Your kitchen looks amazing!! I am currently building a Farmhouse. I have the cabinets picked out they are Brookhaven by Woodmode. The color is antique white. I have my heart set on honed absolute black countertops. I have read so many things about them and how hard they are to deal with. Do you like yours? Would you use it again? My other option is Cambria either cambrian black or sussex. The cambria is actually cheaper for me. Also, what size are your pendants? I bought the "harmon pendant" through Restoration Hardware and I couldn't decide what size to get. I got the 15 inch. However my cabinets havn't even been installed yet. My island is 7'3 by 3'7. Thanks for your help.

busybme, not kitchen obsessed, but having lived with the kitchen for several years, we knew exactly what we would do when the time came. Didn't think it would be in the budget for another year so we hadn't done any actual planning. We did ask a contractor to come in and give an estimate so we could get an idea about how much we would need. Well, it turns out the price was right (and he would give us additional savings if we could start in 2 weeks). We definitely benefitted from friends who recently did their kitchen. They recommended the armstrong dealer who sold the cabinets at a great price. We really didn't look anywhere else. Also DEFINETELY benefitted from gardenweb photos. We spent hours looking through photos (for backsplash patterns, faucets) once we decided to go ahead with the kitchen. Other than that, there really weren't a lot of decisions to make.

Thanks for the comments. I like all your advice and really expected people to tell me to go with the smoke and not white. I am posting images of the two tiles . To answer epressler's question the smoke subway tile is not glass but a crackled finish just like the off white subway tile. Yes, the granite does have a small amount of white flecks in it but since the kitchen is so dark with not much afternoon sun, the counters look and feel darker than the photo I posted. I know some under cabinet lighting would help but I am not going to have lights on during the day so that is one reason for the white subway tile idea. I like subway because most of the kitchens I admire use it. Most of the kitchen I admire also have a lot of white either in marble or painted cabinets. I feel like I did not choose very traditional countertops but my taste is traditional and my long term plan is to keep the cabinets forever and just think about painting them white someday when they start looking old. I also like dianalos comment about the valances. I chose the ones I did because I love oranges and yellows but maybe I should look into finding a new fabric that is not so dark and your comment about needing to go with white tile to change the effect seems spot on. The new images I am posting of the tile samples don't show the crackle finish but you will see one is much deeper and the bevel stands out...that one is also $30/sq. ft. ...the white one is only 12.99/sq. ft. and the bevel is not as neat but the white is crackled and almost a little iridescent. I am linking the photos in the optional link url. Does anyone know how to just get them to show up on my post?? Here is a link that might be useful: more photos of tile

@donna Hennings I’m leaning toward aesthetic white. What color did you use for trim paint? I’ve got to pain trim, cabinets and doors. I’m leaning toward alabaster for that. It’s not alot of contrast. I don’t want to go darker or on walls. But also can’t go whiter on cabinets as kitchen has the brown/beige/cream/gold granite and a lighter travertine backsplash. Plus of course travertine on kitchen floors (living room has dark walnut hardwoods)