Thank you SO much everyone! Being short on time at this moment I'll just start responding to as many replies as I can at this moment - even if not in order as my thoughts are flying - and hopefully can finish my replies soon! :) But I just want to thank you for now. I really appreciate the time you each took to give me some thoughtful feedback. I see now what Johnliu meant by curved appliances cause I stopped at Sears today since I was one store away and I saw exactly how they look modern. Chicagoans - Sadly, we don't have gas, and the electric stoves are BUTT UGLY. But it doesn't really matter right now either way since I'm not in the market for a stove yet. As for the same sheen as the counter: the typical stainless fridge (some sheen) is close enough to the counter which is your basic polished stainless (at least it isn't brushed/matte). I'm not sure I could afford a paneled DW but I'll definitely look into it. The thing is, I don't know what our lower cabinets will eventually look like. For now, they're cheap flat things, though solid wood, w/ no detail - no molding. I think they were put in in the '50's or so. Marcolo - The upper ones are the original ones and no of course I wouldn't replace them! I think they're great! I don't know if their doors were originally below or not (never stopped to measure). Palimpsest - I've seen those colorful fridges before but never pursued because I have specifics I need in a fridge (e.g. size, and maybe ice and water or at least on the inside) and I assumed these retro ones would be pretty limited in those ways - particularly size. I also prefer the freezer on the bottom. The old fridge is presently standing right next to one of the doorways into the kitchen, with nothing near it besides the servant's stairs that go up to yet another door. One of the original cabinets is above it, though I had to remove the door and cut the cabinet bottom off (!) in order to fit the fridge there originally. I think the fridge's new location will be on the wall opposite the counter/sink, and it will stand just to the left of a chimney that sticks annoying out into the room and which isn't coming down anytime soon (chimney's plastered over and painted same color as kitchen walls). The only way to make the fridge look built in there would be to get a counter-depth one and even then the chimney only comes out of the wall 25" so with the back grill things and the doors of the fridge, I'm guessing the fridge would stick out a few more inches if getting counter-depth. I didn't want that but maybe it's worth it (the Samsung has a 23 cu. ft. CD french door fridge). Not sure what to do there but the nice 29 cu. ft. fridges would REALLY stick out. Covingtoncat - I like appliances that have some stainless and then either white or black. I wanted to find a fridge that was white w/ stainless handles but none of the reputable ones offered that. altagirl - your link to your "almost done" pics showed it's an empty album (?) so I didn't get to see any examples of old style kitchen w/ new style appliances. :( But I agree w/ the general idea. Like I said, period within reason. Thanks again!

Wow, another thing I love/hate about GW - it always makes you think and sometimes second guess! I will have creamy cabinets (with a slight coffee glaze) and a cherry island. My copper farmhouse sink is sitting right beside me and I am in love with it and it isn't even out of the box. However, I did not even give a thought to appliance colors - thanks for that!!!! I will have a stainless steel w/black double oven on the wall opposite the sink. The fridge/freezer will have panels. The cooktop is black w/ss trim and the microwave is ss built-in on the same wall as the sink. My dishwasher is the one throwing a wrench in the whole thing because it is only a few years old and so we have decided not to replace it. I thought I had bought one that could accept a panel - but I didn't so that will be black and right next to the sink. Anyway, my point is I think SS appliances will be fine. I never considered that they wouldn't. I sort of consider them as neutral. Take a look at the finshed kitchen blogs under copper sinks. There aren't alot of them but they will give you an idea of what others have done. Also, I think if you can find hardware that has some copper elements to it, that would be a nice tie-in with the sink. Now, what are you doing about a faucet? That's where I've been spending my time lately! Good luck.

My realtor said SS appliances are a must to sell. We were reaching the point where all our appliances had to be replaced. They were not functioning well. So because we are moving in a year we now have new SS appliances, except the fridge. I don't like them very much compared to my old white ones. The fingerprints are super annoying but I hope to purchase some products this week to help. The worst is the Bosch DW with fingerprints. I looked in many kitchen showrooms and there were no other appliances to see. They were all SS. So while you can still order white, its really difficult to see it in person before you purchase. That is a huge frustration since as we know, "white" comes in so many different shades. I do think the newer slate is kind of interesting. We'll see where that goes. And you can always buy those big appliance magnets that change the color!! LOL!

One way of being warm is by using warm colors. Sounds obvious, but the difference can be really striking. You didn't say what color the glass tile backsplash will be. Or what color you were thinking of for the range. Bluestar number 8023 and 8004 are very warm without being primary, and most of the colors under 5000 are also warm. If you coordinate your backsplash tiles with one of them, the kitchen can't help but have a warm feeling, even if you painted the cabinets ice blue :) On the other hand, icy, wintry colors are going to give you that cold look that you don't want, so stay away from pale blues and purples, greys, browns and blacks. You can also warm up the room with bright, cozy accents, in warm colors, like a cookie jar, fun clock, or bright colored small appliances. The trick to making it not look industrial is first to have a few things out, rather than all put away like you would in a sterile environment, and then to be sure the things you do display are broken up in color, rather than monotone. I chose to post the items below because they show the principle of broken up color. Whatever your taste is you can do this, except if it's "clean, industrial", since that's what you're trying to get away from. Basically a "warm" look is opposite to a "clean" look.