Mclarke, See? that was (and still is) my thinking too --- or at least how my mind's eye saw it should/shouldn't be. But taking into account all the replies (and they were all so right-on about it), I realized I was focusing too much on 'the look' and not what would be the best function for us. My plan when doing this bathroom: I'm not leaving this house without a toe-tag so I wanted everything as perfect for me as I could get it, for the long-term. This same height cab and wall is going to be very hard for this slightly (ha!) anal person to get used to! LOL Annie1971, Oh shoot---had I known, I would have saved all zillion white with pink speckled tiles for you! *g* Before joining this board, all those years with the pink tiles, I was brought up to 'match', to coordinate. So, all those years I went with a pink or mauve or burgundy bathroom. After joining this forum I learned how I could have worked 'with' that tile. I wish I had known about this forum years ago--would have saved me years of bathroom color boredom! And Mclark, I DO have very old, very pretty amber colored glass bottles. They remind me of pharmacy glass bottles. I'll dig them out of storage sometime this week and hopefully they will fit on the top shelf of the med cab. With the new, bigger window the light will reflect on the pretty amber color of the bottles. Great Idea - Thank you! You all were so helpful in making me focus on the function and other little points I hadn't thought about I figured I'll stick some pics in here to show you what we've done. As much as I'd like the cab to stay where it's at (held up with 2 screws so we could get the books out of there/out of the way so we could work on other things), function would be wrong so it's going up a couple inches. During the med. cab height dilemma, we also found the rounded front of the plywood countertop hindered me from getting close to the mirror. Countertop shape has been changed and I'm very pleased with that part. Again, all of you -- Thank you so very much!

I could have written waterdamage's post. Add to the fact that DH has been white-kitchen-hesitant. So darker counters make more sense to me now. And now that I look through the kitchens that I feel the most warmth and comfort from. I knew I didn't want a country-vintage vibe. I want light yet comfortable. Yet I want something to be grounded in a way. As I went through the HUNDREDS of photos I'd saved...yes, hundreds, I also noticed that the ones I liked the most had either darker counters or dark perimeters and a light island top. So that's where I am. I'm heading to slab yards this weekend. If I see a light slab that knocks my socks off, then I'll go that route. If not, it's dark all around. I'm not stressing about it until I start looking in person. Like you, my inspiration comes from a combination of kitchens, not just one. Here are my most loved and why. This may help you... 1) Katieob's kitchen. I like the light island top and outer dark perimeter. And although she has an industrial hood (I'm doing a white arched hood), her white cabinets and polished nickel hardware and the overall feel are really nice: 2) The cabs don't go to the ceiling as mine will not. But I can picture how my hood will look extended to the ceiling even though this one isn't configured as mine is. I like the fel of this kitchenn as well. The window that comes low to the sink, the white hood, darker countertops... 3) Again, darker counters. This one made me realize I wanted polished nickel hardware as the dark wasn't my taste. I saved this one as our range is a little offset like that so we're doing a similar thing with our glass cabinetry and flanking the range with solid on each side to create symmetry by the range. Another low window by the sink. 4) This one has a nice feel to it because of the warmth brought by the dark top of the island. I could imagine the perimeter being dark also. The backsplash was nice. 5) There are elements I've always really liked about this kitchen though it's darker overall than I ultimately want to go with my own (the hood and the island, etc.) But it's stunning and I do refer to it. 6) More country/vintage than I prefer but I like the dark perimeter with the light island countertop as well as the polished nickel hardware on the perimeter. I like that she did ORB for the lighting accents. It seems to work here and I may or may not look at doing that. We're flanking our 6 foot window with glass cabinets. I love this window treatment (though the kitchen itself has a different feel than the above b/c of the different floor, etc): Misc (counters, lights): Anyway, my purpose wasn't to give you inspiration photos but to show you what you can take away from photos. Like I said, I started with tons. And one day, I sat down with them all (online, magazines, printouts, etc) and started eliminating based on initial reactions. I started realizing the super light, white ones were too stark for us. Once I got a feel down, I then could get nitpicky about other things...hardware (polished nickel and not ORB), etc. I have several photos which may be too many for some. For me it works because I've taken elements from them that I look to. But I'm very visual and like that reference. Others may get confused with a wide scope. If you have lots and need to narrow it down to three, then do so. But it doesn't have to be just one.

The vanity and faucet have strong, modern, masculine lines, so I would stick with this feeling around the vanity area. I'd avoid adding more girly bling and sparkle. I don't see any vintage or cottage elements, so I'd avoid those designs. I would limit the chrome to your plumbing fixtures. Chrome has a cool blue undertone, and your color palette is warm. Maybe the RH Powell sconce?

Thanks for your thoughts - yes, we're doing the same grey for the shower/bath walls and floor (though a 3" mosaic of the same tile for the shower floor). We do like the deco tile, but it's a bit pricey, so we don't want to go crazy with it. The wood (walnut veneer) is for the vanity - the photo shows some of the different stains we've been playing with, but we're looking at the center stain, which is essentially a natural walnut color. The sidelights actually are a 2"x18" square tube with a 4"square center mount. So they're pretty narrow. But they theoretically throw off 900 lumens each (will have dimmers). Two cans above and behind, along with the Panasonic LED Fan/Light, should be enough. I'm thinking of having the electrician run another wire up on the far end of the room that could be used to power any additional lighting in case we felt it necessary, via a soffit. Also, there is a pretty good sized window over the tub itself, which should bring in some light - although, we're pretty much in the woods facing north on that side of the house, so the light will typically be subtle. But there will be some natural light. I've thought about the idea of going white, but it feels like it might hide things like the sinks, and be too much of a contrast with the rest of the room. Is it too odd to use one color for the vanity top, and a different color for the shower bench surface, beyond the cost of finding a different material? I've been thinking now of trying to use more of the ($) deco tile to highlight some space, such as the right hand side of the vanity, but I don't know.... This is somewhat outside of my normal color palette - I typically go beige/"greige", which we mostly did in the Kitchen a couple of years ago, but DH really wanted to go with a grey for the MB. Fortunately, this grey does have some bits of brown in it, so we can make it work with the wood vanity, but I'm not as confident about what works. I really appreciate any interesting ideas that might liven it up (in a subtle way...) Thanks!