Hello,

My first post on here - so I'm pretty excited. My Fiance and I are renovating our condo and I just cannot wait for work to get started. The most daunting task will be the kitchen - it requires new cabinets, flooring, appliances, island, etc. We are currently working with a design firm and they have drawn up a rendering for us. Our goal is to update the condo but it will not be our forever home, so we are not investing in top of the line. We hope to live here for 1-3 years and will eventually rent it out for rental income.

We have decided to go with white shaker style cabinets and I'm leaning towards black hardware. I love gold trend right now but I'm trying to keep it neutral. The island will be the same style cabinet except in a grey color. The counter tops are going to be Silestone Eternal Calcatta Gold. While I'd love to do the same material for back splash - we just don't need to spend that kind of money here.

My initial thoughts were a basic white subway tile but my fiance is leaning towards doing the back splash in the tile version of our counter top stone for some contrast...instead of white everything. Any thoughts from design or style pros on suggestions for back splash?

Our plan for floors is to do engineered hardwood throughout the whole condo - we haven't decided on wood/color but leaning on the lighter side - again something neutral. The condo doesn't have a ton of windows in the middle, so most of the light is from either end. The light colors would really brighten things up.

We are also still on the fence for the built in beverage cooler - it takes away from cabinet space but we are not sure if we have enough cabinets space?

Also - I didn't want cabinets in my face while washing dishes - so she created a short cabinet and some shelves - I'm not entirely sure I love the way that looks. Opinions? Other ideas?

Lastly - I don't have measurements handy at the moment but the island in these pictures is about 8ft.long and 41 inches wide including 15 inch overhang for stools. Our kitchen is growing in length, not width and we want to ensure there is enough clearance when oven door and refrigerator doors are open. Is there a minimum clearance we need between the open doors and the island? I don't want to bend over to look inside the oven bump into island.

I can ask for a birds-eye view with measurements to see proportions better.

Thank you in advance for your feedback! It's our first time living together and first time remodeling so it's exciting and scary at the same time.

Our counter tops (not my photo)

Fiance's idea for backsplash - do we dig this?