mpwdmom, I'm with M on this one. It never occurred to be the question was insincere. There have been a number of recent threads asking about wallpaper (and boarders) so that didn't even phase me, LOL! As for the pastels, that also did not strike me as obviously spam. While I generally prefer rich colors to a pastel palette, pastels have their place and can be quite lovely in the right room with the right light. I posted that picture of my old living room to demonstrate that even a room with multiple dominant colors can be harmonious instead of discordant as long as the colors are carried through the space and the adjoining spaces. When I first tried to describe what I was planning for that room to friends and decorators alike (brown ceiling, brown baseboards, navy on this wall, grey on that wall, blue handrails, blue sofa, orange piping, red chairs, Asian and modern accents, black and white art, etc.), they all would get this slightly horrified look on their faces, like someone had silently passed gas, and they were trying to pretend they did not notice. Since I put the room together one piece at a time, very few people could visualize my ultimate plan no matter how hard I tried to describe it. You should have seen the decorator's face when I showed her the sofa and the chair and the fabric! Priceless. But once I had everything in place, suddenly the reactions were the complete opposite. I was giving the OP the benefit of the doubt -- maybe I just couldn't really visualize what they were trying to describe. I also have seen many good folks here who love soft colors and wallpaper, wild, vibrant florals, deer heads, and other things that personally would never be allowed in my own house, but they like them, so who am I to naysay? Case in point (and hopefully I won't get flamed for this again): I backed down from questioning someone's prominent placement of stuffed bears in their master bedroom after numerous other posters extolled the virtues of stuffed animals in a grown-up's bedroom. Now, I absolutely will not display toys in my bedroom. It is a grown-up space for grown-up time: reading, sleeping, getting ready in the morning, and, well, ahem... You get the picture. It is our grown-up space away from toyland. There is no gray area to that. If a stuffed animal finds its way to my bed, it's because it was carried there in the middle of the night by a 3 yr old visitor wookin' pa nub, as Eddie Murphy once sang. But this other poster and many others loved her wedding bears. As I recall, the bears found a comfy home in a rocking chair and were declared by many to look perfectly lovely there. So c'est la vie. Pastels, bears, florals, oh my. Even in my own family, my decorating sense is very different from others in my family. My SIL and brother have decorated their bedroom with so much Star Wars stuff that they have to tell my DD and niece not to play with daddy's toys. LOL. I see that room and think, gadzooks, it would be like sleeping with a six-year-old! My MIL has a cream-on-cream scheme in her house that would drive me batty, but she agonizes over every cream-colored choice, comparing this nubby cream colored fabric to that nubby cream colored fabric and recovering with new cream-colored fabric the old cream-colored sofas that no one ever sat on for fear of staining the cream colored sofas. I'm fairly certain my use of color, color, color is a bit dizzying for her cool, off-white-loving eye, but she and I nevertheless have many decorating discussions that are both fun and instructive to both parties.

It seems to me there is a much more efficient way of expanding your house than the above proposal. Can you draw in where the stairs are right now? Moving stairs seems like a huge avoidable expense. What is the basement like? My cousin had a fairly creepy basement under his little 900 sf house, but he finished it, adding egress Windows so he could double his square footage; he put a bedroom, full bath, laundry room, family room and wet bar down there. For small house inspiration, have you checked out chezerbey.com? Their house started out around 800-900 sf and they've maximized every inch (with two little girls and a golden retriever.) Their home totally inspired my renovation. http://chezerbey.com/tour/

margomnyc, sorry for the delay, I took a Houzz break after we finished. As far as the Neolith, we are really happy with it. We've had no chips thus far after 6+ of heavy use, and nothing has stained it. The satin finish is very nice -- not too shiny but it's not totally matte. I use glass cleaner to wipe it down as some other cleaners can leave streaks. Overall, I'd recommend it. oldbat2be, thank you, I'm glad to hear you like it! I could use a sous-chef and may take you up on that offer! ;)

Ive seen them all. The voxtorp is very matte and paperwhite. You also have the matte walnut and the glossy beige/ivory. No hardware of course because of the integrated handle. I think this style looks best if you keep the lines the I reheated handle creates aligned throughout most of the design. If you need many different sized cabinets with both doors and drawers, I would personally not go for this front. The Veddinge has a low sheen and is a hint warmer- very classic and standard looking- you can play it up with hardware. Ringhult is like veddinge, plain and smooth only in high gloss. IMO choice of hardware is more limited with a high gloss front due to the style. It will reflect light beautifully (I had a Ringhult kitchen 15 years ago) but does it suit the rest of your design and age of the house? High gloss can work well in older buildings (my apartment was from 1929) but I think it takes a little more thought.