One of the features of a very modern cabinet design is its severity. That means strictness, geometry, and form sometimes trump functionality. That's part of the reason my kitchen isn't more "modern." We had a custom guy build ours and we did a lot of screwy things in configuring our drawers but together we found ways to camouflage it to some extent. Adjacent drawer sets have same drawer fronts. In two spots I wanted a bin at bottom, but the cabs adjacent to bins do not have drawers so the variation is not obvious; one of these has a shorter upper because of the pull-out board, one does not. No one would notice without looking for it because they're not adjacent. Here's the wall where the drawers match exactly. Cabs are "Shaker" and only slightly modern in feel. Ignore the stuff on the countertops if you can. Each of the top drawers is shallow because of the pull-out above it. If you look very hard you will see that on the left-hand wall there is a set of 3 drawers that are all of a different size than any of the ones on the longer wall but the top one has same bottom edge as the top ones on the long wall, which homogenizes them. I will say that if I had it to do over, I'd have put an extra inch into these two shortened upper drawers (in photo) that got stinted because of my pull-out boards. Although I usually don't need the height for my flatware, I've found that things fly up and jam the drawer. I have one silver fork that is awaiting a trip to the doctor because I didn't realize I was bending it when I jammed the drawer. One idea: can you get a double-decker inner drawer within a cabinet or drawer, suspended from the top of inside of cab or riding over the contents of the drawer? I assume you have a custom cab maker but I see these things in catalogs also. And don't forget that you can use aftermarket roll-out shelves inside a cabinet. We put a regular cabinets below each of two drawers that flank our range. Inside the cabs we put roll-outs. This allows us to reconfigure the innerds by re-doing the shelves if we need to and the assymetry within the cabs does not affect the symmetry seen when cabs are closed. We used a nailed-on cleat to keep the roll-out shelf from kicking upward when extended. I have a stock pot in my lower roll-out. I like the roll-outs better than drawers for pots--I can see easier, find things quicker, and only need to open the cabinet door once and the roll-outs can both be extended nearly equally and 3/4 of my stuff is partly visible. If I had two or more drawers to open and shut and open again while searching for a pan or lid it would drive me nuts. But then, I have a lot of pans and I store them and their lids as densely as I can and there is no permanent spot for most of them. I don't have the luxury of multiple drawers with custom spots for each pot and the lids. Remember, it's okay to put some pots elsewhere, if they're still accessible. Stock pots can go into a basement, garage, or pantry. Unless you're cooking for a crowd frequently or you make a big recipe daily, you don't need to let the tail wag the dog. (I've shaken off the idea that when organizing, "like always goes with like." I've broken apart my knives--some are at bread & sandwich & cheese & sausage station by refrig; the chopping knives are in the slit by the chopping station. My utensils are adjacent to the area where they're used, not categorized as being "utensils" generically and dumped into a couple utensil drawers. Same with larder items--they are stored where they are used; coffee by beverage station; cereals near cereal bowls; snacks by beverage station; flour by baking; etc. ) I second the idea of having all the grain on your cabs and drawers run horizontally. This almost immediately homogenizes variations in a mod kitchen. There is a rule, there is discipline.

I agree with the no-stagger suggestions. However I wanted to toss out another possibility for incorporating the molding if you do stagger. I'm actually doing this in my kitchen, but it hasn't happened yet so I can't attest to whether it will work. But in one spot the designer placed 1" spacer for the molding to die into; my molding will be very small though. Honestly, I don't see what the big deal is and in general, I'd rather have cabinet space than dead filler, but I was assured this would matter and I don't think the sacrificed cabinet space would have been all that useful as it happens. So I thought I'd mention that possible solution. That said, again, given your drawings the staggered setup looks forced to me. Just busy and kinda: "why"? It sounds as if you've made up your mind in this direction already but I thought I might help you to feel more comfortable with it. I think xc60's staggers symmetrically flank the range but what you have posted go up and down; they jiggle rather than frame, if you follow. I think you made the right choice! As I was worrying about too-heavy uppers I think it was boxer (probably!) who posted a bunch of pictures. One technique is to put glass in the *upper* part of your upper cabinet door. I thought it looked very elegant. Course you have to live elegantly for it to look elegant, so that shut things down for us straight away! But perhaps you can pull the serenity off.

Here are photos to show you the two colors we used for the cabinets. IMO 2 colors work especially well in medium-large to large kitchens. At first, I thought the chairs should match the cabinets and we bought the chairs in the below photos until we found others, but now I like that they are a different stain. (I've posted these before so it's possible you've seen these.) Years ago when we did some landscaping I heard that you should do things in odd numbers. I don't know if that carries over to interior decorating but we have 3 pcs in cream: island, hutch, and hood.

Between 1 and 2, I think I like 2, but you might want to repost so that people could see the countertop and cabinets in the picture. Between 3 and 4, I like 3. I agree that you should keep the staggering going in the tile in the rows above and below the mosaic. Very pretty tile and mosaic! I still think the best solution is to pay the electrician to move the outlets and turn them 90 degrees so the shape of the outlet mirrors the shape of your tile. Of course, it is the most expensive choice. I am glad you decided not to interrupt the lines of the mosaic! If you do choose to go with two rows of mosaic, can you use more of it elsewhere, like in your backsplash behind your cooktop/range?