Hi Revka, We ordered two K-2210 Kohler Caxton sinks in almond for the planned remodel of our master bath. Is your sink a color or is it white? We've always liked using Kohler fixtures in our homes due to their excellent quality and have never heard of these black specs. We've had many different colors over the years from a Champagne pink sink in our guest bath to a Mexican sand wet-bar sink. I'm wondering how that could happen during manufacturing since they're made of vitreous china. I'm thinking that their quality control must be slipping to ship it without checking. I hope they not only replace your sink but also refund your reinstallation cost. Goldie

Thank you! So much great feedback. Sadly, the paint job is a necessity rather than just aesthetics -- paint on the back side is failing pretty badly & peeling off in layers. (After reading up on the paint forum, I think it was just too many layers of latex on top of old oil paint without adequate prep.) Maybe we will keep it close to current color. I'm not sure what color it is, but I'll have to stop by the BM store and pick up a tab for Briarwood. I think those color visualizers are just a bit off, at least on our monitor -- Down Pour is a very smurf-y blue on my screen. Luckily, SW store is right down the street. Of the SW colors, we liked Mineral Deposit -- gray, but not quite so dark. Johnmari, my wife said exactly that about warm trim looking bad with cool gray field color. I just want to get away from the current ultrawhite, just tone down a bit but not too much. Shutters? I think we will someday, after we've finished the essentials. Of course, being picky, I don't want to just screw aluminum shutters that don't match window size on there, so might be a while given that real shutters & hardware are pricey. The suggestion about doing the sash black is good--that could look really sharp and make the windows pop a bit more until we can dress it up a bit more with shutters. Absolutely agreed on the landscaping solutions. Could be more varied and it would add a lot. THANK YOU for all your suggestions, such a helpful group & nice little corner of the internet.

mount, yes, I do feel the same way about ranges as well. My feeling is that, esp. with things with moving parts, you want to go as simple as possible because the more moving parts something has, the more there is to break. Simplicity is always better, IMO, when it comes to appliances. I could be completely wrong about this, but my instincts tell me that the industrial/professional types of ranges everyone seems to "need' at a cost of $10,000, or more, are probably made very, very differently for residential customers than they are for restaurants and other commercial entities. IMO, they are an enormous waste of money and are about ego and narcissism rather than about anything practical (spend $2K on a good GE Profile range and give the $8K you'd save from buying a Viking range to a charity if you have that much to spend on a stove!). In addition, those professional ranges, the real ones, are powerful, and they are because cooking in restaurants is very different than cooking at home. They have to cook very fast and large quantities, so they need a lot of heat. That is NOT the case at home, and so many of my clients have those ranges and they are TOO hot and difficult to control. In addition, most who have them barely cook and cook mac and cheese with hot dogs for their kids. That can easily be done on a regular oven! But mostly I suspect they're not made nearly like the actual professional/industrial ranges and are in fact a big waste of money. That said, you certainly don't want an eyesore for a range. I got a hand-me down from a friend who restores old homes and gave me a GE profile he pulled out of a house in Cambridge, MA. I love it. And I got lucky in that it was black with SS. My dishwasher is black, my sink is SS, and my fridge is black handle with SS door fronts, black surround. So the GE was perfect. However, ultimately, I think what you should care about with appliances is the quality and reliabilityâ¦which I also think has become very difficult to achieve. I was away today. I"ll take a pic tomorrow. Promise.

I actually love the white doors but my husband thinks it's a bad idea with four little kids. We do have a ton of windows, 10 foot ceilings etc... but in our old home, we didn't have as much light and I did like the gauntlet gray doors. I don't think I can get him to agree to Dover white for doors so I need something! I'm at the paint store and I'm seeing what you are both talking about with the dovetail... I pulled Acier and that might be an option...