The thing is, there is no one right answer for this. For every person like me, who wants a closed-off kitchen, there's someone else who would rip down all the walls and have no barrier between the kitchen and living space at all. And there are a thousand in-between variations, as well. I've read your post on the Kitchens forum, so I have a better idea where you are coming from. For what it's worth, here are some more thoughts. I would not break through the wall into the living space at all. Once you put a window or pass-through there, you are defining the space on the other side of the wall. With the whole wall there, someone could put the head of their bed against that wall, and place a bookcase or other type of room divider parallel to the bed, creating a little, cozy, semi-hidden nook for their bed. Put a window there--it would feel really weird having your kitchen open onto your bed. And the height of the windows you have shown is awkward--the cook would have to bend down to see anything in the living space. I'd take my money and concentrate on "blinging out" the existing kitchen. Not knowing your area, it's hard to say where to spend the money. Definitely change out the "boob" light on the ceiling. Add some undercabinet lighting if you can. If the cabinets and granite are in as good shape as they look in the picture, and if stainless is what the renters in your area are looking for, then concentrate on getting stainless appliances. If the cabinets themselves are in good shape, but you want to lighten up the kitchen, then look into just refacing the cabinets with lighter colored doors. I would not give up an inch of storage space. Unless there is additional storage elsewhere in the building, like a basement lock-up, every bit of a renter's life must be contained in their apartment. Sports gear, clothing for multiple seasons, holiday decorations, the childhood teddy bear, books, CDs, DVDs, shoes--everything has to fit in that apartment. I've known people who didn't cook much who stored CDs or bicycle parts or clothes in their kitchen cabinets. There will always be renters who walk in and say, "We want open concept." But there will also be renters who walk in and say, "Look at all the storage!" You need to pick one group and market towards them. And in the other thread you mentioned fitting out one of the closets as a pantry. I'd suggest not doing that. Let your renters fit out the closets to work for them. Unless they are gourmet cooks, there should be enough space in the existing kitchen for most food storage. A dedicated pantry won't attract the average 20-something who eats out twice a day. They will only wonder how they can make the pantry work for them, instead of seeing it as a bonus.

Thank you sprtphntc...gorgeous color cabinets-kitchen. In your 1st photo,(upclose) the hardware looks totally pewter or matt silver though not ORB...Can you explain...As I need rich very dark (but not black)ORB matte real iron/metal. I initially though matte black to go with our handmade black custom potrack, wroight iron stair wells etc..and not be matchy matchy with hardware but the black didn't look good with my sample wood and so I'll have no contrast but go with dark ORB. LOVE the look. I am so thankful I found this page/thread..Apparently I'm not doing what is the trend but I go with what I love which tends to be timeless IMHO, traditional with rustic leanings.

Here are pics from our recently completed kitchen using Cliq cabinets. Overall, I would say we are very happy with the finished outcome. The Cliq design team worked with us on several "semi-custom" applications - the bench, the island and stacked oven/microwave cabinet (they also worked with us on creating a custom laundry room area with a stacked washer/dryer, prep/folding area - etc). We did stacked uppers and the crown as well as the trim moldings between the cabinets are nice finishing touches - that lend a more "customized" finish. As far as the quality goes, were there a couple of issues -- yes; but, nothing what I would consider major. The cabinets seem like solid construction (our contractor felt the quality of both the wood and the hardware were on par with what he uses with his "cabinet guy". Finish quality, we have a pretty good size kitchen with a bunch of cabinets. A handful of the cabinets, maybe 6/7 had some minor cosmetic blemishes and Cliq has a couple ways to handle these problems. Some of these are handled through replacement, or direct compensation back to fix/repair, they have a stellar customer service team. The biggest struggle with us was on the assembly of the cabinets, we used a very experienced general contractor and they had some fits with the construction. This isn't necessarily Cliq's issue, it was just a different assembly then what they were used to - so, be aware (all these areas are covered pretty well in the Cliq assembly packet for the most part). For us, we saw the gamut of cabinet costs and Cliq was on the lower end - our total costs for a kitchen that is roughly 25' x 17' was about $18K. Like I said earlier, so far, we're really happy with what we have. Hope this helps!

I agree get samples or take the guys shopping to see what works if this is big issue. I happen to like all pulls and in propertion to the cabinets and drawers and often some ar einstalled vertical and some horizontal. I spen a lot of time figuring out the proper porportion and I never put 2 pulls on any drawer . This is a good pic to show what I mean I use painters tape to figure out both size and placement since you need to be careful the pulld do not bump each other or create difficulty open cabinets and drawers.I like asimple stainlee bar pulls my hubby has pretty big hands and he does not have an issue . Iuse Lee Valley for a simple stainless bar pull and they have a ton of sizes avaialble all one style.