Most people suggest colors in the green family which is nice but I'm a big fan of sunflowers and decided to use a soft yellow instead. We put it in both our kitchen and breakfast area and like it alot! Not only does it give the kitchen and dining area a very warm and cozy feel and it also has a very pretty glow when the sun is shining in! Not to mention it matches our honey oak cabinets perfectly!

Well, I know it has been a while, but I realized I forgot to post an update! We finished everything in Dec '11, and have really enjoyed it. The house went on the market this weekend, so we got a little over a year in our 'new' kitchen. We got a full price offer today, and our home is priced higher than anything in our neighborhood (the house 2 doors down in 500 sf larger, and priced $5k cheaper). I think it was worth it - total cost was right around $7K. Granite: NVG light Gel Stain: Java (General) - 3 coats Tile: Home Depot Backsplash: Home Depot Here is a link that might be useful: More Kitchen Remodel Pics This post was edited by leightx on Tue, Apr 23, 13 at 12:40

I bought quarter sawn red oak cabinets for my previous kitchen and although the doors were quartersawn, the interior faces of the cabinets were regular red oak veneer. That's the way they were manufactured. Since the doors were full overlay, the parts of the cabinets that were not quartersawn were never really visible and I had "furniture" sides so those were also quartersawn. However, red oak and white oak are different species, with the white oak tending more towards browner tones. If I were you I would buy a sample door and see how the color match goes with your current boxes. Or you can buy an unfinished door and see if you can play with stain to match the color. You might be able to find a stain close to your current cabinets in tone that will be good with the honey oak. .

I don't think it would be weird at all to paint the whole wall white (or any other colour) including the chair rail (that's the line of trim around the walls. The idea is that it protects the walls from being marred by a chair being pushed back from the table). Of you don't like the chair rail you could check under the one on the dividing wall; if the wall under it is nice you could probably take it right off with no problem. You might have some nail holes to fill but that's pretty easy. I really like white walls with oak trim. There are a lot of nice examples of it here on houzz.