We have 2 undermount sinks...the large Franke Pro 30" and the smaller Franke 12" prep sink. The Pro is huge, deep (you can bathe a dog in it, LOL), and has a square profile, with barely rounded corners. The prep sink is small, square, with widely rounded corners. I do think the brackets take a certain amount of space. Our 30" sink is in a 33" base cab. Your cabinet manufacturer can determine if you have sufficient space for each brand of sink you are considering. That's part of their job. Undermounting is super strong. Do not worry about a heavy turkey making the sink fall thru. A slight reveal (which is pretty standard) actually finishes the installation nicely. Gives you a smooth looking sink/counter joint. However, it does collect food and dirt over time, but is easily cleaned. For our bathroom sinks, we had no reveal. Easier to keep clean, and no place for toothepaste and shaved hairs to collect. As for depth of sink...our Pro is 11" deep, the prep is 6". Both function well for their purposes. I find I use the prep sink a lot...water doesn't splash everywhere, I use that faucet to fill saucepans (the main sink for the pasta pot), etc. I did put Insinkerators in both sinks. And at 12" wide, it's certainly large enough to use a colander. I cannot speak for the Kindred sinks...and would be loathe to buy any sink without at least seeing and touching it in person. What you want to know is the guage of the stainless steel used...thicker is better. And when you template and install your countertops, if you use granite or quartz, you have to have the sinks on hand at the job site. Your fabricator will need to take the sinks with him back to the factory...they are templated and installed there, then returned with the countertops for final installation.

I think there is a lack of focus. Everything is equally important. Gotta decide what deserves to be special and play that up. Also think about serenity issues--because your house has a triple set of connected rooms, you need to keep them playing nicely together yet make each one special. As you look into each room you need to feel Ahhhh! not Arrgh! Does the desk area have a sufficiently large lip of wall on the left of it to accept a cork board for child art? Or could there be a bulletin board over the desk? Then when seen from the next room, the kid art is not the center of the long view. Similarly, the magnets on the garbage can have too much importance within that long view. A single kid-centered area is fair play; multiple ones are an intrusion into the serenity, therefore the stuff needs to return there when it migrates elsewhere. So, where is the kid area at this point in your lives--under the dining room windows, right? Or under the desk? Can you restrict to only one, even if it's a bigger jumble? Currently the orchid leaves, the orange refrig art, the other colored items, the hardware, and the towels are the biggest grabbers of my attention. Why? Because everything else is so neutral, although my eye eventually comes around to focus on the warm tones in the natural wood floor and countertop. Although you deleted so much wood look, you might still want some of that wood, which softens and mitigates harshness. The allure of your inspiration photo is its discipline; your kitchen has more open shelving and more stuff and your own habits will fight the discipline. If you can put a color behind your stuff that does not emphasize contrasts, that would help a lot. Don't paint yet. Try adding some big warm wooden items which bring out those wood tones--a separate cutting board, a turned wooden salad bowl, a splint basket at floor level, a wooden item over that far door. Bring home a sink rug, some towels or flower pots, and/or fabric for the tops of the stools which all coordinate either in a single solid color or in a small print or stripe. No large prints! Lay them out, look hard, then keep or return. [Notice how others with white kitchens on the GW have had to focus on an accent color which can be changed out.] You might find that because of your warm browns, your best paint color might be closer to chocolate brown than to grey. And you might consider a second paint color for accent, perhaps to use to highlight the area surrounding the sink window. You could also paint the secondary color on the stools and on the apron below the shelving on the left and behind the open shelves on the hutch or on the countertop area of the hutch. Carmel brown perhaps? Mustard yellow? or walnut brown? Consider putting an interesting matte or rippled glass into your dining area upper cabs to play down the humps on the cabs. The items at the top of the hutch are in too small in scale. Find something big and dramatic, or use potted green plants like pothos in matched pots of your accent color or wood and let the plant arms crawl around on the upper shelf and hang down both sides. Large doses of a single color and texture up there will give the spot importance and add height and drama. Move the clock up or put it into the kitchen above the sink so that you can put a big piece of art on that dining room wall. You need something to balance the big window that is opposite and to make eating at the table an exciting thing to do. Save up for a big rug for the dining area--something that camouflages kid spills and draws attention to this important area between t.v. and refrig. [Our dining table is the nerve center of our house. We got an estate sale Belgian style carpet when our kids were little--fabulous idea. The thing looked clean even when an entire chow mein dinner was spilled on it. It finally wore out completely but it was sure fun while it lasted. Meals in that room remain very important in our girls' memories of childhood.] If you must have a backsplash, choose something that does not add entropy. Yet if you add more white, you are only adding to the overall whiteness of that room. Do not use a shiny tile if the backsplash is of any size--think serenity when seen from next room. I think I would prefer the existing countertop color to more white. When you went white you got as excited about white as the former owner did about wood. Consider painting the door the same color as the walls or the floor so that you defuse the large am't of white and give the eye a place to rest on that back wall. Have fun stormin' the castle!

Wow! Thank you all for your fabulous input! I will post my kitchen cabinets and a few slabs when I get organized. I do love the Costa Esmeralda but you are committing to a color, I agree. briannadarnell- your cabinets with the delicatus look beautiful! Thank you for including the pictures (actually that includes everyone else!!). Are you saying that a creamy granite (colonical gold or cream) may make my cabinets look more yellowy while the white granite may make them look more whiter? Do you know if that kitchen before yours has antique white cabinets or white cabinets? ellendi- basicaly, you are saying that honed white or cream granite is more prone to staining? Went to the granite yard today and saw Cosa Rosa which is similar to costa esmeralda but more softer grey with pink hues and much cheaper. Also saw amazon black honed which looks grey. I do also love the look of a grey countertop (why I like pietra! and even soapstone) with my cabinets. i will post pics.

White Shaker cabinets are timeless and beautiful, as are white subway tile with black black grout. What is NOT timeless and beautiful are trendy expensive items like farmhouse apron sinks, black faucets, glass tile etc...anything that makes it clear the exact year the renovation was done. If you want trendy, stick to items easily replaced, like drawer pulls and knobs, pictures, even paint. Plain slab cabinet doors with hidden pulls look like a dentist's office...it's a kitchen, not a surgical suite. FYI: All those kitchens are way too busy, way too much going on, especially in the backsplashes, and the idea of a white kitchen floor is laughable. And please stop making a big deal out of the range hood which for some reason has become the focus of the room!