Thank you all for your great feedback! It's such a hard decision to make! (one of many) I do like honey maple and in some pictures it looks really great and not at all splotchy. In other pictures it looks uneven. I'm not sure what the difference is -- whether it's just the photos, the lighting, the quality of the finish ...? I'm also not sure whether a darker finish on maple makes the potential for splotchiness better or worse. (I know that unstained maple doesn't seem to have this problem and looks great, so that might be an option too). I wish we could have a skylight! Unfortunately there is a 2nd story above the kitchen :( Thanks for the idea though. othertime, your kitchen looks beautiful! Aren't those mahogany floors amazing! I like your choice of granite too -- what kind is it? I had a little look at your album -- what a great idea to use the same granite on the fireplace BTW ... we might consider doing that too. Your kitchen is much bigger than ours though, so I'm worried that going with cabinets that dark may make our little kitchen look like a cave. Or maybe not ... it's still definitely worth considering ...

I had always hated those lazy susan corner cabinets, too. In past kitchens, I had always had problems with things falling off, never to be seen again. When we moved into this house, we needed to redo the kitchen. We kept the section along the walls, which included an useless corner cabinet with only one small shelf along the back. I had to kneel down and put my head & shoulders into the cabinet to get to the back. While we were waiting for the kitchen to be done, pretty much all I could do was just chuck things into this cabinet and hope I didn't need them again. I never would have really been able to use it for anything. The new section was an L shaped island. I could have chosen a lot of different configurations for this, including shelves on the backside, facing the living room, rather than a corner cabinet. But DH didn't like that, and I really did need storage space in the kitchen. So I ended up with a lazy susan and had the cabinet people put a lazy susan into the old cabinet in the other corner. I made sure they were heavy duty. The new one has a full shelf under the top turning section, so it is strong enough to hold my cuisinart and other appliances that I will use at the island. So all I have to do is open it and lift rather than carry them anywhere like I had to do in other houses. The other lazy susan, in the old cabinet, I hold containers, like flour, sugar, rice, onions, collanders, large pots. The stuff I use more frequently is toward the front, less used items all the way in back. There is also extra space along the walls where I keep a large cutting board and have a clip that holds a tupperware mat for rolling out dough (when it was rolled up, I never used it because it didn't lay flat). So I use them both alot. As long as I have specific things to go on them, not a lot of small stuff, and don't turn them too quickly, they are great. I have to say, I also didn't want the pull out shelves for the island. But I like those, too. Maybe the newer, better designed ones work better than the older ones I was used to? I would definitely suggest storing things that are not tall and skinny, and if they are light or small, put them into a larger container.

avoid cheap cabs. UV retardants can be expected in higher end product. Do you have a basic idea of sq footage and general design and budget. Might be wise to have a couple options for yourself other than high end white gloss . I’d be cautious w any downtown urban condo these days in terms of dollars allocated. Something else: spend as needed on base storage drawers and on walls edit to reduce the cabinetry . Open shelf: 1 or 2 shelves so the prob w fading etc at eye height and where angled sun hits is non issue . Those base drawers can be sufficient believe it or not .

IMO plain old stainless is still the best choice for kitchen sinks and appliances. As for stainless sinks scratching they are the work horses in the kitchen and honestly I have quite cheap Ikea sinks in my kitchen and run a catering biz from my home and my sinks are honestly not scratched so much that i notice .