Thank you to everyone for all the thoughtful replies! I agree that I shouldn't feel pressured just because there is a sale and normally, I'm not impulsive at all when buying furniture (which drives my husband crazy because I take forever to make decisions!) However, I've never purchased furniture from Ethan Allen before and my understanding is that it rarely goes on sale. With the state of economy, perhaps that is changing. Some of you suggested that I get a quote on a custom piece like this in a painted finish. I did have a number of an Amish carpenter and contacted him today about this so we'll see what happens! I'll keep you posted. Thank you so much to everyone! I appreciate your advice and if anyone has any additional input, I'd love to hear your opinons! This is a great website and I hope to start visitng more often again!

sparx44 - My kitchen now is maple with a chestnut stain, so relatively dark. I too had heard that maple can come out blotchy, but I think mine came out really nice. We are moving and doing a new kitchen that is why I want to do something a little different now. Here is a link that might be useful: Mercy's Kitchen

I love pale butter yellow cabinets with dark green or Uba Tuba granite. My neighbor has Ben Moore buttercream custom cabinets with Uba Tuba granite and a soft apple green wall with buttercream raised panel wainscott. It is stunning. I have faux granite with Ben Moore buttercream painted oak cabinets with some glass doors, Italian floor tile in terra cotta colors and pale rust wallpaper with a blackened bronze faucet and hand blown bubble-glass knobs in an olive green color. I stripped my cabinets and had the doors spray painted in an enamel finish but painted the boxes in matching latex paint over Kilz primer. It is such a homey, inviting look and no longer has a dated 1980's look. The cabinets were pretty beat looking after being exposed to five kids and an assortment of pets. I love my new look kitchen, it's so bright and inviting now. We will be adding real granite counter tops soon, Uba Tuba or Verde Butterfly. This will be the icing on the cake! Faux Uba Tuba "granite" countertop

Thanks rtwilliams! We have a Nebraska furniture mart just a few minutes away so will have to go check it out and look at what they have (bet my husband won't even let me near the place). I still have my heart set on a creamy leather chair to team up with a black table .....maybe something similar to this (although I kind of wanted something with a nailhead trim too) and maybe a nice rug. And...and.... The paint that I used for the doors is Sherwin Williams All Surface Enamel Latex in Satin Black. I had no idea what I was doing, so it is what the salesperson recommended. The first one I painted about 6 weeks ago, so it hasn't gotten too much wear and tear yet, but it seems to be holding up well. I was really worried about how it would clean up, but we actually scraped the popcorn off the ceiling of a room with a black door (anybody who has done this knows how much dust it generates), and it cleaned up beautifully. The true test will be the door to the garage because the dogs will sometimes scratch to go out. Not very vigorously, so we'll see how much it will take.