My first impression is that it's just that the island is a little too red with your floor. Staining it darker - espresso or walnut brown (or even black would work though it won't have the same type of warmth) might change how you feel. And adding grey in fabrics, stools etc. could satisfy your need for grey. The thing about staining it too is that if you really find that it doesn't help you love your kitchen and you're still stuck on grey, you can have it painted then and it's paint over stain as opposed to layers of paint. And you can't really go in the opposite direction - from paint to stain - without a lot of headaches. But the bottom line is that it's your kitchen and you get to pick what you like and if the answer is a grey island then go for it.

Depends. Chelsea in a north facing office would be wonderfully moody. But if moody isn't the mood you're looking to achieve then it's not a good move. North light in our hemisphere is never direct into fenestration rather it sort of tumbles and stumbles in. As a result, various things can happen to the light beams along the way. Most common is the blue portion of the spectrum makes it way into the space more so than the other parts. Which is why many refer to north light as blue or cool. While that may or may not be true in every case, it's pretty safe to say that beams of north light are overall well balanced with a tendency toward cool blue-ish-ness. And it is dim on a scale from dim to bright -- because it's not direct. Dim qualities of light do well with saturated, midtone or darker color. Chelsea or Hale Navy would play nicely into, and capitalize on the natural characteristics of north light. I'd say choose your mood. For example, moodily sophisticated Chelsea, or a classically understated and dignified navy. Both equally appropriate for the function of an office.

I told the GC and the electrician that we couldn't put an outlet on the panel under a seating overhang but they didn't listen and we failed the inspection. You can't have an outlet under an overhang of more than 6". The inspector did say that we could use a surface mounted box right at the edge of the overhang. It's ugly and I hate it. We are going to figure out a better solution. I have seating on 2 sides of the island, a bookshelf on the other short side, and drawers all across the front. I REALLY wish we had planned a strip at the top of the drawers for a few outlets. As for the OP's question, I would paint the outlet and cover plate to match the island.

You’ve got some structural design issues here. Time to drop back to the initial plan and fix a few things. You have to work with your material selection. This is trying to work outside those limitations, and doesn’t account for engineering for counter support or a few other things already noted. Post your plan.