Upper or Lower Cabinets

• If you’d like an equal mix of both varnished wood and painted finishes, paint your lower cabinets and stain the uppers, or do it the other way around.
  
  Reserve the finish with the heaviest visual weight for the lower cabinets, if there’s a significant difference. For example, if you’re mixing pale pine with black paint, the black paint looks heavier. With a dark varnish and white paint, the dark wood has more visual weight. For two finishes of roughly equal value, designate them for the upper and lower positions as you prefer.
  
  

Display Cabinets

• Turn an upper section of open shelves or glass-fronted cabinets into a focal point with a finish -- painted or stained and varnished -- that contrasts with the rest of your kitchen cabinetry. Paint or stain the lower cabinets in that section to create a butler’s pantry effect, even though the highlighted cabinet section isn’t in a separate room.
  
  Whether they’re painted or stained and varnished, give glass-fronted cabinets even more prominence by painting the back walls with yet another color. Ideally, choose an eye-catching color you can use as an accent elsewhere in the room, perhaps for window treatments or chair pads.
  
  

Featured Fixture or Appliance

• Draw attention to a special fixture or appliance by using a contrasting finish on the adjacent cabinetry. For example, if you have stained and varnished cabinets, paint the lower cabinet beneath a farmhouse sink to emphasize the sink’s exposed front apron. In a painted kitchen, stain and varnish the cabinetry surrounding a tiled oven niche or a stove with an oversized copper hood.
  
  

Kitchen Island

• Give a kitchen with wood-toned, varnished cabinetry some color by painting the kitchen island. The reverse also works. Stain and varnish your island to add a natural-wood touch to a kitchen full of painted cabinets. Tie the island to the rest of the kitchen by using identical or coordinating hardware and countertops.
  
  In a small kitchen, reserve the island as the sole contrasting element to make it the kitchen’s focal point. For medium to large kitchens, you can combine it with contrasting display cabinets or a favorite fixture or appliance.