I'm actually leaning towards keeping the dual 24" doubles on either side of the sink, and adding in modern "floating" shelves to the right of the right 24" double to fill the space. I really like the thicker modern shelves, like what I have attached, and think it would help "air-up" the kitchen, add to the modern look (thick-type shelves), create some kind of cabinet symmetry to the sink/sink window by keeping the dual 24" double-doors. It may sound weird, but I saw more kitchens that had Shaker-style cabinets with larger single-door wall cabinets, and the "look" just wasn't there. The kitchens didn't look as modern and the cabinets lacked character and looked more like slab doors. I think its a combination of the double doors with all the rails and stiles (ie: boxy lines) and the symmetry of the modern stainless bar pulls being right next to each other on double doors that I like so much. Now its just a matter of figuring out how to create shelves like the ones pictured below to match my cabinets. Wall skins/veneer panels? Or just buy large wood filler for the exterior to match? Uploaded with ImageShack.us

you might post some pictures with your cabinets, It might help. I'm not a "designer", so take my words with a grain of salt. But of the hundreds of homes I've been in, I've only ever once noticed the pulls, and that's because she pointed them out, and each one was different on purpose. I have two different color pulls in my house depending on the hardware style of the space, and it never once occurred or bothered me that they were different. To palimpsest's point, different colors or styles creates interest, wheres all the same is cookie-cutter.

Hi, not sure if reviving an old thread will help get us some advice, but after taking advice from here a year and a half ago about our new build and feeling like we were going about it the “right” way, we are in a regrettable situation. I am open to all ideas on how to proceed. We found a local architect and spent a while (and 10k) designing custom plans for what we plan to be our “forever home” with him. We told him our budget (~750k for a house just under 3700 sq feet) and he felt we could make that happen with these plans. He estimated it would run around $200 a square foot. We then spent a while selecting a contractor who we like and trust, and who had experience building similar houses, and spent another 10k for a bid. Before the bid he said it would probably come out to ~$230-240/sq foot, and although that was pushing the original budget, it was still doable for us, so we went ahead with the bid process with him. The bid has since returned over $290/sq foot. While this is still technically possible for us, we have decided this is not a financially sound decision for us to go forward with. We have already discussed changes we could make with him but that would only get the overall total down ~60-70K, and he feels that making any other changes would have drastic effects and sacrifice the structure of the house. I suppose now we need to start completely over. My question is, where did we go wrong, and how can we avoid this issue in the future? Is this the normal process? There aren’t really any architects in our small town (most people seem to use “designers”,) so we chose one from the largest neighboring city, and I guess we just can’t afford to build the type of house he draws. Most of the “nicer” houses in our town seem to be selling for $150-$175/sq foot, so we thought the $200-$240/sq foot would suffice for what we wanted. Is it worth trying to get another bid for these plans? Do most contractors charge for the bidding process? Thank you for any advice.

Im just personally not a fan trim touching. Thats why i opted for the 2-1/2 for the doors. I thought the bigger casing around the window in the profile would look nice and pop with the picture frame style and inside mount cellular shades.