alliekj -- thanks for the kind words. Funny because we live in a 1969 ranch, so midcentury mod would work perfect in our house, but we like the craftsman/cottage look, just with a little modern update. Anyway, our Ikea cabinets came out to be about $2200-$2500. the original price was $2200, but I made some changes and broke a couple of cabinets during assembly so I think I wound up spending about $2500. This was my fault not the cabinets and so far we are impressed with their quality especially for the price. What can easily add to the price is the time spent revisiting IKEA if you make changes or need parts. We were lucky that an IKEA opened in Portland right when we started our project. Actually we waited for it to open instead of driving to Seattle, but I made about 10 trips back to store. Again, this was mainly due to me making changes in the design and needing a couple replacement cabinets, however since you mentioned you don't live near an IKEA this is something to keep in mind. I would spend a lot of time in the planning process and scrutinizing your plan to make sure it is how you want it. If you haven't done so, check out www.ikeafans.com. There are a ton of kitchen ideas and modifications that can be made to their cabinets to make them more custom if your plan requires that. Assembling the cabinets is relatively easy, even though I messed up a couple of them. If you do get the IKEA cabinets, make sure and pick up a handful of spare screws, bolts, and dowels -- which are all free at the store -- before you leave just in case some are missing or get lost. Also, make sure the sales clerkk includes the drawer dampers in your order. They do cost $6 per drawer but are so worth it and a major highlight of the IKEA cabinets. My clerk didn't put them in the order and it caused another return trip to the store to pick them up. And, if you haven't been to an IKEA before there is almost no way to simply run in, get something, and get out. It always takes forever, and I know our local store like its my house by now. One thing I've noticed about anyone with IKEA cabinets is that everyone I've heard from who has them loves them, even people who were originally skeptical are impressed once they're installed. My contractor, who's also an engineer, who installed them had a crush on them. He couldn't stop talking about how simple and well made they are especially for the price. And, everyone who's been over to see our kitchen can't believe they're from IKEA. Feel free to ask any more questions, good luck in your project.

Thanks everyone for the wonderful feedback. You've pretty much convinced us that neither of these grays will go with our door. Unsui is actually brownish IMO, but if you all saw grayish, it must be for a reason. >>Dianalo--- will absolutely check IKEA. What a deal you are getting! >>Jakabedy your kitchen is beautiful! Thanks for sharing. Love the little glass. Been thinking about that, but seems so expensive. Do you ever get tired of the pattern? The door in the pic was just to show the color, not the style. Style is called Durham. Here it's shown. Durham Door Style/Colour Glad you asked about the floors. It's also going to be wood, maple. Close to the cabinet colors. We got the Travertine at $10 per sq. ft which I thought was pretty cheap. If we go with creamy or white countertops, I don't think the travertine BS will work. I am just afraid if we do white counters, it will look *very* similar to our old kitchen (the one we hated!) :)These are pics from old kichen. We are both clueless I'm afraid. This is terrifying... So here is a summary of where we stand. (1) These are the Grays we were considering (includes UNSUI). (2) These are the White Options (Know will go for SOLIDs, so ignore all the busy ones). If we go with creamy or white, am afraid we'll need a new BS. (3) Two BS ideas + The my bottom CABINETS installed. THANKS everyone! Please send any more thoughts and feedback. Particularly, any good BS ideas that would work with Maple Pralinee doors and whitish/creamish solid counter (or other tones you think might work) This has been extremely helpful. Peace and Love, Candri

My countertops are actually 1.5". They seem pretty thick to me so I can't even imagine what 3" would look like. The stainless kicks are custom. The only reason I did custom was because that far wall with the white was built on an 8" platform in order for the cabs to meet the ceiling. Since that wall had to have custom kicks I carried it throughout the kitchen. Honestly ikea's SS (a silver/gray fool finish) looked really good for the price. If I didn't need the 8" kicks on that wall I just would have done ikea. If you're not on your knees examining the kicks you can't tell what they are. The lights over the island are 3 globe lights from West Elm. Love them and they were really affordable. The faucet is Grohe's Concetto in chrome. Love this too. It has the pull down spray feature rather than doing a separate spray. I know from your house pics that you're in AZ (so am I) and they have this faucet at Great Indoors if you want to look at it. But I ordered it online because it was cheaper. And there's no reason why you couldn't do a combo of gray snd white cabs. Maybe white built-ins and gray on the island??

Susanne, here is a photo from my local Home Depot. They have a display with Pietra and a full height backsplash. The cabinetry is a creamy white, and they did the side splashes as well. It's indoor, store lighting and no under-cabinet lighting. I haven't been able to decide what to do for a backsplash either. I've been sitting with different tiles leaned up against the wall for almost a year.