I strongly dislike painted wood. When comparing wood to painted wood - wood is always timeless - paint will always go in and out of style. We are building a new house and my brother in law just finished building his new house. He has grey kitchen cabinetry and an espresso island. He will be doing the white subway tiles as well. He has a ceiling full of canned lights that look like a space ship is about to land on you. Congrats - he has a standard modern American kitchen. I don't want a standard American modern kitchen that EVERYONE else has. I want old world. I want the warmth of old world. My brother in law's kitchen looks like a modern, industrial cold kitchen. In our kitchen, we will have simple colonial maple cabinets stained pecan (dark brown). They are beautiful and the grain makes the cabinets have depth and character (not like a flat paint). Our island will be a lighter stained maple to add brightness to the kitchen. There will only be 2 upper cabinets left open for glass or for a mesh (I haven't decided yet). There will be some open shelving. The lighting is all dimmable and and the lit areas are on separate circuits so I can affect the mood. I have pendants over the island and a pendant over the kitchen sink. There will be 2 sconces as well. None of the lighting can be sourced from a big box store - and they are beautiful. It's been frustrating trying to gather all of the materials needed for my kitchen because almost all of the stores carry only the standard American kitchen stuff - and many of the designers/salespeople want to push everyone into buying into the "modern American kitchen style" that everyone else has. I puke on the modern American kitchen!

UPDATE in renovations! We have painted the walls Sherwin Williams Muslin, which almost exactly matches the cabinets, so If you want to picture it, literally look at our cabinets in first photos, it's the same color. We have picked out a Wilsonart Pebble Piazza Counter top. And we found a way to get some new stainless steel appliances! They are not here yet, but next week. After doing alot of reasearch with colors, Sherwin Williams Alabaster White goes really well with the Muslin on walls and Cabinet color, and ties in the Pebble Piazza Countertop. I can't speak for how it shows on your computer monitors, but it is a perfect neutral to warm cement looking countertop close to the first soapstone I posted only without the loud streaks of color in it. It is not cool undertone gray at all! Sorry the photo is not showing the colors better, I tried. But in the end, all I need to find now is a warm white subway tile that is really close to the Sherwin Williams color Alabaster! When you put an 8x10 sample of alabaster under the muslin, it still reads white but NOT a stark cold blue white. It is and off white yellow undertone white. Does anyone know of a specific subway tile (name/ brand/ color) that looks like the Sherwin Williams Alabaster paint?

Ha ha! You call that an empty wall? I am flattered that you are jealous though. Lets see how it turns our. Fred insisted that we do the frames because of dirty location in kitchen. I had hoped to do something different but turns out, Julie Julie, you were right. Thank you glischler for kind support. I think the Art is beautiful just not sure about the wall area. Oh well. Alice was correct innasking about sight lines with nook. Turns out the cabinet that houses oven juts out a lot. You guys are so nice to follow this tiny project. i have actually surprised myself that I DID something. Pretty soon, I will be in liasche’s boat with no wall space. oh oh, dsimber Dsimber, sorry sorry, I just hadnt heard from you. Now I see there is a message. ❤️

Yes, that's what I did in my front entry area, except added some hooks. Yours looks very nice! Love the white b&b contrast with the dark blue paint. I'm just not quite sure yet if I want to extend/add the b&b into the dining area of our home. I think it could look nice, but it would probably be better for the space that I have if I kept the b&b shorter than what I have, especially if I added some large scale art above it.