Hi. I have a similar dilema, I have an all white kitchen, with stainless steel accents and sink and brown hardwoods. I am installing Ubatuba (dark green) in a couple of weeks. I have purchased a white undermount sink for the new granite countertop and I just purchased a white smoothtop cooktop. Even though I have made this purchases, I am second-guessing myself. Do I switch out the white sink for stainless steeel and the cooktop for black/stainless steel? I was thinking the black would just blend too much with the granite and it would be the only appliance in the kitchen that has black, except for the coffee-maker - any suggestions?

I think that the first one (black, white, red) is "contemporary" and they were going for a certain amount of post modernism, and keeping a restricted palette. It's hard to say what it looked like with furniture but I would say the furniture was also black white and red and maybe other primary color. I think it's kind of a Patrick Nagel Poster come to life. The second one, on the surface, sounds the same, but is really a lot different. I would call it a sort of "High Glamour Contemporary" more in a "disco" inspired kind of way. It's not postmodern although some of the elements have roots in post-modernism. I have an idea of what sort of person wants something like this. I had a friend who had a client who came home from the nail salon one day and wiggled her heavily tipped and manicured talons at him and said "I want my Dining Room to look like this". Personally I could deal with the first house on some level, because it's a relative "blank" except for the Memphis-y wallpaper and the bathrooms. I would be extremely uncomfortable in the house in this post. I do think the kitchen in this house is more successful than the one in the first house, which just looks sort of tired and non-committal with the grey instead of black.

nancy_east -- thanks for your nice words! How exciting about your kitchen -- this will be fun to watch develop! The widest walkway we have is 36 1/2" (countertop to countertop), with it going down to 34 1/2" where our apron front sink "jumps" out. From our cooktop to the widest point of the bowed island countertop is 35 3/4". The only times (or rather, areas) our aisles feel tight are when the dishwasher door is open and there's only 12" of clearance (between the open door and the island cabinetry). But so far, no barked shins! We're careful and aware. The other area is our refrigerator (which is 30" wide, all refrigerator so it's a wide door): when it's open the only one who can sidle by (and then it's just barely) is our two year-old. But neither of those conditions are permanent (meaning, the dishwasher is mostly closed and the refrigerator door is mostly closed as well). While 36" for an aisle isn't "ideal," for us it's working out fine. Our only alternative would've been to give up the island and that wasn't an option! We need the storage space. Your aisles will work out fine; if it there's an impediment in the 36" aisle (like a dishwasher), then you all will learn the same careful two-step we and many others have as well! Good luck with your kitchen-in-progress! (and whole house, too!)

violetwest Beware that you cannot remove the images you put in a post. You can however in the comments. So why can't you edit the images in a post? And if that's the case, why isn't it obvious. (it's not necessarily a common website or forum restriction.) There are still lots of people and lots of other reasons to make this available. And as it turns out it doesn't take much coding if any at all to add. I made a mistake when I posted and put images that I would have preferred remove once this post is no longer relevant. Why? Well, cause I should be able to do what I want with my images. (And yes I realize, I made the mistake.) Had I known the stipulations before hand or done any sleuthing I may have noticed and NEVER posted at all. Or simply swapped the images to the comments instead of posting them in the post with my question. But...I was excited to share and although I don't have an issue with the advice I got, it didn't need all the images I posted to get. I guess I'm just not like everyone else...I don't post pics of my belongings everywhere and was disappointed. I'm allowed to be. If you don't get it then don't beware.