I am building a new townhome and I plan to do a more contemporary kitchen with a combination of white acrylic and gray (wood) slab cabinets. The 9' island and the oven and refrigerator cabinets will be wood and the remainder of the cabinetry to be white acrylic. Because it is a townhome, my builder will be creating a bulkhead that will hide the hood's vent that runs outside. Most typically, the builder has used a heavy crown to camoflauge the bulkhead and this looks good with a more transitional shaker style cabinet. This is too heavy looking for my sleek European-style cabinets. They are recommending that we wrap the bulkhead in the wood veneer. Keep in mind I am running the cabinets through the dining room (15') so there will be a long run of the bulkhead and white cabinetry. Initially this sounded like a good solution, however now I'm concerned that this may create too much of a striped effect, with the wood (maple with smoke stain) contrasting with the acrylic white. On the other hand, it may be quite striking! Do you think this will look too heavy/dark over the white cabinets? I'm not sure about this and I've even considered giving up this more contemporary look and going with the safe Shaker cabinet. I don't have any pics yet from the kitchen designer. I've selected Thunder White granite which I think sometimes is called River Granite that looks great with both the white and gray. Are there any pros out there who can comment on this or have recommendations for other design? I am so grateful for your input!