I would suggest that non garden designers can train their eye to what they like and and what appears beautiful if they spend some time really looking at gardens and individual plants, and even more importantly, the natural surroundings to get ideas for their own garden. It might be as simple as clipping photos of appealing gardens from magazines, taking digital or 35 mm photos of appealing natural areas within your region, or driving the neighborhood to find examples of gardens that appeal to you. The next step might involve trying to analyze the characteristics that you find appealing, and don't just concentrate on the particular plants, colors, etc., but instead think it through in terms of the feelings it gives you; i.e., is wide open and spacious, enclosed and contemplative, restful, dynamic, exotic, familiar, etc. It also helps to really be honest with yourself about what you want your garden to be. Is it just for you and/or your family? Are you trying to compete with the neighbors, or is the potential status of a new garden an important consideration? Also it is really important to consider the longer term costs of maintenance and time required to keep the garden going. As well, try to think longer term in what you want the garden to be and do, which really affects how closely to plant things, what initial sizes will best suit your requirements, etc. I always try to elicit responses to these less obvious concerns before I start a design. I also prefer to work with clients who are referrals from previous clients, as they are more familiar with my work and are already self-selecting. I also really like to take potential clients to see my gardens and ask questions as to what appeals or not in each. I also find that opening my client's gardens on garden tours is a good way to get exposure to potential clients, and recommend garden tours to the public as a way to get more exposure to all the variety of designs and designer approaches. Visiting historic gardens/houses and botanic gardens is another approach to see and define your preferences from the enormous pallette of plants that can potentially be used in your own garden design. It may be heretical to say this, but a garden is an artifical construct, and does not have any specific rules as to what makes it work for any one person. If you are philosphically drawn to using natives and trying to create a garden that is not so dependent on constant work and resources to keep it going, you will not be happy with a formal garden of boxwood and roses. If a garden that appears similar to the untouched surroundings is not your idea of a garden, you won't want to hire a designer that specializes in the minimalist, naturalist approach. My favorite clients are the ones that feel a garden is both a refuge from the daily grind, and should be beautiful in its own right. I also enjoy the opportunity to incorporate art or influences from foreign travel into the garden design, and especially enjoy it when an initial non-gardener gets involved with gardening as a result of their newly created garden. Just coming off a garden tour this past weekend where over 1000 people came through a small 2000 square foot garden in one day, after viewing 13 distinctively different gardens and styles, it was interesting to question visitors about what they did/didn't like about the various gardens. I'll confess that I find it a little disappointing when the average visitor only sees the plants currently most showy in bloom, to the exclusion of all else. But there were certainly enough visitors who also "got" the larger picture, and were intrigued by the constrasts of the architecture brought out into the garden and contrasted with the abundance of riotous plantings to soften it. To have others notice the attention to details of matching flower and foliage colors to the house colors, and asking questions about the mix of hot and cool colors, dry and tropical plants, were the visitors I spent the most time conversing with. It was also interesting that out of over 150 different species of plants in the garden, there were only about 5 or 6 that elicited the most questions. As the garden and house will also be featured in a future issue of a national garden magazine, it will be interesting to see what the garden editor and photographer will see. After having the garden photographed by several other nationally known photographers, it is also interesting to see that each photographer captures different things. The end result, is that I do enjoy sharing my art with a wider public, and also learn that I can't please everyone, and shouldn't even try. It is enough to hear the client tell me that they enjoy their own garden more all the time, and to get their suggestions for how they would like to see the garden evolve, or give me thoughts on what they'd like to do diffently on the next project...

Just stick with your original plan. As with everywhere in real Scandinavian homes there is a variety of materials even though there are the more common types as well. I'm from that area. Actually soap stone used to be a common material for window sills in older buildings. The one that when not oiled looks a bit lighter than charcoal with some veins. Never saw it oiled though. Edit: do a Google image search for "svart köksbänk" and you will see lots of white cabinets with black counters. This post was edited by lyfia on Wed, Oct 1, 14 at 23:06

I agree, your cabinets look very nice. It's too bad there aren't more drawers, but do you at least have pull out shelves? Your granite & backsplash look very nice as well...but I do agree the kitchen is a little dark...but the big windows in the table area do help. I do have to say that I am very glad that you're taking the cooktop out of the island...the safety issues alone are worth it, but you can also add a range/vent hood now w/o making it an overwhelming presence in the kitchen (which is probably why you don't have one right now...definitely a case where someone let aesthetics trump function.) Which cabinets, exactly, are you replacing with the range & hood? Will there be 9" to 12" b/w the range and the doorway? If not, that may not be a good idea and may not even pass your local Code. (You say you're adding 12" ones on either side of the hood so I'm hoping that means you'll have 12" on the door side.) It's generally recommended, btw, that your hood be 6" wider than your range to increase its capture area, not required, just recommended. One issue that I do see, though...the DW will be in the path b/w the sink & range, making it an obstacle when open...both for getting around it to get to the sink and for prepping. The most common place for prep is b/w the range & a sink (water source)...and that means your DW will be in the way. Is the cabinet to the right of the sink 24"? If so, I'd switch it w/the DW to move the DW out of the way. If it's wider, would you be OK w/the sink moved slightly to the right so you could put that cabinet there & the DW on the right (it might actually center your sink on the window)? Upper cabinets should not be an issue as there's a window behind the sink & some of the counter run. There are plenty of cabinets on that side for dish storage...it would actually put the dishes closer to the table area. For the Breakfast bar, are you just putting cabinets on the other side so you have storage on the table side? That sounds like a good idea if you never use the Breakfast Bar (it is pretty close to the table area, so I can see that you might not use the bar much). If you're keeping the peninsula, that's what I would do. The nice thing about that peninsula is that it offers a large expanse of workspace that your island doesn't (and cannot b/c you don't have enough room in your kitchen for a deeper island.) Have you found the location of your refrigerator an issue? I'm asking b/c the island is a "barrier island" right now and will continue to be so after your planned changes. The island is a barrier b/w the refrigerator & sink as well as refrigerator & cooktop right now. When you put the range in where the ovens are, it will no longer be a barrier b/w the range & ref, but it will still be b/w the sink & ref. A possible solution to that is a prep sink, but I don't think you want to be prepping on the refrigerator side of the island b/c it's the main path through your kitchen...so a prep sink may not help. Yes, it would offer an alternate place for prepping or washing hands, but I'm not sure the loss of work & cabinet space would be worth it. These are some things to think about... Now, on to the flooring & colors. Flooring...like you, we opted for tile in our Kitchen & Foyer b/c of 2 dogs (standard poodles)! We have a friend w/one standard poodle and they tell us that she did more damage to their hardwood floor in the Kitchen & eating area in a year than their 4 kids did in the previous 10 years! We don't regret the tile at all. So far, no problems standing on the tile and in the summer it is wonderfully cool...even the dogs like to sleep on it! In the winter I always wear slippers, so the tile floor isn't a problem then either. Surprisingly, our male dog likes to sleep on it in the winter as well. Colors....I'm not sure what your plans are for the existing cabinetry...you say you're "...drawn to light cream cabinetry and black counters...". So, are your perimeter cabinets staying the same color or are you painting them a creamy color? If you're concerned about light, you could put in a lighter backsplash, that will, I think, make a big difference. Oh, and when you replace the granite, I recommend you do not get the 3" or 4" backsplash piece. It will save you $$$ and look much better if you put in tile (or whatever you use for the BS) to the counter. We have cherry cabinets w/Absolute Black granite countertops that we love. But we do have a very large window in our kitchen that brightens it up considerably during the day and plenty of lighting for nighttime.

Thank you everyone for your suggestions! I'm sorry I didn't get to read them earlier...spent the afternoon building a snowman with my little guy in this lovely winter wonderland we are experiencing in NC right now, followed by hot cocoa with 'Mickey' marshmallows (because "Mommy, boys don't drink hot chocolate with 'Minnie' marshmallows!"), followed by a sugar cookie making party! So down to business... -As many of you have pointed out, this design has some issues. The background on this is that we hired a designer to draw the house plans. After nearly a year (when it should've taken about 3 months seeing as how I drew the floorplans for her and actual pics were provided for the entire exterior from every angle imaginable) we had spent a small fortune and we figured out we were being strung along to increase the designer's bottom line. So we finally said this is it, print the final set and we will take it from here. So here we are with pretty much the whole house nailed down except for the kitchen and construction scheduled to start in about 3-4 weeks. The solution: call on your Gardenweb friends to help make this kitchen an open yet cozy example of both form and function. And I thank you again for all your help! -To answer a couple posts, a counter and cabinet are needed next to the refrigerator for storage of glassware and a place to set the glasses as they're being filled from the dispensers. Celticmoon- I hate those corner cabinets too! They are stumpy and they do impede walkways around the island. Rhome- Yes, there will be a fridge/freezer in the garage just outside the entry door in addition to the 48" fridge/freezer in the kitchen. With a 15 year old the size of a linebacker and a 5 year old with 2 hollow legs who can out eat his older brother, I might need a third! On the pantry-you walk in under the upper portion of the stairs and there will be a set of tall shelves that will line the left hand wall for dry goods. These will go to 2 shelves under the landing and around the corner for large pots and bulk items (yes, I love Costco!). This setup has worked really well for Mom & Dad and my DH & I really like it. Lisa_a- I don't like the oven placement either, but I had to put them somewhere just to get the final prints done. I like the idea of placing them on the DR or FR wall. Thanks! Mythreesons- You are in the Charlotte area, right? I think we exchanged window info a while back. What did you ever decide to go with? Did you ever get to talk with the owner of the Abberley Lane house in your neighborhood? Thanks for the input and posting of your plan. I really like your island setup-it's just what I had in mind! As far as the mudroom/laundry/powder room area: the cubbies will be hidden inside a cabinet. My DH & I went round & round on that part of the layout (in fact the powder room was an addition to the original plan)& what you see is the compromise we could both live with-hence the disguised cubbies. Our bigger issue is laundry. Our mudroom and laundry room were combined in our last house & it was an absolute nightmare! And of course the entry door that was used the most by EVERYONE was the one in the mudroom. All of my work stuff ended up there too. I've made a large specially designed space for all of my work stuff in the garage so it never enters the house. So hopefully, we will just be dealing with coats, gloves, hats, bookbags & shoes--all behind closed doors! Please keep the suggestions coming! I will work with these & get them on paper to scan & post. If anyone sketches anything out as you're thinking or if you see a layout you think will help, please scan and post it! Thanks so very much!