Well, we went back to look again at the stains of the KM, and I didn't care for the Kaffe on the Oak, it looked really red with almost a black color sunk into the graining pattern. You can kind of see it in the pic that I posted, but in person it was really apparent. Not that it was bad, just not a look that I was going for. So we are instead considering the Kaffe stain on Cherry wood, door style is just slightly different too. Trying to hit on the "transitional" theme moreso than contemporary. The current freebies are a free sink base, free hardware, $2500 for quotes over $15000. Then a couple of other things like a tiered wooden cutlery tray, pull out drawers in the pantry to the left of the fridge. There may have been a couple of other things too. Total with install is going to be right around 15K. I really wanted to deal with the local custom guy, as TorontoTim mentioned, they aren't a place that has a huge flashy showroom. It is a family company in business for many years, really liked the cabinet maker we talked to. We walked through their warehouse. But I'll be honest, working on that has been kind of frustrating. We are going "through" somebody so not communicating with the cabinet maker directly except for the one meeting, then all follow ups have been through this other guy. I don't know that he understands what I want, and frankly I am tired of arguing with him. I had given him the full mock-ups provided by a semi-custom line (similar to those I posted above). So he should know what I am looking for, it was right there on paper. But this this weekend I had to explain to him the difference between full and partial overlay and then have him tell me he doesn't think that this is the "standard" with that cabinet company (even though I had emailed him and asked him about it before a week or two ago), and it isn't that big of a deal anyway (who are you to tell me what is and isn't a big deal). Without "real" drawings, how do I know that their aren't a million other things that he doesn't think are that big of a deal. It is the vagueness that is really worrying me. It is kind of unnerving.

So here is the thing. I really don't like green that much. My house is mostly warm beige and soft yellows with red accents. I would like to transition to a more gray/blue and white but probably not here. My family room is a soft yellow, foyer is a warm beige, laundry room is antique white, and dining room is red and gold wallpaper above chair rail and white below. It seems green or blue would stick out like a sore thumb. I was thinking that maybe a cafe au lait (creamy brown) color would work. Thoughts?

thank you guys..actually i realized that the granite we liked is not Bianco Antico but a very similar granite called Delicatus. I love it! But no matter how many searches I do online, I dont see it paired with antique brown cabinets. I have seen it with almost every other stained cabinet there is but not the stain we are choosing. DH does not want to go darker or lighter on the cabinet stain and thinks Delicatus will go just fine. Our designer is trying to push a more golden granite on us and thinks that I should stick to all warm tones...although she is the expert I somehow feel that Delicatus just might work. It has so many colors in it that I think it will compliment the brown cabinets pretty nicely. But then is the question of the flooring..Dark brown cabinets, Delicatus granite, and nutmeg stained oak floors scraped lightly. Do you think there are too many different colors going on there?

I used Diamond cabinets in my kitchen. Mine are shaker style in cherry, all plywood construction, solid wood doors. Since I don't have a painted finish, I can't comment on that, but I can say that I am very happy with the finish on my cabinets. I have a total of 18 boxes including a tall pantry, and all of them arrived in perfect shape. No issues with the finish, no dings, dents, warped doors, etc. One drawer had a problem where it didn't shut all the way on its own with the soft close feature, and they sent me new glides. That is the only problem I had. I did order them from an independent dealer, not Home Depot or Lowes, and I think the service was better than what I would have got from the big box stores. My sister used Diamond in a white finish in her kitchen and she was very happy with them as well. Another used Thomasville in a painted/glazed finish, which are pretty much the same as Diamond except the backs are bit thinner, and she was very happy with hers, too. All of these are recent installs, within the last two years.