Why not take samples of your cupboard finishes and counter material, and go shopping? When I did my kitchen, I was overwhelmed (in a good way) by the choices available in any of the local tile shops available to me. Don't try to confine your options by presuming there is only ONE PERFECT backsplash that will work in your kitchen. There are probably hundreds, or thousands, although you will want to pare down those numbers pretty quickly. So go shopping, and see what's out there. Some will turn you off immediately, while some will stick in your memory, or even "sing" to you.

White paint was too expensive except for the best parts of the house. The inventories for the neighborhood houses (1830s-40s) list a (cheaper) trim color called stone or buff, that was probably a warm light grey, and this is supported by some of the lowest layers of paint on my woodwork. (On the third floor) The hidden portion of my pocket shutters was an ochery light gold kind of color, and it appeared to be a single layer of paint. However, since this surface was hidden when open and faced out when covering the windows it lends credence to the theory that they may have been white and this is how the 170 year old paint oxidized. I did pick a dark charcoal grey as one of my cabinet colors, but more to match the black&gold marble fireplaces than to be "period". So while I do agree that a second color may be good for the unfitted look, maybe not something as strong as black necessarily. As far as the baseboards go, a paint analysis of Lemon Hill, a Federal house here, indicated that there was a dark brown band painted around the entire perimeter of the room corresponding with the lower portion of the baseboard, the doors and their surrounds and the mantlepieces, as if a level line had been painted around the entire room without regard to what detail it was going on. This was apparently done because the floors were mopped or swept with sand and the dark band camouflaged spatter.

Thank you ALL for your kind comments!! waterpondgal, No, our island does not have a seam. Hmmm, that is a good question. The only seam we have inside is at our kitchen sink. Then our outdoor countertop is a long run with one seam. I don't mind it outside, but I'm not sure if I would want that inside...especially if there is no stovetop or sink to distract from the seam. Maybe you can post your question here on GW and see if anyone has/had the same experience? I know I have done a search of granite seams in the past here. Some of them looked fine, but it also depends on the type of granite you have (color, amount of movement, etc). Maybe you can ask your granite fabricator to show you pics of some seams that they have done? Good luck! desertdance, thanks so much! We had a similar issue. I could've put a wall up between the kitchen and the great room. That would've allowed me to either have more upper cabinets or have a stove with a mosaic backsplash. But in the end we chose to keep the open floorplan. It allows us to enjoy more views from the great room as well. I think you will be happy with your choice, I love looking at the views everyday! Just make the most of your cabinets, such as organizers, drawers instead of lower cabinets and/or pull out shelves in your lower cabinets. Good luck with your new kitchen, I'm sure it will be lovely! ppbenn, thank you so much! We use the pantry fridge like a fridge that people would have in their garage or basement...all the extras such as extra milk, drinks, meats, etc. OR anything that just doesn't fit in the main fridge. I love having the extra fridge right there without having to run down to the garage! I do think that I might still get an extra freezer for the garage one day :)

There are two main reasons why it might be easier to hire someone. The first reason is that kitchen cabinets require a lot of work to do them right. In addition to the normal prep involved in say painting a bookshelf, one must degrease cabinets carefully to insure any grease from cooking doesn't interfere with the new paints adhesion. Also all the doors have to be removed (as well as all hinges and hardware so they don't get any paint on them). These extra steps all add up time-wise. The second reason is that it is a huge inconvenience to have your whole kitchen taken apart and unusable for the duration of the project. This can be compounded by the fact that you may be at work during the day and painting at night. This means you would only be able to paint a few hours a night, which means the loss of your kitchen for a longer time. A professional would be there all day every day until the work is done which would translate into less time with your kitchen in chaos. Any other room in the house is not that much of an inconvenience if you cannot use it, but the kitchen is really tough to have out of commission. Then there is the dust control. When you are sanding the cabinet frames you need to have good dust control so that no dust gets all over your food or pots and pans in the cabinets. (I am assuming here that you are just painting frames and doors, not the inside of the cabinets.) A pro can quickly cover the inside of the cabinets with plastic, and will have sanders that have Hepa vacuum hookups both of which will insure no dust gets where it shouldn't be. I hope that helps.