I've been reading for a long time, but will probably be doing my remodel in Jan/Feb along with you. :) I'll try to give you my opinion on your questions since I'm planning to do a black and white kitchen myself.

1. I think the angled cabinet in your inspiration kitchen is that way so as to not impede a walkway area. If you want a 24 inch wide utility cabinet, I'd put it in and then do shelves at the top for your cookbooks if that's what you want. In my opinion, a 9 inch cabinet wouldn't be worth the money...just wasted space.

2. I've seen quite a few drawer base cabinets with containers in them. I think they would work quite well for your non-traditional pantry items. I "think" it's remodelfla who showed pictures of her containers in a base cabinet drawer where she stores flour, sugar and the like. A similar arrangement would probably work very well for you.

3. You could do a couple of different things over your range to give you a different look. Glass doors on the cabinets over the range would add some oomph, or you may be able to get a custom cabinet door that allows display of something like a plate directly in/on the door. Or, you could do what I want to do above my sink..I'm installing a 42 inch tall cabinet with a shorter door. The bottom shelf of mine will give me a place for baskets to hold produce, but yours could act as a mantel type space if you like.

4. I'm reusing my double-bowl stainless steel sink since it's in excellent shape. I don't think that an undermount sink is worth the money in my extremely tight budget and I prefer two bowls rather than one.

5. I think your inspiration picture has either white or gray countertops. Basically, almost any color looks good with white cabinets (in my opinion). I'm planning on either chocolate brown or black counters if I can't afford my first choice, which is Uba Tuba granite. If you like a light brown color, I think it would look gorgeous. My best advice on choosing a quartz color is to take a color sample in when you choose the countertops and find one that's close to your sample.

Good luck. I can't wait until we're both posting pics of our finished kitchens! :)

For the hood, another option would be a classic wood hood, like one of these (there are other makers, this is just an example).

They sell cottage style hoods and the pieces to make the more mantel style ones, but they're much smaller than the one in your photo

Here is a link that might be useful: wood hoods

Thanks.

here are some clarifications/comments. :)

1. The order of stuff on that wall is the angled cabinet, then the refrigerator (behind that wall-thingy), and then the utility cabinet. If I do away with the angled cabinet, the utility cabinet could be bigger.

2. Where could I find links to her kitchen? I'd love to see the set up.

3. Do you have a picture? I'm having a hard time picturing this.

Good luck with your kitchen too!

Twinkletoesmomma.. soon to be shortened to Twink lol.. welcome! You have come to the right place to post your queries. People here are amazing, full of good ideas, helpful hints, and lots of hand holding when you need it.

Please take the time to take a look at another site often called FKB or Finished Kitchens Blog. I don't see remodelfla's kitchen there, but you can type the name into the search bar at the bottom of this page (not the top one), and it will find you anything that remodelfla has posted here (within reason timewise...some threads fall off the site after a while).

Good luck, and enjoy the journey! It will be bumpy, make you grumpy, and at times you may wonder why you started.. but as a certain hubby of mine keeps saying: "the best is yet to come!".

Here is a link that might be useful: Try looking here for inspiration or ideas.

Twinkle,

1. I get what you're saying now. I'd definitely lose the angled cabinet in favor of a little more utility closet space! To me, that tiny 9 inch cabinet is going to hold very little, maybe some toilet paper. Not worth it.

2. Countrykottage explained how to do a search for a specific poster. If I remember correctly, I saw the pics of in-drawer containers in a thread with "Containers" in the name. Perhaps a search on that will bring it up for you. The thread is recent...and I'll look as soon as I figure out how to bring the link back here. :)

3. I don't have a picture of the set up I want to do over my sink. The shelf with baskets was actually inspired by something I already have over my sink. My DH installed a 2x4 above the valance that is currently over my kitchen sink, then attached two large hooks to hold the dollar store metal three-tiered baskets so I have a place for onions, potatos, etc. I want to put a shelf there to hold regular baskets since we are putting a cabinet there in the remodel.

I'm not sure how well you can see this, but the basket is hanging to the right side of the sink:

And here is a very rough sketch of what I want to do:

Maybe those pictures help?

We're removing the window behind the sink because it leads into another room, the enclosed sun porch.

Thank you all! I still would like to see the containers by remodelfla. I can't seem to find it.

Hi, Twinkletoes. Your inspiration look is gorgeous.

I don't have experience of 8-9" for a utility closet, but I had a 12"-deep by 26"-wide one that worked so extremely well that I essentially copied it in my new kitchen. I put a full-length shelving rack on the door to hold various cleaning supplies, string, light bulbs, and so on right at hand. That used up between 3 and 4 inches of depth, and the closet still had room to hang my broom, mop, dustpan, etc., from rings under an upper shelf because they swung slightly diagonally as needed on their own as the door closed. A couple of shelves on one side (26" wide cabinet, narrower door) held more stuff, with fly swatter, umbrella, and whatever hanging below that. And 12" for the upper shelves is more than enough room to lose odd bottles of cleaning product. I never missed or wanted more depth in that closet and think 8-9" shelves could work well. You might measure what you want to store there before deciding, remembering that brooms can find the room they need if they're free to turn on rings.