Kitchen SketchUp Color Schemes

This post is meant to act as sort of a tweener; to be a follow up to the painting update post, but with enough new stuff to warrant its own. We had forgotten to mention how we arrived at the decision of what color to paint.

As we are fairly indecisive when it comes to color, Brian mocked up the kitchen in the 3d modeling program SketchUp, and rendered a variety of options, which are shown below:

Option 1. Existing cabinets, black counters, paint color: blue

 Option 2. Existing cabinets, black counters, paint color: magenta

 Option 3. Grey lower cabinets, white counters, paint color: orange

Option 4. Grey lower cabinets, white counters, paint color: green

So, which one is your favorite..?

Option 1 is what we liked the best (for now), while option 4 is we think we ultimately want to be. We both really like the look of the grey cabinets, paired with the espresso floor, grounding the space, while the white, doorless uppers vertically lengthen it; see below for an idea we've seen:

 SketchUp proved to be a valuable design tool, as it allowed us to explore a variety of options quickly and visualize the final product.

So, what tools do you use, and how can they make your DIY jobs easier?