annkh your suggestions were genius! We talked about moving the fridge to that location, but there are a gazillion switches in that area. But 1: there are way too many switches in general in this house, in this area in particular,and 2. we would have to move electrical anyway to take down that partition wall. I played around with the Lowe's planner some more, plugging in your suggestions, and LOVE it! I did keep a LS base in the corner, but changed the upper corner to an easy reach. Taking the fridge out allowed me to move the stove down enough to have a 24" to the left and a 27" to the right of it!!!! Without even taking out the partition wall, but maybe shortening it to 24" instead of 36". Woo hoo! PLUS, this allows me a more useful island, even in the same dimensions I have now, because A. I can get it closer to the stove and B. moving the fridge allows that island to stand right where it should be- in front of the stove instead of in front of the fridge! PLUS, (this gets better and better!) there is room to move the fridge without reducing my 36" sink base, unless a filler/spacer is needed between fridge and DW,in which case I would only have to go down to a 33" !!!! I will think about taller wall cabs, but with the addition of such wider cabs already I don't think I will need them, in which case the soffit can stay and save some labor there (although I would love to cut it out at LEAST over the sink.) Can you tell I am super excited??? may flowers, you pretty much brought up every issue I had with the peninsula plan, but I considered it for its work space and additional storage. I added the open shelf because it felt so much more inviting on approach than a solid end. (Love those 3d mock-ups for exactly this reason.) Changing the layout according to annkh's suggestions eliminated all the reasons for going with a peninsula layout, returning that added benefit of walkway and openness. athomesewing, I think that it is quite possible, especially if we wait and save, and is an excellent suggestion. The only conceivable issue would be having to match siding on the outside of the house if we reduce that opening, which is negligible at worst. We had talked about getting rid of the window in the dining area, getting a larger slider and moving the whole thing down the wall some. but then we are adding major cost and time to the project. rtwilliams, I did not get much inspiration from those photos as far as layout is concerned, but (despite my vow to address function before design) really clarified problematic style issues I was having, thank you so much! I appreciate everyone's input more than you could know. I know it is good to start thinking now, but all of a sudden I want the project to start NOW! lol! Imagine that... Still playing around with cabinet style and placement on window wall (glass/no glass, cabs over DW and fridge, etc.) and am now thinking boldly of sacrificing some storage in the island to maintain a more open feel:

This must be a common dilemma. Our master bathroom has china black marble with carrara marble base cap. The walls are painted RL silver candle lite which is a pearl like silver. The cabinets are stained wood as is the window so there's a bit of warmth in the room. The master bedroom is going to be done in jewel tones with a RL gold candle lite ceiling. To help bring cold and warm together I used jewel tone towels in the bathroom.

Nothing wrong with mixing up colors. The colors should coordinate a bit so they flow from one room to another. My master suite is three rooms in an "L" shape, the sitting room is in the middle. All three rooms are open to one another with doorless archways, so they do flow visually. The center room, the sitting room, has deep red/burgundy walls and a cream/ivory trim color. Off one side of the sitting room is the bathroom. The the trim and cabinets are the same cream/ivory as the sitting room, but the wall are somewhat beige. Off to the other side of the sitting room is our bedroom. In there the walls are sort of a cream/ivory, and the trim/cabinets/wainscot is a deep muted historical green. The cream/ivory sort of ties the three rooms together and the other colors sort of bounce off that. For bathrooms which can be dominated by hard surfaces (fixtures/tile/stained wood) where the color of those items can be difficult or expensive to change, I usually recommend that those hard surfaces be a neutral or somewhat muted color. Then the wall color, or soft accent items like towels and throw rugs, curtains, etc, which are easy to change, be the stronger and sometimes more vibrant accent color. The hard surface colors in our bathroom are sort of neutral (cream cabinets and trim, beige walls, natural teak for the countertops and tub deck, tile is cream and charcoal), we change the color of the towels/rugs whenever we feel like it. Sometimes to a strong color; deep green, cranberry red, etc, sometimes to a soft neutral like beige, off-white, etc. And there is nothing wrong experimenting with colors either, especially paint. At roughly 10 cents a square foot coverage for basic formulations, paint color can be inexpensive and fairly easy to change.

I think it depends on how much light is in the bathroom. My bedroom is not very light so I went with a light green. After several years I decided to paint the adjoining bathroom but went with a darker shade of green. There is a skylight in the bathroom as well as a window so it is very light. I love the difference. I also painted a hall bathroom with a darker color. There are no windows, but do have excellent lights and it looks wonderful. Good luck on what ever you choose.