I agree about the "layered whites" look. I think it looks really nice to have different whites and creams in the same spaces. The only thing I don't care for is cabinets that go to the ceiling and have the same crown as the rest of the room, and that crown is a different color than the cabs. If the cabs don't go all the way to the ceiling, then they kind of become their own entity. It's when they are integrated with the room's crown and trim and they are a different color that it looks off to me. But, that is just my personal preference. In my girlfriend's house she has a very similar color palette to yours. Her family room, which is open and adjacent to the kitchen, is green walls with bright white trim. Her kitchen is cream walls, cream ceiling, and cream trim. It looks fine. The two rooms do have a slightly different feel to them, but that's not a bad thing. In your case you have a large framed "doorway" between your dining room and kitchen, so you should have no problem doing different trims in each room. Are your cabs going all the way to the ceiling?

Why don't you consider a nice green color with a bit of a glaze for your cabinets? I did the cream with heavy glaze in my kitchen (your top link is my kitchen!) and I love them, but I never considered any other color and now that I've seen some green glazed cabinets - I think about redoing my island in green!!! (Its black now with the perimeter in glazed cream.) Green cabs would stand out nicely against your walls. There is a forum member here named Teppy and I'm attaching a link to her photobucket. She has a some inspiration photos on there with distressed green islands and they are gorgeous, as well as her own green island. Here is a link that might be useful: http://s293.photobucket.com/albums/mm49/1teppy1/

No, I ask because it's about impossible to find drawers that can be removed in mid-priced furniture. It drives me bonkers when I can't pull them out all the way. Makes it so much harder to move furniture and to pull out enough to see what's in back. I ordered a two piece set of made in the USA Kincaid product (sight unseen) and was disappointed that they had cheaped out on that part of construction. Back in the day, all furniture had removable drawers.

:Plantation shutters are expensive and thus expensive to replace. Go with white shutters and then you can change any other color in your space and the shutters will be fine. Also, brown shutters will make your room darker, open or shut.