I agree with everyone who said to move the shelf down. Even if you don't need to access those items, it looks silly to have them up there. In decorating, we sometimes mimic "real life" to add interest, but it should still look practical. It reminds me of the time that a designer who was helping me with finishing touches in my kitchen put several book displays on top of my kitchen cabinet along with the usual "interesting objects." It just looked ridiculous to me. Why would you have books out of reach in real life? Plaster up the hole and move it down. I also agree with the suggestions to move the chalkboard to another location. It too should "look" useful even if it's not. I was also picturing batter splatter from the mixer :) Maybe you can find one of those framed tile mosaics to hang back there if it looks too bare.

Thanks for the encouragement. I've now gone from dreaming about counter tops to losing sleep. Last night I tossed and turned. I'm just about ready to cry from all of this. Who knew it could be so stressful to pick one island and a countertop. I must just want a kitchen I don't have. The KD of this fancy place said that my surrounding cabinets wouldn't do a honed dark granite justice. That I couldn't pull it off. I know what she means - I really don't like my cabinets at all. But they are decent 42" birch interior, maple stained cabinets made well by a local Amish man. And given the how expensive it would be to do all new everything, we really can't replace everything. So I thought/hoped that by rearranging the kitchen (the cooktop used to be on the island) and by making a really beautiful piece of cabinetry for the island, we could pull off a nicer look and more closely approximate the kitchens I love. The KD's thought was to paint the island white - Linen White by BM and then use a chocolate truffle Caesarstone on everything. I don't mind the white island, because I would love a white kitchen. But the surface of the quartz is what I don't really like. It is a great color, just too speckled looking for my taste. I asked her about using marble and honed granite, etc. and she was pretty positive it wouldn't look good. Mind you, what I have been thinking about for days and days and for hours, took her about 10 seconds to decide. If I trust her - and her kitchen store is the nicest I have ever seen - then I should seriously consider the white island and finding one color counter top. Staceyneil - I absolutely think you hit the nail on the head with the door fronts being the wrong style for the honed look. My husband actually built our last kitchen cabinets, so he is more than capable of building new fronts. I guess it is a matter of the time. We are putting in all new floors ourselves and just moved in a few months ago. But if and when we had the energy, that would make all the difference in the world and certainly would be more cost effective. The cabinet you described is exactly the look we had in our last house. It was natural cherry cabinets with a very simple shaker type door and flat drawer fronts, all full overlay. I miss our house back in NY so much (and my whole family for that matter) but we had to move to PA for a job... And so here we are, and here I am thinking/agonizing about counter tops and spending way too much time on GW! :)

That is a dilemma! Crap, this stuff is hard! Since every manufacturer varies in how much useable space there is with their SS, it would really help if you could get some specs at least, and then mock it up with cardboard. I have 2 36" lazy susans (one with no innards yet, and one with the standard chrome rack with centre pole which has already gone wonky in a few months of very light use). Will it affect the size of the opening. I like mine, I can maneuver bread makers, etc with ease (my apppliances are in the 'empty' LS, not on the chrome rack- it's tippy just with very light potato chips/noodles on it) I have pics of SS in my files, and each one is different. some utilize every inch of space- ie the radius of the circle is maxed to the very edge of the cupboard, some have 1-3" of space wasted, so again, if you could get specs and info on the actual turntable that would help. this one seems to use ALL available space This one seems to waste space around the circumference

I can relate! I don't know if I am making the best possible decisions trying to make this place work. At the age of 63 I moved from a rent controlled apartment to a 96 year old "fixer". I wanted to be able to grow vegetables, so I did not opt for a condo. They are not that much less expensive around here anyway, and for the most part, poorly constructed. The home inspector, and all the contractors who have worked on this place give it flying colors for construction. It is apparently a very solidly built house. We talked the seller down considerably, but it still wasn't cheap. I know going in it would need $35 thousand dollars to replace broken water heater, heating system, plumbing, etc. before I could even move in. I also ripped up the carpet and refinished the beautiful hardwood floors underneath. I also replaced the old, stained fiberglass bath/shower that was growing mold and made me shudder whenever I stepped into it. I figured I would bolt the house to the foundation (living in earthquake country) and leave it at that for a while. Then over New Years, the wind blew down part of my fence and the 20 year old cook top had a gas leak, so PG&E turned off the gas. I couldn't find replacement parts for the old corroded burners, so I bought a new Kitchenaid cook top...WRONG! It emits a low hum even when it is off. I looked it up in the manual, and sure enough, under troubleshooting, it says this hum is a normal part of the functioning of this product. My bedroom is fairly close to the kitchen, and I couldn't sleep, so I returned it (with a 20% restocking fee). Now I have ordered a GE Cafe model cook top. It scores consistently in the top ten cook tops, and I read reviews from two professional chefs who installed them and were very happy. I haven't received it yet. I can't help but wonder if I should have just called Kitchenaid and asked them if they had a quieter model. I live alone, This is all new to me, never having owned a home and not having to deal with these things myself. I don't have anyone to advise me on these things, except friends who laugh, pat me on the back and saying "welcome to home ownership". I am not particularly handy, although I am not opposed to learning. This was supposed to feel liberating, having my own home, but I've been here for 4 months and am feeling very stressed. I'm not thinking of selling though-yet.