Thanks for all of the responses! I'm glad to hear that this has worked for most of you. I found a RTA cabinet online that looks to be the same finish and door style as her vanity. They are in separate areas so even if it's not a perfect match it could work. Since it is RTA I'm thinking we could cut it all down on the table saw before putting it together. The other option would be to build as is and recess into the wall as many of you have suggested. The biggest issue being that our master bedroom is on the other side and I don't think it would be possible to remove the studs and reframe and not have to replace the drywall on the other side, which is probably more work than I could talk DH into. I'm also going to look into just purchasing doors and a couple of 3" filler strips in the color I'd need, build our own box to a depth of 8-9 inches and then make a face frame out of the filler strips and attach the doors.

Roses - As mairin says, colors look different on different computers. I don't see the pink either, but pink would not be right with your granite. Hold the tile next to pure white to try and see its true tones. This is also where you can use input from people who can see the actual sample and the real granite. Invite some friends over to look at it; go back to the granite yard with the tile sample and ask everyone around, even other customers. Ask the tile people about the pinks - they'll have so many colors to compare it to. If you have a granite sample take it with you. Another thing you can do to check undertones in the color is get some paint chips (the cardboard ones) in pale shades of each of pink, gray, yellow and beige; also pure white. That might help you find the true colors in your tile. I agree you want something neutral (beige/grey/cream) or pale gold, but not pinkish.

So I read this about the 10-20% suggestion -- "The suggested numbers will be skewed at both the low end and the high end. It's really hard to do anything less than a 15K kitchen in a 50K house, as even rental grade components still cost a certain amount. It's the same with the upper end homes in areas where the market hasn't crashed too badly. When you live in a 1950's 1400 square foot box close inside the beltway in DC, you're not likely to spend 100K on a kitchen, even if your home is valued at that 1M. Most of the value is in the land, not the home." I was thinking "holy moly" until I read the qualifier -- five bedroom house in Arlington way inside the beltway (closer to 4k feet than 1.5) and we never ever pondered 100-200k when we were updating our kitchen. With respect to cabinets, we went the other way when updating (not remodeling -- and not gutting and rebuilding) our kitchen. When we bought the house a little over 13 years ago, it had a newly updated kitchen. White Shrock cabinets -- no solid wood was harmed in their construction. We never loved them, but we never hated them either. They're still fine. Heavy use from a family of five (well, 5 for the past 9 years) and they're still fine. Some little issues here and there, but they are not falling apart or listing or coming off the walls. When updating the kitchen early this year we started with the cooking facilities -- a 36" range and proper hood, with adequate ventilation. Added a new floor, because it really was time, a new matching pantry (which does have some solid wood inside), and small things, such as pot racks. We elected not to replace the cabinets because the old ones basically still work for us and the basic white looks fine to us -- not beautiful or lovely or awesome, but fine. Lovely cabinets are lovely, but it's a big kitchen, and the extra 30k or more we might have spent on substantially nicer cabinets was money we chose to keep. Similarly, we kept our granite counters -- not our favorite pattern, but a decent neutral tone, decent counter space, and they've held up just dandy to everything -- hot pans, you name it. I've nothing at all against the up-market cabinet suggestions. Paying for quality materials and workmanship absolutely makes sense if it's in-budget and appreciated. I'm just adding the perspective of somebody who has found a more budget oriented option to hold up fine. For me, the kitchen is about cooking. Storage is necessary, but I start with the cooking equipment -- range or top plus oven(s), ventilation, and prep space. For me -- just my perspective -- the boxes come somewhere down towards last. For free, I'd swap them in a heartbeat, but it's not free.

denizen-Part of what you are running into is that you are shopping for something other than what people like me consider our service. It sounds like you are shopping for cabinet boxes. I consider our service to be a bit more than that, we supply kitchens (no matter who installs them) Yeah we do make our profit by selling cabinets, That has become the most popular model with consumers, very few are willing to pay what would be a real design fee. If you are shopping for a design and not cabinets then you really have to shop for a designer. No one is going to produce a design, or series of them, just to see if you may decide you will pay them. Since you say you are on a budget, and it sounds like you want some design service then it may be that finding the right variations to #4 would suit you. In that case take LWO advice and shop for a designer. There many variations to your #4. I work using a one. We go a bit beyond average to begin with BUT many will give you an estimate based on your plan as it stands now. That at least allows you to determine if they can fit your budget before paying anything. Most won't come out and measure, most won't do much design work but many will discuss things with you. We do give estimates first before accepting a retainer, and most often measure. It's a retainer, not a design fee and is credited toward a purchase. Once a retainer is paid we do hand out drawings but our retainer runs to 12% of the cabinet cost with a minimum of $1000. And yes plenty of folks out there understand this model and have no problem with it. Over the years I have had only 2 people walk away from a retainer- one completely dropped the project because they moved out of state and the other ended up using entirely found furniture. When I first started on my own we seriously thought we would be doing design only work as well. It quickly became apparent that has more problems than it is worth for us. I now only do "design only" work for a few interior designers and an architect. roccocogirl-I went to Parson's 20 years before I came to kitchens. Great school, useful background- but doesn't a KD make. I'd been a designer before I went to school (not kitchens) . After I did more more design work, built a lot of things, a little work in construction, built cabinets, taught myself CAD, designed a few workshops and sections of factories, and had a business (and yeah I've been cooking for over 50 yrs). When I was hired by a real kitchen outfit I'd had one year at a box store. (At the interview they noted that wasn't much kitchen experience, despite my background. I agreed that it wasn't. It is a business after all. They weren't worried about me going off and starting a business, (I only did because I was downsized.) At that first job It took me a solid 6 months to learn the first spec book. It still take that long with a new brand. It was two years before I made a half decent salary. It was a good 5 years before I was comfortably good making a living wage, 10 to get really good. In the meantime I had to learn how to deal with the public. The first designer I hired could barely use a computer and had no degree but was one of the best I've met, She'd been in the business for 30 yrs and could draw. I was training her on the software, It was going to take at least another year for us to make a profit on her work (a primary purpose of having employees) but she added much while with us. I miss her terribly.