Scootermom - Our kitchen is not huge, but they traffic flow is not through my work space, so it functions so much better than anything i've ever had! The kitchen footprint is about 10'-4" deep by 14'-10" long (these are the wall to wall dimensions inside the opening separating the kitchen from dining, which includes all the cabinetry). My clear workspace between range counter and island is 4 foot, all other clearances are 3 feet. My island is 3'-7" x 4'-9". You can see where I house my dishes and glasses below. On the bottom, the spice pullout is immediately to the right of the range. To the right of that is my baking cabinet and flatware drawer. To the left of the range are all my pots, pans and lids and the cooking/baking utensil drawer. My island holds 2 cabinet boxes, one 39" base that we swapped one drawer for the sink and a 18" cabinet base we converted to a double trash bin pullout. The junk drawer is over the trash bins and the knife/gadget drawer is in the middle. The drawer face at the sink flips out to house srubbies. (Excuse the dishes in sink...) BlackChamois - I like the idea of the vapor bar stools (and the Ghost Stools too), but have been nixed by the husband... He fears they will get scratched, thus ruined, from pocket items, buttons, kids, etc. We both agree we need backs on the stools for comfort and our small children. And we agree the stools should not be black... Here's a close up of our cabinet doors and hardware: see link below for hardware! I bought them in HD at special order desk so I could use my 10 or 20 percent off coupon. The shipping was free, so it was a win/win! white doors SW "rainwashed" doors. this is a very hard color to accurately photograph! It is soft, subtle and changes greatly throughout the day with the different lighting conditions, natural and artificial. *will post another post with Knob link... can't figure out how to do 2 in one post OR do i have the time to figure out the html code Here is a link that might be useful: MSL Pulls

I did the avocado bathroom that rjinga linked above, and I just wanted to add that if the countertop color is holding you back, painting it could be a great solution. We had the same concern of doing damage by removing the old laminate counter, so that is what prompted the whole idea. The finish has held up beautifully so far, and it was the first faux painting job I'd ever done, so it's definitely within the scope of a beginner. I would suggest ignoring your current countertop for the time-being and picking your color scheme for the rest of the bath. Then, find some laminate, granite, or other countertop samples you like that work with the new scheme and see if you can replicate the look with some acrylic paints. There are many beautiful brown granites and laminates that would be pretty simple to copy, since you mentioned liking chocolate brown; I think that could be lovely with the aqua and pink.

I'd like to add a rather shocking discovery for us just last night and a word of caution: DH was simplifying the plumbing under our sink (to make way for a trash pullout), and we found our much deeper sink lowered our reinstalled garbage disposal by 4-5" -- resulting in the disposal's drain outlet being positioned lower than our main, outgoing drainage pipe. Not good! I immediately googled and found this is a frequently unanticipated problem due to the trend towards deeper sinks. Even the most compact disposal unit on the market won't fit our needs, and our only option would be to cut into new cabinets and wall, and lower the main drain pipe...not going to happen. We're fine without a disposal, and it leaves us more space in the cabinet.

Hi Haley, Sorry I just saw your comment. Here are some photos I have in my archive. I can take different angles tonight if these aren't helpful. FWIW, 6 months later and we still love this sink. The dark color matches our black stainless appliances, but also just makes the sink more of a shadow, which is good to avoid drawing eyes to dirty dishes! We use the faucet hose+sprayer to give it a good rinse every evening after cleaning up dinner to keep food from drying in place. We've given it 1 deep cleaning (we also have a grid on the bottom, so deep cleaning involved a thorough cleaning of that, too). The water filter is good for filling water to cook or a tea kettle. The soap dispenser is actually really nice because it keeps the counter tidy. The faucet is touch activated (got it before the remodel) and it's amazingly handy. We added an air button for the disposal (which by code has to have a manual light switch on the wall, which for us is not in reach of the sink) and it has never been pressed accidentally and is very useful so I recommend it. The dishwasher air gap is required by code here so no avoiding that!