paulineinm's kitchen is amazing and is my inspiration picture..My husband looooves the apron front farmhouse sink..I explained because we have chosen laminate we may have to consider something else i.e. American Standard Country Sink. I wonder what wall paint color Pauline chose!! I can't thank everyone enough for all your feedback. I love BossaNova's carriage house kitchen as well. suzannesl also blfenton:We are hoping to keep our budget in reign to make sure the french doors are a possibility. I am glad you like the dark color laminate afterall. Steph2000..Thanks for your feedback and I can't wait to follow your kitchen progress. If you have time please forward a mockup it would be helpful. colorfast: We are chosing Starmark cabinetry. Great idea about the window..in the meantime in the newest Better Homes and Gardens magazine with a kitchen of similar style with a display ledge/shelf above the window to balance out the neighboring cabinets and molding.

Dear Johnny Dollar, My kitchen planner/cabinet rep was the one who suggested alder with this stain to soften the redness in the wood. I had initially wanted natural maple, as in our old kitchen. The light color of maple just was not right with the madre perla, the new oak floors, and all the other colors. The softness of the wood was never discussed and this is the first time that I have heard about it. We are almost empty nesters, so this kitchen will not get as much wear and tear as in a family with young kids. So far no gauges or dents or chips. The cabinets were made halfway across the country from where I live, so staining was not done on my premise. The finish on the cabinets looks very even.

Lakekristina - I am drawn to kitchens with more than one color. Here is one I came across recently that mirrors a bit of what you wrote about. I think the combo of the beautiful deep color and the light top allows depth and brightness in a single kitchen. My kitchen is red birch and white, but I ended up painting the island, a desk and an the full length pantry segment of my cabinets white and having the main uppers & lowers natural red birch. I feel it is important to see how the use of different colors breaks up or merges the space. In my case, I dropped the idea of lighter uppers and darker lowers because of pantry (we needed the storage.) With a full length end cabinet area I didn't like the idea of splitting the uppers and lowers along the L. I also wanted a painted island - if I had done upper and lower a different color I would had the island the lower, darker, natural wood. Dark bottom and light upper is bright, is fun and I also think in some ways it is more natural than top and bottom being the same color (how often do you go out with a shirt and pants the same color :)

Thanks for the response! I'll be completely honest - my wife and I aren't really sure where to go. We aren't design people by any stretch of the imagination. We know we don't want white, and black or really dark won't work either as we have black appliances. The current color doesn't bother us, but some of the drawer faces are starting to show their wear especially on the island. Everywhere we researched it seemed as if you aren't able to keep the same color. Is this true? Is it possible to sand down the wood faces and find a stain that matches the paper? Here are some additional pictures: 1) This picture is overall of the island - it's hard to see, but the middle drawer is the worst with most of the finish worn off in some areas. Also, all doors around the hardware area are very "tacky" from I believe the previous owner. Every time we try to clean them, they get worse tacky wise - I believe the gloss finish is coming off. You can also see some areas of "dark" grain which appears to be grime from over the years settling into the wood. Almost all the cabinets have darker grain around the hardware section. We added the hardware, but the previous owner didn't have any which is why those areas are the worst. http://i.imgur.com/W0XxHt2.png 2) Here is a closer picture of the island, specifically the middle drawer, and bottom of each door. I pointed out areas of worn finish and wrote out the tacky areas. http://i.imgur.com/bE0UKSQ.png 3) Overall of our kitchen - Far away, it doesn't look that bad, I think it's only when you get close you see the finish wearing off, and tackiness of the cabinets. Assuming we change out the counter tops, do you think we should just keep the same color instead of going through the hassle of changing it? And if so, as I mentioned earlier, is that possible? We just want to give it a nice "refresh" without breaking the bank for 30k in new cabinetry. http://i.imgur.com/E7j4004.jpg Really appreciate the help!!