Good luck with the break up. I always get so worked up about this sort of thing. I try to devise all sorts of stories in my head to explain. DH always says just tell the truth ---in my 10 years of marriage I have converted to his way --- I won't admit it to him, but the outcome is always better. My sister, (and me previously) would both make all sorts of crazy excuses. Problem is, then you worry about the story catching up with you. If you just tell the guy, "Thanks so much for your bid and your time. I was really impressed with your work. You make beautiful cabinets. But, one thing I really wanted was the soft close drawers with my inset cabinets. I heard about a cabinet maker that makes this combo, so I had him do a bid as well. I expected it to not be competitive, but it was actually significantly lower. In this economy we need to make wise financial choices, and in this case I'd save some money and get the soft close that I really had my heart set on, so I feel like it is the right choice for us. Thanks again for all of your help. Of course, he may argue it with you, but in the end, you have the proof to back you up --- you want the glides, and the price IS better. No brainer. I am about to have to do this with builders --- we have 4 courting us right now, they all are bending over backwards to be helpful. Unfortunately, we can only use 1. I live in a small town and will see one of them all the time. Can you believe he is my lowest choice, but I am such a wimp that I have considered picking him so I don't have to avoid him! Luckily, one really great builder in the area has just given us a bid that is almost 100k less --- I don't know how he does it because he does everything the nice way, doesn't cut corners. All of the most beautiful homes by our property were built by him. I am so thrilled to have just gotten his bid because now I'll be able to tell the other 3 the price was so much better, we just couldn't ignore it --- we need to save money where possible. It is not just a choice of our favorite (though I really liked this builder the most as well). Anyway, I am dreading the "talk" too, so I understand, but I am definitely going to just tell them, I am getting everything I want with this guy, and the price is MUCH lower. My architect told me he suspects all of the other builders will try to drop prices to entice me. If that happens, I have a bit more negotiating power with this guy too (though I HATE negotiating). GOOD LUCK TO YOU --- just tell him the truth and move on --- you'll spend more time fretting about it, and once you do it, it won't be a big deal. Just seems like a big deal now. Rachel

I think this is becoming a common issue with open concept kitchens where ideally we have flooring flowing from adjacent rooms, often wood flooring. We opened up our kitchen and extended oak flooring into the kitchen from the dining/living area (formerly tile). Then it became obvious to me that wood cabinets would be wood overload for my tastes. I decided to go with light gray stained oak fronts - the grain will still show but the colour will be distinctly lighter and different in hue from the floor. We are using Rubio Monocoat precolor and finishing oil. We have busy kitchen when rambunctious kids but we are confident that the Rubio system will allow refreshing and not required complete recoating if it wears. We also purchased aged black drafting-style counter stools for the island. In my opinion, wood is best appreciated when it is not fighting with other wood. For a mostly wood kitchen, I have really only appreciated this look when the kitchen is spacious with abundant natural light. Wood *has* a colour. My oak floors are actually a gold colour and has a similar impact as if I painted my floors gold even though there is more texture. I want other elements to complement that, not add to it or compete with it. In your case, you may want to consider Rubio Monocoat for some of your elements - it's made for floors so more than up to the task for furniture, island, etc. It can colour and finish in one step. I don't think you should be afraid of some paint either. For example, white dining table, fun colour chairs: Black is a more neutral option and looks great too. Glass fronted uppers will help a lot in your case, especially if the interiors are painted a light colour. I would recommend that you mock up your plan on a 3d rendering site like the free one on ikea.com. That can really help with visualizing how colours and textures will work together. Include the whole space that you can see from a point of view.

Good old Navajo White! So here's my take--I personally don't like the variegated tiles on the right, I think they're overused. (I seem to see them on walls a lot in awkward foreclosure remodels. They're better on floors, but still....) For paint, what about going with something slightly browner than the Nav White, but not as dark/yellow as your sample above? Then you can still paint the outline of your door a bright white for contrast. (Remember to paint the front bottom part of the doorframe too, so it doesn't look like the door is floating in space.) Back to tile, I like the bottom middle one, or the small square on the left above it. The samples on the far left are too gray to coordinate well with your brown/cream.

I think I would make a design that has walls on the office as well. An office is not something that I consider a space that is pretty to look at and can get messy so having it in view of the public areas would bother me. The other part is what if you're on the phone do you want the noise from all the other areas to be transferring to your phone call? Say someone running the garbage disposal in the kitchen or TV noises from the living room, or just conversations, screaming children, barking dogs, etc. Not sure of your house make up, but there are plenty of sources of noise in a house. I work from home twice a week and having a place to go and close the door is very useful when others are around and especially when in meetings where I can have my phone on speaker and also work at the same time. This way I'm not disturbing others either and others can't hear what is being said either unless they stand outside the door and listen in of course.