ice1 - Yes, that's the tile I was referring to. Thanks so much for sharing your photos. I love the Kashmir on your floors and counter. Is it hard to take care of on the floor? What do you use when you mop? Where do you live? I only ask because I live in San Antonio and wonder if the cold tile would really matter. We only have really cold days a few times each winter. That said...it was in the upper teens for 4 days a week or so ago. however, that's a fluke. Thanks for sharing your son's kitchen choices. Is his a formal kitchen? I don't want to have a formal look. I just like the crisp look the tile has. I prefer that over muddy / earthtone colors. It just seems simple and clean to me. But I don't want formal. Hm. Seaglass 7 - Thanks for your input. I will check out the slate and the lighter colors in the other line. I'm not really going for rustic per se...but I certainly don't want formal....just clean and crisp. I think crisp could be achieved with slate. Thanks again. Writersblock - I agree with you. The tile is very realistic without lots of veining and not expensive. Just out of curiosity...what else is near the top of your list if you have to retile? That might give me some more inspiration. Keep the ideas flowing. Thus far the flooring has been the hardest thing for me. :-)

I do not think you have much to lose by doing whatever color you desire on the island. In the case that you needed to sell and had to cover up something unique but less marketable it would be a small piece to paint over instead of wall cabinets. For the record, I just painted over bg oak cabs in a half-formula of Martha' Stewart's whetstone grey, it looks awesome with the rest of my finishes! My plan was for a deep, rich grey on the island but when I painted it with my sample colors i decided I did not like it and painted it to match the perimeters. Not exactly the same as your situation, but just putting it out there in case there is something useful to you in there.

My husband was against a white kitchen, because it shows dirt more than any other color. Would that rationale work for yours? You could also do your uppers in white and your lowers in the pearl gray. I see a disconnect between the shapes and sizes of your cabinets and what your dream kitchens look like. With that beautiful window that goes to the ceiling, I can see why other posters want you to move your upper cabinets up. That would complement the window and feel complete. Right now, the upper cabinets are like a band of brown around the perimeter of your kitchen. But moving the cabs up won't be very practical that high, unless you and your husband play for the NBA: You will need a stool to reach them. I think rather than uniformly moving the cabinets, you should customize them. 1. Take down the uppers on both sides of the window and next to the refrigerator. (Loss of 5 upper cabinets) 2. ReUSE the double-door cabinet currently to the left of the window over to the left of the refrigerator (now you've only lost 3 upper cabinets). 3. If you do want more storage, have a glass door cabinet made. Based on your dream pix, I suspect you are yearning for a china cabinet that goes down to counter height. One cabinet like that is $1-2k? by a local cabinet maker. You may have to hunt for him. 4. Open shelves are a more economical alternative. I myself took off half the cabinets that go over my peninsula. I had a cabinet with glass doors on both sides built for the other half. It was big change, and yet I didn't miss the cabinets I took out. Unless you have an upper lazy susan, I suspect that corner cab is deep and hard to use, anyway. Removing those cabinets will give more focus on your window, your one Victorian detail, and open up the kitchen. Together with your paint color, it will all look more true to the house and less show-room. Your other option would be to keep the existing cabinets, but maybe take off some of the doors. Replace one set with glass doors. Maybe install a wine rack or display shelves in another one. It would be ideal if you could remove the backsplash. It sounds like your walls will need a bit of patching and smoothing before tile installation anyway, so this would just be a little more area to cover. Regarding the chips in your granite, some edge details are more prone to chipping than others, and especially so around the sink, where pans and dishes keep hitting against that edge. So, the install itself may have been perfectly good; just a poor decision on that sink edge. Good luck!

Whoa, that’s horrible @Chritstine Hollern. I so sad and sorry to hear this. I wonder if there’s a company that can repair the chips. I had read negative comments on here about MSI, so that’s why I went with Hanstone. Also, our contractor has Montauk in his office/show room. So that’s what I went with but there was a lot of beautiful MSI colors and so many options. Maybe go back to the place you got the countertop from with pics? I think there’s a warranty with MSI.