I just found this post, and hope it's not too late to leave a comment and get an answer to a question. First, I adore your wonderful kitchen...it's truly a "heart of the home" kind of room. The warm wood countertops are really beautiful, and something I will consider when we re-do ours. Right now, we are looking for a refrigerator that will blend with our Wedgewood 40" stove, and are considering the Fisher Paykel. Since you have one, can you tell me if you like it. We are looking at the model that has the pull out freezer, rather than the swing door, and I think its slightly larger, but basically the same in other respects. We have a four bedroom house, over 2300 square ft., but the kitchen is a galley, about 20 ft long, with 62" of floor space between each side. We have a 36" French door refrigerator right now, but I would like to replace it with one that is 33" so I can gain a couple of inches to the right, where we have only about 12 inches of counter between the fridge and the sink. The alternative to what we have would be either the Fisher Paykel, which is narrower and almost counter depth, or another brand, like Maytag, etc., that is 33" but also 33" in depth....the reason to go to that one is the added interior space. Is the 17.5 cu. ft. in the Fisher Paykel enough? There are only 3 of us at home, but some of my friends feel that it's too small for the size of house we have. Are you happy with the size...does it hold enough...or would you go larger if you were to do it again? Thanks for any opinion or advice...we need to buy something within the next two weeks!

I think I would try changing out the hardware and painting the background wall color above the cabs something dark like a rich chocolate brown. Or a deeper green. That would allow the lighter cabnets to really pop and take center stage. If that doens,t make enough of a change in the room for you then glazing may just be the right thing to do. I think with those cabs glazing could well be the answer your looking for if they were done with a base color thats opposite on the color wheel it would really help to cut the orange your not liking and glazing would be a easier option than a major allover color change. To get a solid color change that matchs on that many cabs would be more difficult then a glaze. I would def. try painting that upper background color first though. I think it would give that kitchen the pop of color it needs to really stand out.

2boyz, you asked if we still like our Ark floors. We are really happy with the way the floors look but we have a golden retreiver so our floors are scratched. The scratches have not damaged the finish, they are more like dents in the wood, but if you look at the right angle you can see them. The scratches from our dog on our old oak floors were much more evident because the flooring had a gloss to it. Our Ark flooring does not have a sheen to it and the slight distressing helps to hide the scratches, but I know they are there! We don't have any areas where the wood has chipped and you see a lighter, unstained color. I love the width of the planks, the color, the very slight bevel but I believe there is just no way to avoid scratches on hardwood floors. So, yes I still am happy with my Ark flooring!

Thank you all for getting back to me. This has been quite helpful. We took a ride out last weekend, we live about 2 hours away in NJ. We worked with Jacob Jr. We took a copy of our architectural plans with us, it has room dimensions and a very basic layout of the stove, sink, fridge, and island. Jacob Jr. will be working out a design for us and sending us an estimate. I'm not sure how long that will take, but we are very anxious to get it. We've priced Home Depot's American Woodmark and are curious how Oxford will compare. We were able to pick from standard cabinet colors and stains. If you wanted to upgrade, there was an additional charge and it is listed on each door in their showroom. The pictures in their album are absolutely gorgeous, they have so many unique ideas for kitchen cabinets. Lucretzia: I can't wait to see your pictures! Robinson622: thank you for all of your info!! ~Kim