Thanks everyone for your replies! I think once we have all the cabinets and counters installed, we will buy a framed mirror and put it up to see how it looks (thanks for the advice sweeby). I was in a mirror store and the lady pointed me to a bronze finish mirror which she said people put up in wet bars. It has a smokeyish brownish tint, and seems to reduce the glare. Not sure if this will work with the colors we have chosen for the bar though....(Aristokraft sasparilla and cambria aragon countertops...stainless hardware and appliances. lesleyintn...I would LOVE to see pictures of your mirrored wet bar!

I think your kitchen is really looking pretty nice. I also think your sis might be on to something. When doing my kitchen, I was going to go for a taupe tile that really worked with the granite. (See srg215's backsplash--that's the one--I'm living vicariously through her). But then I thought about my desire to change colors in my space. I know I don't have the budget to re-do the backsplash when I tire of it. So I started thinking about white tiles. I was very determined not to get the white subway, and I found some pretty cool beveled Italian subways that had undertones of gray. I was ready to go for it. But that's when I found out I won the beveled arabesque tiles. I love that they jazz it up, but yet the color is white. In fact, I am currently (sorry guys) testing new paint samples. I've always wanted the gray color in the room to be a gray/lavender. I've got samples in the car right now. My point is, that with neutral bones, you really can do anything with the room. And neutral bones do not make the room boring or bland. So, I've posted a link to the photos of my kitchen and "not so boring white backsplash" in case you haven't been bored to death by them already. I'd post them directly here, but I can't torture the GW friends anymore! Look at the details, notice that except for the granite, eveything can be changed to a new color scheme. And this granite goes with any color--lime green, orange, blue, brown, black, gray, white, and on an on. Here is a link that might be useful: The pro photos

Are you new to a sub grade living space? The gray couch is a done deal. Just go simple and as light / white as you can. I would not put open shelves in a lower level kitchen / bar. You may end up w overflow storage from 1st floor which is a huge perk of this storage . Put some cabinets in w doors . Really I’d go all white and for a little something have fun w the hardware. Seeing that the uppers are under the stairs , these angled areas are often optimized by having someone build you the correct cabinets to fit in and use that angled space . There is no reason not to .., might take you a bit longer but you can do basic materials ... just create optimal use on the wall .

@User Very astute observation. Sadly one of the interesting things about living in a 50-year-old condo is that nothing is level with each other or within itself. Such is the case with my breakfast bar after the tiled bartop was demo'ed. The wooden top horizontal beam of the pony wall sits about 1.5 inches lower from the other side, with one end rising above the drywall it's sandwiched between, and the other end sitting below. It's a very dense wood (oak?) and even masonry drill bits got worn out quickly. And there are a bunch of large-headed nails over the top of it. So the decision was made by the countertop installers to shim everything. I did not like the L brackets they offered, so did my own stealth brackets - creating a deeper channel on the higher end of the pony wall and gradually shallower channels to no channels on the low end and added some wood shims as that end of the wood beam was sitting below the drywalls. It was a lot of work for first-time DIYer but I managed to have all 7 stealth brackets sit level with each other on this wonky wall (I know it's overkill, but I'd rather have that than worry about a falling or cracked quartz countertop later). I used 3 inch long screws - 28 screws total. I also made the end of the brackets slightly higher compared with the screwed end, as recommended by various pros I read about on the internet. So, I really hope that countertop is not going anywhere. I thought the installer would level with a ton of wood shims, but turned out he shimmed only with caulk! He used at least a whole bottle of DAP Alex Plus Fast Dry 20min Latex + Silicone caulk while he was here. That was how he shimmed my kitchen cabinets as well. Anyway, so what's UNDER the breakfast bar right now is a mix of stealth brackets, pony wall wood support beam, a ton of caulk, and dry wall. On the kitchen side, that gap I am referencing is the other dry wall that sandwiches the wood beam.