors that have been suggested and which one you would most like to wake up to every morning. ^ I agree with rjjacobs...paint is easy to change. Get samples of your top 3 choices and try them out on one of the walls. It will be much easier to see what actually looks good in the room when you get it up on the walls. Keep us updated on what you decide!

They don't have to, but it creates a nice consistency if they do.

It would appear that depending on how much of the espresso glaze applied will give the cupboards the antiqued look or what DDS Design stated, that " dirty" look. Note the second picture below has much more glaze applied and the first picture has much less, I prefer less. Good advise given to go to view an entire kitchen display of this type of cupboard you are considering. I agree a more unique granite would look lovely. Be sure you go to tag an entire slab, as store samples are impossible to tell what you will end up with. Granite, even under the same name can look quite different from one slab to another. https://www.houzz.com/photos/2-story-kitchen-remodel-traditional-kitchen-philadelphia-phvw-vp~541707

My husband and I bought our current Victorian period town house home 12 years ago. We live in Manchester, England. When we moved in I wanted to respect the homes history but not live in a museum. I had researched that a shaker kitchen would be quite appropriate, especially learning that the Quaker movement started in Manchester England before mass emigration to New England, USA. (The originators of shaker furniture). So I told hubby Shaker is the way to go! He agreed, we had a shaker style kitchen installed, it was all solid oak. I had every intention to paint it white. Hubby said ' I thought that you wanted solid oak and it was really expensive'? I ended up feeling ungrateful, and questioned my choice of white. Besides I thought, he really likes it I can tell, and in 25 years he's always let me choose everything for our homes. So I thought I'll live with the new oak kitchen and live with it, as he loves it. Anyway 12 years on, our needs have changed as our family has grown and we now have a full household, 3 sons over 21, and two grandkids permanently. So a kitchen over-haul is due, need more of everything, more ovens, storage etc.- So here's the joke- I say to hubby do we have facelift and additions or a completely new one? He says -' I don't mind your good at that kind of thing, as long as your happy, I'm happy'.- I say ' wont you miss the oak ? He says 'To be honest I always thought it was a bit dark but I knew how much you loved it so I didn't complain'.??????? So now I'm looking forward to a white kitchen. Will be buying more units, changing layout, best of all it will be white on white!!! lesson learnt = plan projects, be clear to everyone, do mood boards for the family to see. I never want to see unpainted wood kitchens ever again!!! lol