Marti- I vote for the half wall, messy kitchen or not! If you leave the solid wall, you still can't see the fireplace and you're walking over to the doorway, to talk to anyone in that room. Yes, you will be open to the dining area...but you already have a long, narrow space there (no peninsula, right?) so the half wall would open up the kitchen to the fireplace room, making that space feel wider and larger. What's opposite the open area, on the other side of the kitchen? That's all you'd see, as you walk in. Maybe you could change a few of the uppers, on that wall. All you have to do is get new doors, or even cut out areas, in the existing doors and add glass, chicken wire, fabric, a combination of both, etc. It might be nice and it would give you a little color or sparkle, in the kitchen area. Just a thought :)

Synlight, you're going to love your new home. Even basic builder homes have some pretty nice stuff these days. I actually like the bottom row of counter samples significantly better than the top, and they definitely seem more sophisticated to me. As for dark-light, it's wide open to the rest of the living areas. I'd try not to vary too much from the light-dark balance in the rest of the area so it all comes together nicely as a whole, no big dark block weighing down a corner of a mostly light room, say. My first thought on how to make it as functional as possible is in the answer to where you will find yourself doing most of your preparation for cooking; for myself I always plan around that since it will become the center of my kitchen, everything else relating to that. You have lots of possibilities. Your stove is far from the sink and the nice expanses of counter over there but has good work space on each side. The island doesn't strike me as a probable place for main prep, but it is a possibility, also between sink and fridge, and less likely to left of the sink, although you certainly have a lot of space there. You probably will also do lunches and snacks and that might take place in a second area, perhaps on the island close to the fridge or counter by the fridge? BTW, did you mean you'd ask about switching the stove to the fridge area? I think that'd be good if you could as you could work close to the sink and not have to cross traffic with hot food and liquids. If you can't switch the stove and fridge, how about asking them NOT to fasten the island down and doing that yourselves later? Or maybe just being there and telling them just where you want it after experimenting? There's probably not much room for shifting it, but even inches might make a happy difference as you move from sink to stove areas. I.e., whether you use it a whole lot or not, you'd like it to obstruct that path as little as possible.

hi all, 2 pics of same bathroom, need a paint color. believe it or not this is the same bathroom. i want to tone down the tile because it is a VERY strong unhoned travertine with strong yellows and even oranges, so want to play it down. was thinking of edgecomb grey for it. there is some, but not much, shadings of gray in the travertine. would love some input. this tile is also used as the kitchen b/s with dark cherry cabinets (burgandy/mahogany colored) and beige small dot corian. it just looks awful. so i need a paint in there also and was thinking of BM brandy cream......thoughts. really want to tone down this very bold/loud/obnoxious travertine. thanks gals/guys

A rectangular trestle table (with slightly rounded, non-pointed corners if you can find it with these), ideally with at least 1 or 2 leaves, will seat more people than a table with legs on the corners. Who will be sitting at the table on a daily basis, and as visitors? If you will be buying a table of reasonably decent quality to keep for the long run, and will have people older than little kids sitting at it, at least 4 chairs would be a minimum, and 6 would be better--if there is some place else in the house where the extras could be used or stored until needed. When my daughter was first married, she bought a table with 4 chairs due to their under 1000 sq' house and kitchen-eating area smaller than yours. When they wanted to entertain, which often was a total of 6 adults, 2 people had to sit on folding chairs and be relatively uncomfortable, although she could have put 2 more "good" chairs into the small space if she'd had them long enough to enjoy the meal and conversation. For years, I had an 8 x 12' dining room with the long side open to the living room. Because a 6 x 10' rug defined the dining space and therefore the location of the table, there was actually about 9' in width. I routinely had 8 people (7' long table including 2 leaves) seated. Crowded? A little, but doable. How busy will the walkway at the "bottom" of the kitchen be--what does it connect? If it's not super busy, could you shift the left wall of cabinets and the island 3 to 6" into the walkway to get more space in the eating area? Anne