mtnrdredux - I'd love to see your floors! Love the dark, but they do show every speck of dust, so I might lean towards a medium stain if I ever do these floors again. It's funny, whenever I drop something on my floors and see the new dent I've created, I just shrug my shoulders and tell myself it adds character. A few times we've had to sand and apply more stain and tung oil when I dropped something sharp enough to chip the wood. I couldn't imagine being worried about keeping my floors in pristine condition with how clumsy I am. justgotabme - I'm not sure about trying to age the cabinets. They have a really heavy grain, very different from my pine table, and the natural color tends towards yellow, not brown. What if I end up with a hot mess! I guess then it would at least be easier to convince DH to replace them :) If the uppers weren't arched, I would paint and lightly glaze without a second thought.

You have lots of options when it comes to manipulating open spaces with color. Can you post some pictures of the rooms from several angles? If you shoot the view from each vantage point...what you see from the kitchen, what you see from the dining room, and views of all the windows and doors and openings...That would help us help.

Thanks folks! I'm going to find out if I can take one home just to try it out. I think it meets our needs, especially since hubby preferred stools and I wanted one with backs as I hope to be spending a lot of time at the island! The tops of the stools are 35" and our island with countertop is slightly over 36", so the stools won't even peek over the countertop at all. Here's another photo of it which gives a better sense of the true scale and dimensions.

snookums - I do lean towards the warmer white and the ORB hardware, just like the finishes in your pictures (love those pulls!). That's a great example of white cabinets blending well with the copper and natural wood details. I just posted on my other post on Home Dec that if I paint my current cabinets I would use SW Antique White, which matches all my trim, and I think that's pretty close to what you've shown. Of course, the style of my cabinets aren't as beautiful as all the ones in these pictures, but it could make a big difference! Thank you, rosie. Those are my wood floors, although I have slate tile in the kitchen (shown below). I really like that too and it will stay if I paint my current cabinets, but will be replaced if I do a larger-scale remodel. I'm not sure if I would bring the soft pine floors into the kitchen or choose another tile floor. We've done several improvements - replaced all the electrical, drywall, ceiling, paint, new wood slider and crown/baseboard, and installed the recessed lighting and pendants, but everything else is from the PO. I've since replaced those terribly uncomfortable metal barstools with Pottery Barn wood stools. We're shopping for a stainless steel counter-depth refrigerator right now and I'd like to switch out all the appliances, because I know having mixed finishes is going to bother me. I also wouldn't want black appliances if I paint the cabinets white. There's a lot of wasted space on the other side of the room that I would like to expand into with a stand alone island and more cabinetry if we do a larger-scale remodel. I don't usually post pics of my kitchen but here goes.