First I'll address the french doors. I think french doors and nice wood trim to dress it out, would make that opening look a lot better and add tons of value to your house. About the cabinets. I like the look of islands and main cabinets being different in color and even in style sometime. My cabinets are a creamy white and the island is a dark wood. The granite is gallo ornamental which is pretty easy granite to match to most anything, but isn't too dark or too light. Here is a photo of my kitchen (forgive the unfinished upper cabinets). One day before I die Armstrong will get the correct size doors made!! LOL I believe you also asked about molding color. Our molding is the same color as the cabinets (paint provided by Armstrong) and our wood trim on ceiling, around doors, etc. is pure white.

Prices vary so widely around the country and even within the same community itÂs very hard to give a price. You need framing, drywall, painting, and trim carpentry. You probably should be adding at least once receptacle along that wall too. IÂd guess $65 to $85 per foot of wall including materials and finishes. This assumes no surprises, a normal level of finishes, and no odd or architectural mouldings that need to be matched. The door will probably run $100-$150 to install including trim. Hope this helps! Mike

Yes, DH and I am making our cabinets. It has ended up being way more work than I expected (but doesn't every project end up like that?). I'm considering putting glass doors for my dish cabinet - but I found a look where they used fancier routered edges on the shelves so when the doors are closed it sort of looks like mullions, but is not. The top section does have mullions, our ceilings are not tall enough to get that look. This was my inspirational picture - but unfortunately what I'm ended up with has strayed quite a bit from this. Here is a link that might be useful: Crown Point Victorian Cabinets

Thank you! We are looking more towards a double door- we DO have to get this done soon as we put in for a grant up here for people to get their homes rated higher- ours was only a 2+ rating & the state will pay a certain % back if we upgrade AND get it up at least one star rating. My hubby has been a stink at putting things off- we already paid $350 for the rating inspection & at that time we had 18 mos to get it completed & get refunded UP to 10k (depending on what we can upgrade to raise the rating- nothing higher than we have paid of course) Well NOW, it's been about 13 mos.. & he has now left it up to ME to figure out WHAT to do :( I'm SO flustered by it (& him LOL) but I know we'll never get the chance to get in on this again... the whole entry is terrible *cold* and drafty. We think by replacing that (those big huge windows by the door mostly!) and adding more insulation UNDER the house- this should up the rating quite a bit. They were definitely on the inspection list. Because we are so low on lighting up here- we'd really like some sort of window above as that actually helps light the upper level as well. We are able to order just about anything we find on the net because we have it shipped to a shipping barge in Seattle and they bring it right to us :) I don't want anything fancy & that seems to be a lot of my problem as most of what I see ARE real fancy or solid wood etc. Thank you so much for your thoughts on this!!! ANY help/suggestions are MUCH appreciated :)