@MaWizz - your second picture was one of my inspiration photos. And although I wanted cabinets like in that second picture, I knew they would likely get trashed quickly with kids actively using the kitchen. My second choice was tab pulls but was talked out of it from a pure functionality standpoint. In a working kitchen with kids it is easier to pull handles (using one clean pinky finger of an otherwise drippy dirty hand). Finally, when I asked a local designer she said handles are like buttons on a shirt. She felt the kitchen needed that accent as it's not an ultra-modern kitchen - but rather more transitional. Hope that helps.

I am guessing that having the lowers light is a function of wanting to disguise the undesired oak on the lowers, not that you desire the look of lighter lowers. If that's correct, recently someone posted about having gel-stained cabinets to disguise an unattractive grain. I've included one link below. There is a picture of the finished cabinets in an espresso color, and they look beautiful. If that appeals to you, you could then do your lighter cream and glaze for your new uppers. Hope this helps. Here is a link that might be useful: gel stain on oak thread

My contractor installed ours, although he was initially not enthusiastic. When we made it clear to him it was Ikea or nothing, and we quite understood if he didn't want the job, then he agreed. He knew I'd researched it every which way, and we booked some time to go through everything I'd worked out. The Ikea kitchen people talked me through the need for end panels, toe kicks etc, and then I went through the draft order with my GC, he was reassured that I DID know what I was talking about! He also built a plywood box to mount the base cabinets on, because of our wonky floor. I planned two cabinet modifications, and printed out the tutorials from Ikeanfans for him. I also had my laptop ready whenever a question arose - we'd look up the website and go through the instructions together, which helped. I'm delighted with the choice I made, and I think he's happy he now has the experience with Ikea, as people are trying to find ways to save money on their renovations.

Main one in the cooking aisle is 33" wide and 6/6/6/12. Holds dinner cutlery (since I plate our meals at the stove), spatulas and various other cooking doodads, pans, pots: The ones at our coffee station are a 36" stack on the rhs with extra set of cutlery for DH to do his coffee, cereal, etc, DH junk drawer, and then various somewhat more organized stuff below (string, elastic bands, clips, and the like) and then I use the bottom one for occasional-use serving bowls. The stack on the lhs is only 12" wide and is 6/9/7.5/7.5. I wanted it to line up with the sink drawer to the right (hence 6" top drawer) and fridge drawers to the left (hence 9" second drawer). The 9" turned out to be one of my favorite drawers in the kitchen. It's deep enough to hold hubby's medicine and vitamin bottles which used to be a mess on our old desk that drove me batty. For some reason he lacks that thing in most people's brains that says to put the lid back on bottles after you use them. :-) Anyway, now I can just shut the drawer and marital harmony plus my sanity reigns on, lol.