DH has finally agreed to some updates to our kitchen. Pretty exciting for me, as anything I have changed in my kitchen, I've had to DIY. We are replacing the two 36' base cabinets on either side of the stove with drawer bases, replacing some doors that were warped and getting a new countertop and sink. We are also adding some Rev-a-Shelf blind corner pull-outs for our corner cabinets.

I am trying to reuse as much as I can, since our budget is really small (less than $3500). Our cabinets are painted grey (Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations Winter Fog unglazed) and I will be getting Formica 180FX Calacatta Marble countertops with the ogee IdealEdge. I have black hardware on my cabinets and a beautiful new Venetian bronze faucet that I would love to keep. (The photo still shows the old satin nickel faucet.) We were thinking about a Blanco sink, and the KD suggested the metallic grey, but I wonder how that will look with the ORB faucet, since the faucet has warm tones in it. The white Blanco chip looked dingy next to the new counter sample, and KD was against that. (I have a white sink now, and love how it looks with the ORB faucet.) She recommended stainless, but I will only do that if I HAVE to, since it is neither my husband's nor my favorite kind of sink.

My faucet is less than six months old and I really don't want to replace it. If we do stainless, we can do an undermount (yes, even with laminate) but I wonder how a stainless sink will look in a kitchen with black/ORB hardware and light fixtures. Changing out the hardware isn't really in the budget, and I like the hardware I have now. Does it look weird to have mixed metals like that? All my appliances are white and will stay that way.

Also, since I am going to have to repaint the doors of the island anyway (they are warped and being replaced), I was wondering about going with a darker grey color for the island instead of the red. Is this too many colors going on? Would it create a big 'black hole' in the middle of the kitchen? I would like to have something different on the island to make it easier to change out if I get bored with the red. (Been thinking about purples lately...)

I appreciate any help I can get. This forum has already helped me reorganize my kitchen and make it function better and convinced my DH to put in undercabinet lighting for me, so both he and I know that you guys know your kitchen stuff.

{{!gwi}}