In defense of the Side by Side....
It really was a great deal: Originally priced at 1700, marked down to 1200, then marked down to 500, AND - get this - when it rang up, we got a rebate for 200, so it ended up costing us 300, and has the full two year warranty! (The reason for all of the discounts was that "the door didn't close right", but it was a matter of the produce drawer being off it's track and sticking out a bit, which affected the gasket) It simply was too good to pass up.
As far as a "dark" kitchen, it has two north-facing windows, dark wood cabinets (that are too nice to paint) and yellow tile counters edged with burgandy, so we decided to go with something a bit more "edgy" than my old kitchen, which was all sunny yellow and light birch cabinets. The stainless (faux or not) works well in that scenario. If we hate it, we'll bite the bullet and paint the cabinets and try to brighten it up. But the big priority right now is getting rid of that ugly, ugly, ugly 70's press-on floor.
And by the way, the wall fridge is pink, NOT turquoise ;-)