Need your help

Okay Folks, today is the day that I get to go to the design center and pick out all the options for our house, yay!

Lets hope we find out that our loan went through today as well. I'll keep you posted on that, but lets focus on the fun stuff for now.

Here's the deal, as mentioned before, I am limited to builder standard options for the most part, although we managed to work in an allowance for the flooring we want, a light colored wood laminate floor throughout the downstairs.

Something like this.

I am really hoping they have what we are looking for, otherwise its going to be difficult to come up with an alternative.

I have been working on a few design ideas, mostly for the kitchen. After searching through hundreds of pictures online we decided that a dark laminate counter would look best in the kitchen. It offers a great contrast to the oak cabinets we will have, and will be even better if we eventually paint them white.

It's so hard to be sure though. I was trying out an online room designer the other day and came up with a rendering that has light counters and looked surprisingly better than most of the other examples I had seen. I am also concerned that with black appliances, the overall look will be too dark and I love a light airy kitchen.

So you've seen the previous post with the oak cabinet remodel. Here is another kitchen we love. This would be the goal eventually, but in the meantime we need something that works with oak now and white later.

The picture below is from the kitchen designer I tried out. This is not our kitchen layout, but the wall color, cabinets and floors are the general idea that we are going for.

EXCEPT...this is the picture that made me wonder if a light counter would be better. It actually contrasts well with the oak and ties in the lighter floors. However, I don't think it would work as well if we paint the cabinets white at some future date.

Here is the same kitchen with dark counters. They look green to me for some reason, not what I am going for, but can you see the difference? And then imagine black appliances on top of that.

The picture above shows a kitchen with black appliances and black counters. I think it looks nice, but it is a bit on the dark side. If the walls were a much lighter shade and the floors not so grey (but rather a bright sunny laminate) do you think it would make a huge difference?

Here is the design board I came up with that incorporates oak cabinets, dark counters, future backsplash idea, and the light floors. What I think is a nice compromise allowing for a progression towards white cabinets at a future time (if I actually do it). The backsplash would be another nicety and future project.

So what do you think??? Especially about the counters. Should I stick with my design board? Should I go for a lighter counter? When I actually see the real possibilities today, everything that I've done might just fly out the window, but I want to be prepared.

And I want your thoughts as well!