Conn 123: the door is old, and it is one of my favorite things in my kitchen. The door is original to the house, which was built in 1894. It, like everything else in the house, had about 20 layers of paint on it. We sent all the kitchen doors and hardware out to be dipped and stripped, with the intent of painting them. But we decided to just put a clear poly on the dining room door to see how it would look, and we love how it turned out. It has some dents and scrapes, but with the finish, it looks good. Definitely not for everyone, becuase it is quite "rustic." I'm sure my mother is horrified because the door is kind of beat up, and she always wants everything to look perfect and new, but I like it, and the house is really old, so it fits. We had one other door that we planned to leave unpainted, that was actually in better shape, but a worker painted it. We've left it so far (we didn't make it crystal clear that we didn't want it painted, so we didn't make a huge stink about it). I would think that if your own doors are not in good enough shape to leave unpainted, you might try a salvage place. Not sure where you would find a new door that looked old.

I don't normally like this look, only because I think in ten years it's going to be really easy to date a kitchen from about 2003 to 2010 by the colored island contrasting the cabs.....but in a period home I feel totally different about it, especially for islands because they didn't exist when the home was built. In a local home here (about 1870) they have done three different paint colors on their cabs in milk paint, and it has a very unfitted look for a basically fitted kitchen because they have used multiple cabinet styles. The main style is a simple shaker but mixed in are a couple of hutch looking areas done in fancier cabs so they look like they migrated to the kitchen over time (both are different) then there is their fabulous island which they did in quarter sawn oak, built in a mission style like a large bureau. It workls perfectly to enhance the feel of their period home, which they are restoring very true to it's original feel. The hutch cabs have reclaimed marble tops from other pieces long gone and they are about an inch below the main counter. The other counters are wood aside from the zinc in the butlers pantry and the island is soapstone. I love the way they were inspired by a period look but made it functional and expect to be doing something similar in my 1889 home. I'm expecting to paint one island and do the other in wood to resemble an old store counter (likely in oak) but will be doing the sink in a different style with distressed paint (to look like a dry sink) and the hutch will be in antique pine. It sounds busy if you think of your kitchen in a 2000 way, but in a turn of the previous century way that's exactly what a kitchen looked like. So my vote is...yes to the painted island, but if you really want to enhance the period feel consider changing a few more things and maybe add another color in as well. :).

So I had Roman Shades for almost 30 years and didn't know it. How weird is THAT? Mine were identical to the one's above but they were the color of the red in the floor. Therefore, I can't use them because I got sick of them. I really want cloth panels over the shades. They'll look pretty with the shades pulled halfway up. I'm thinking a small window pane check so it won't be too obvious and fight with the wallpaper in the adjoining room. Thankfully the wallpaper has a LOT of colors on it so I have a lot of options! But ixnay on the roman shades. Sorry. :(

I bought quarter sawn red oak cabinets for my previous kitchen and although the doors were quartersawn, the interior faces of the cabinets were regular red oak veneer. That's the way they were manufactured. Since the doors were full overlay, the parts of the cabinets that were not quartersawn were never really visible and I had "furniture" sides so those were also quartersawn. However, red oak and white oak are different species, with the white oak tending more towards browner tones. If I were you I would buy a sample door and see how the color match goes with your current boxes. Or you can buy an unfinished door and see if you can play with stain to match the color. You might be able to find a stain close to your current cabinets in tone that will be good with the honey oak. .