About half of my kitchen is the same Brookhaven cabinets that sarahandbray has. They are wonderful -- well made adn beautifully finished. Since I just saw a thread about cabinet depth, I will point out that standard wall cabinet depth on Brookhaven is 13" and allows you to fit larger plates and bowls in your upper cabinets. Don't get trapped into thinking that wood is necessarily better than composite materials. There are different grades of wood (generally plywood) and MDF, poarticle board or other composites. I've had plenty of plywood around here for home and school projects. In fact, there is a sheet sitting under concrete blocks on my driveway because it had some serious warping issues. Plywood is very vulnerable to warping. I can also tell you that in the two years since I had my cabinets installed, I have had several water issues -- my plumber didn't connect the prep sink properly. I had a leak inside the cabinet. Even though I mopped it up and thought I caught it fairly quickly, the bottom of the cabinet bubbled in places. No -- it wasn't MDF or particle board. This was inside my all wood Woodmode cabients on the island. On the other hand, I had water run through the pan of my rangetop and down into the cabinet belwo when someone turned their back on the new and fast flowing potfiller. I was sure there would be a problem, but you would never know. Similarly, the main sink and faucet were also not connected properly (the plumber was the source of the bigger pains in my remodel). I have had water in the bottom of that cabinet at least three times before everything was caught and hopefully fixed. No problems there either. Both the rangetop and main sink cabinets are Brookhaven. Another thing -- my KD ordered the cabinets on the end of each run with wood sides -- not because they wood was better but because she wanted to assure that the finish was the same on the ends as on the front (I have seen the two materials with the same finish and they do look different). Overall construction and finish should be more important that generic terms like "wood" or "MDF". I have heard of Crystal here but don't know anything about them personally. I don't get the imprssion that they are on par with Brookhaven though. If Brookhaven and Kraftmaid are within a few hundred dollars, I have no doubt that I would pick Brookhaven -- for the finish (which also has a lot to do with how well your cabinets last over the years), the added inch of depth and the overall quality. Plus, you have the Woodmode company behind you if you have any problems.

Marcy--I didn't see you there! Wow, you read this whole thing and didn't pass out from confusion or boredom?! I didn't think about the hair issue. DS is 5 and should always have short hair. DD is only 18 months old. It's hard to think of them as big people with different features. Maybe that one-time hair swing into the prep sink behind will be enough of a deterrent. ;) And the cooktop in the photo of that kitchen would scare me regardless even if there wasn't a bench there as the counterspace around it is minimal at best. I do love the cushion fabric! Sherriz--I meant to thank you for showing me your gorgeous kitchen again. I love your space! The B.A., the floors, the ceilings, the banquette, the cabs, everything. Your photo actually helped convince me that white island cabs were the way to go for me in my house. If I had a kitchen your size, I would have done a dark island.

I'm in the same boat. After months of agonizing over whether to paint, reface, or just gut the whole thing, I made a decision to embrace what I have. Changes that have drastically improved my kitchen's appearance include: 1) Changed hardware and lighting fixture to an oil-rubbed bronze. Made a trip to Home Depot and for less than $100 purchased knobs, pulls, and a template for drilling holes. 2) Changed appliances from white to stainless. Pleasantly surprised by how nice the stainless looks with the oak cabs and the bronze fixtures. 3) Painted two of my 4 walls chocolate brown. The other 2 walls are transitional to other rooms, and are an orangey-yellow. Those walls don't have any cabinetry - too yellow to enhance the oak, but they complement the chocolate nicely. I have lots of cream trim to help further break up the oak. I should add that I have a similar layout, in that I have a large window that looks out onto a natural setting. My kitchen faces north and I was concerned that using brown would make everything too dark. I'm shocked that the whole room looks so much better with the strong color. Everything that looked flat and tired suddenly looks fresh and new. The view out the back window is especially enhanced, with the trees and sky framed by the chocolate. Best $50 I've spent! A couple of suggestions. Consider adding glass panels to some of your wall cabinet doors. Wouldn't it be great to somehow pick up that stained glass detail from your window? Consider modifying your oven cabinet to house a microwave and some additional open storage, and then installing a 27" or 30" single oven under the counter somewhere. A carpenter can modify an existing cabinet to house an oven. You lose storage in a base cabinet but you seem to have storage to spare. What you really want is a larger oven. Or...if you are planning to replace your countertop, use that opportunity to rearrange some base cabinets. You could move your existing drawer unit from under the cooktop and install an oven in that space. Of course the drawer unit is awesome and would need to be reinstalled elsewhere. I personally have a lot of cream stoneware and glass accessories and those serve to "break up" the expanses of oak and to brighten the area. As an alternative, strong colors would also warm up and brighten the space - especially a colorful rug of some type. With the pink and the oak, I think pastels, beiges, etc are the kiss of death.

I am not sure how many linear feet I have, but here are the details.... Base - 27-inch 3 drawer, blind corner (not sure on the size), 15-inch full height garbage, 33-inch fluted clipped corner sink base, 2 super susan cabinets, two 18-inch door/drawers, 30-inch 3 drawer for pots and pans (has stronger drawer glides to handle weight), 12-inch door/drawer. All with soft-close glides. Uppers - 36-inch pantry with deluxe undermount soft close glides, 2 frig panels, 27-inch, 2 large angled corner cabinets, four 24-inch, 30-inch over stove, fluted columns, one 12 inch angled, decorative door for end of peninsula, panel for back on peninsula, simple crown molding, toe kick, scribe molding, stainless steel tilt out. No pullouts other than in the pantry. Here is a mid-progress pic. Cherry, sunset stain, Lennox Court door style from Home Depot. One thing about price, when you have a large order, Home Depot will send your quote to the "bid room" and you can negotiate a lower price. I can't remember how much we saved doing that, but I recall it was quite a savings...maybe $1,000. If I can find the info on the linear feet I will let you know.