I love to look at dark kitchen cabinets, black even. But the old layout was so dark, the room is north west facing, in the winter it gets dark before 5. I like to be in dark moody room - with glass of hot tea in front of fireplace, on rocking chair - in a hotel for few nights break. I never in my day to day life want to be in dark room, I crave light. I think if I was in Florida with endless sunshine and long days or if I had huge space, with south facing room I would consider it but didn't feel right for our home. I never thought about dark being hard to clean -another benefit! That's one of the good things in not renovating the kitchen before we settle and live here for some time, and working from home during covid - we got to think about what we don't like about the space and what do we want it to feel. We also went with painted kitchen, meaning that we can change the colour if we want! I have been looking at stools last few days and I find that I can find - cheap, or comfortable, or good looking, or in stock, or easy to maintain but not combination of them. I can get cheap and in stock, but won't be comfortable or good looking. I can get good looking and comfortable - but it will be velvet, 16 weeks lead time and expensive. Everything costs more and takes longer since compared to pre covid.
