Just thought I'd chime in with my lighting plan for the interior of my cabinets. I did LED pucks all around, dimmable. The controllers are mounted in the cabinet above my range hood, which of course is more or less useless given the 8" duct running through it. So I have regular 'Romex' 14/2 wire running from the 2 dimmer switches on my wall to the 2 controller units in that space. Then I ran Romex 14/2 wire and stubbed it out of the walls under each section of cabinets and above each section of cabinets. You can see it stubbed out of the walls in some of the pics. One dimmer controls the interior lighting, one the under cabinet lights. You can't run low voltage wire inside walls, so I roughed in standard 14/2 from the controller units above the range to each isolated section of lighting. The controllers send low voltage current across that full size wire, and then I pigtail on the low voltage wire/LED pucks. All of that wire is just strung from one hole to the other drilled through the cabinets and can be pulled out etc. The under cabinet lighting is all enclosed in light boxes mounted to the bottom of the cabinets - no exposed wiring. The 2 dimmers have to be designed for low voltage lighting - no big deal. But 'digital' dimmers tend to not work - you need the mechanical slider type. In each upper section of cabinet I installed a single puck, in the center. So it's more or less hidden behind the door stiles. In the all glass cabinets I put 2 pucks at the top and they have glass shelves. 19 lights in total. I also have 10 recessed lights in the ceiling, which almost never get used. I wanted LED's for the lack of heat. They're warm to the touch but you can put your hand over them and keep it there - just warm, not hot. 2 years in and the lights have been trouble free. in hindsight I would have skipped the whole dimmer business - we never use the dimmers - always just full on. If we entertained and wanted ambient lighting I suppose dimming them would be nice, but we don't do that often.

Based on advice I'd gotten here, I put my xenon pucks towards the front of the cabinet - about 1/3 way back for 12" deep cabinets. I also have a corner cabinet - he put that puck the same distance from the front of the cabinet as the 12" deep ones. These are short cabinets that go to the ceiling above my regular upper cabinets, that I am using for display, so I have clear glass doors and with the puck closer to the front it's not as noticeable (when looking up at the cabinet) and also shines the light on the front of what I'm displaying (or will, once I get into the kitchen and things in those cabinets!!)

Pbear,you have expressed my same concerns. I had every permutation going with soapstone and wood counters, but now think my 8' ceiling will also make it too heavy. I saw a lovely kitchen in a home for sale yesterday with a sort of china white (maybe darker) cabinet color, kashmir or bianco romano counter, perhaps a crema marfil small subway marble backsplash, and a honey colored oak floor. Very pretty, but worried maybe a tad bland. It was very monochromatic, but calming. Other than soapstone, I really love marble counters, but thought what I saw was a possible alternative to the look. Anybody have pictures with the kashmir type of granite and off white cabinets? I have searched here and found almost nothing. A also saw in a May Traditional home magazine a BM color on the cabinet called misty air used with a gray mystic stone backsplash. However the counters were stainless with a zinc edge (too cold for me). Any thoughts on using kashmir granite counters with misty air cabinet color and gray mystic stone backspash?

Thanks everyone! I really appreciate all the input and advice. Sorry for the delayed reply. After spending months agonizing over where the sink and cooktop should be, there were a dozen "smaller" decisions left over to figure out before sign-off earlier this week. But sign-off I did, at long last! I made a bunch of decisions that go entirely against the majority of the advice I got in response to this and other questions I've posted here. Lol! I feel fantastic about the final decisions, but I'm ready to be humble if I get a few big "I told you so"s when I post my reveal photos! In this case, I decided (sorry in advance!) to go with option 2 but leave the cabinets to the right. Thank you so much for pointing out the many factors to consider. It helped me a lot, even if my choice is an unpopular one! My designer has done a few kitchens recently, including at my brother's house, that depart from the usual conventions and include asymmetry or other uncommon choices. They work surprisingly well and are refreshingly modern even when materials and overall feel is traditional. I'm excited! I should add that my drawing wasn't quite accurate - the cabinets to the right of the cooktop are actually shallower floor to ceiling pantry with no counter top surface (though the countertop will run through) so a bit different from what could have been on the left anyway. And the sightline from the front door is directly to the cooktop window. I'm excited about the open feeling that not having uppers in that spot will give, both in terms of creating a new prep spot without something right in front of my face, and as a nice spot for a piece of art visible from the entry, an unexpected pleasure on a kitchen wall. Installation isn't until end of Feb but I'll be sure to post photos as soon as it's all in.