Hi Lucie! I think that color scheme would look really lovely. We're planning on doing a very similar thing in our tiny kitchen, except with navy blue lowers instead of grey.

One thing about the floors: the yellow pine might not look the best with grey, depending on which grey you choose. Also, yellow pine is VERY soft and scratches and gouges if you even look at it. Not the best if you have (or plan to have) kids or pets.

We moved out of a rental with yellow pine and swore never to have pine floors in our place. We're going with bamboo in our new kitchen instead, which is a very similar color to the pine.

I think this would look great, especially if you use a dark grout with the subway tiles to help tie them together.

I really like this look. It's even better if you get nice light in there!

I think you should go white with the bottom cabinets. We have a black fridge and black oven door and black baseboards in the kitchen (rental, not our choice)...not that you said you were going black...but I find darker colors show dust and hide real dirt. Our kitchen cabinets top and bottom are white and are so easy to keep clean and keep the space bright.

Our last kitchen had painted brown cabinets and it was the same thing. White kitchens are so pretty and on trend. I would hit Pinterest and see what you can find for ideas, too. Have fun and congrats on your new kitchen!!

I like the look in the picture but I don't know if I would like it with rustic pine floors. Can you refinish/change the floors?
If you are sticking with yellow pine, I think you should go with a color other than grey for the base - white would work, I can also imagine red (think barn red). It's not going to be a lot of cabinets so it won't be overwhelming.

I have cream uppers and dark grey lowers and love them. I don't find that the grey show dust like a black fridge would.

I think dark lowers will look wonderful, and not just because it's what I'm planning to do in my kitchen. I saw this photo that shows dark lowers and white uppers when it was first posted on AT and then again last week: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/beautifully-organized-kitchens-182528
I think it's beautiful. I'm also planning to do the blue marmoleum floor as is shown in the photo.

I'm a big fan of the look, so of course I'll say go for it! However, because of your stainless appliances and yellow toned floor I would go for a grey with a lot of blue in it, or even a greyed out navy.

Get some samples of colors you like and paint a piece of scrap or even a piece of cardboard the size of one of your doors the bottom color, another with the top color, and stick them up on your cabinets with double stick tape. Live with them for a couple days to make sure you like it.

Go for it! I like how it helps ground the lower cabinets and lift the upper ones.

Agree you should find a color that looks good with your yellow pine floors, and that most (if not all) grays would not be the best choice to go with the floor color.

Would I be correct to assume that you are not installing new yellow pine floors in your kitchen, but that they are old (or original) and thus already there? If so, of course don't replace your floors! And don't think you need to install a different flooring over them because they are soft and dent easily (which is true.)

Wood flooring is my favorite flooring in a kitchen, because it is warm and gives underfoot, leading to less leg and back fatigue. (Ceramic tile has neither attribute). Just protect it in its most vulnerable areas (in front of sink, stove, anyplace else you are likely to drop things) with some rug or mat - use cotton rag or woven cotton rugs, vinyl mats, other mats, or bamboo strip mats (I used a long bamboo runner over 100+ year old heart of pine floors in my galley kitchen in my last place - it protected my floors my dings, looked good with the pine floor that wasn't covered, and felt great underfoot (added additional cushioning.)

Has anyone ever seen good examples (do they exist?) of natural wood uppers with colored cabinet lowers?

We just did this in our kitchen! Grey base cabinets and white uppers, all glossy. We went with white appliances and it looks really nice. I think it breaks the room up well and we've gotten lots of compliments (though, of course everyone feel obligated to say the like it when they know you just did it!). Go for it!

I think it sounds like a nice scheme, and the good news about paint is that it's the easiest thing to change. So if it ends up looking dated after a few years, you can paint again. The nice thing about dark cabinets is that they ground the room and can look sophisticated. With white on top, you keep the look fresh and bright.

There are plenty of gray paint colors that will work great with yellow pine. Charcoal Gray usually has plenty of brown in it so it should look fine.

I did white on top, dark dark charcoal on the bottom and I LOVE IT. really opened up the room versus doing all dark, and doing dark on the bottom really anchors the space.

@cordelia, I'd love to see your kitchen! I love glossy cabinets and white appliances!

Yes! We have wood base cabinets and white uppers and LOVE them. We were just the other day talking about how nice the look is, because it makes the kitchen feel more like it has furniture in it, not a ton of STORAGE. Just make sure whatever paint you use for base cabinets works with the floor. There are a lot of shades of gray.

hillgirl -

i couldn't find exactly what you were describing, but here are some examples of natural and painted:

http://pinterest.com/pin/194428908884112497/

http://pinterest.com/pin/194428908882628588/

i think the combination would look great!

I just finished do this in my kitchen, and love it. I'm not sure if you mentioned the right BM paint number - your number leads to "Brown Tar"? I chose the BM Black Tar, it's a beautiful super deep grey/black, in the Pearl finish. Good luck!

Well, it's a small kitchen. I'm worried that these two contrasting colors would shorten the height visually. That's really the only con I could find in this idea. I do agree that if you do decide to do this, make sure it complements the wood floors. By the way the pine flooring sounds charming, wish you had a pic of it.

Here's a small before/after on Pinterest of (one corner of) my kitchen: http://pinterest.com/pin/259168153528301255/

I would definitely go with dark lower/white upper cabinets. We have done this in two smallish kitchens with great results. The white uppers keep things as light as possible and the dark lower cabinets "ground" the space. I think the grey would look great with the color scheme......a little warmer tone. Good luck!

I do like the base cabinets being darker. As for the floors coordinating, what about a treatment like this?

Some people I know opened a cafe about a year ago, and they couldn't salvage the original floors, so they added some paint over pine. Their FB page (here: http://www.facebook.com/cannoncoffee) has a few pictures that show how the gentle white-blue wash over the planks softens it with the dark cabinetry. This is a good detail shot of the floors: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=401279429893473&set=pb.204763239545094.-2207520000.1358283022&type=3&theater It's really lovely in person.

as an addendum, my other thought is resale - in ten years when the dark base cabinet/white uppers is on its way out, are you worried about resale value?

Go to Pinterest and google two tone cabinets. There are some amazing examples! We're debating this issue too so good luck to whatever you decide.

The two-tone cabinet thing is very right now, which means at some point it will be very five-minutes-ago.

That said I love the dark lowers with light uppers and if you love screw that its trendy and go for it

We have a small kitchen, and recently did white uppers and dark stained cherry lowers, with light wood floors, so not grey but a similar look. I love it! The white uppers open up the eye level of the room, and the dark lowers really ground it, especially on a white floor. We did glass front on all of our white, which also made things feel open, but I've seen solid fronts also look great that way.