We have a sloped ceiling in a bathroom we recently renovated. I took the tile up the the lower side of the slope. This is how it turned out. I like having the higher ceiling in the shower.

I would hang them all at the same height with the rod just skimming the top of the window, creating a waterline around the room...ignore the ceiling height.

Hi, To start with the soapstone- we have had it in for about a month now and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! I cannot get enough of the charcoaly black color and feel of it--like a baby's skin. It is from Brazil so is the very soft version of it. It definitely dings and scratches easily. The scratches disappear with an oiling and the dings blend in with oiling. I plan to try and sand them soon so I will let you know how that goes. I am not sure where you are located but we are in PA and got it from Bucks County Soapstone. We paid a tiny bit more to go with them (maybe $5/sq ft more) but I cannot say enough about how wonderful this company is. It was so worth it. It is the best company I have every dealt with--with regards to anything I have ever purchased. They are just wonderful! Maybe I should do an add for them;o). With regards to your island--I LOVE the wood. We had butcher block in our old house and I just loved it. We thought of it for here too but I didn't feel it fit with the style of this more traditional house. (I like a much more funky house with more character but this made more sense to be in a neighborhood with lots of kids). I think a soapstone perimeter will look gorgeous. My aunt has a different kind of soapstone--little more greenish to it and it is much harder. It is equally beautiful and is what made us think of soapstone originally. As far as the posts go, how big are your cabinets (total overall dimensions of it)? When we were working on ours--they suggested a minimum of an 11" overhang on the sides with the larger counter stools. They actually suggested it on any overhang side but we didn't have enough room on the stove side and we knew we would just have a small stool there so it didn't bother us. We did a bit more on the fridge side than the 11" as we had the space. I would say that once the counter is installed, try to put a piece of wood or baseball bat or fed ex shipping tube... to mimic the post in the place you want it by the kitchen table to see if it bothers you. That is what we did with the extra overhang on the island on the stove side as one of the handymen we got a quote from said it might feel too cramped. It didn't bother me. What I would say about the posts is they don't make it feel closed at all. It still feels as open as when I just had the counter without posts. You could also do slightly smaller posts. IMHO I really love the posts. It used to bother me before we replaced the counters and expanded the island that the counter was just floating there with no support--but that is just me. I know many like it the other way better and I think it just comes down to personal preference. I am by no means any good at designing though--I am very mathematical and love symmetry:o) so hopefully someone else who is more artistic or with design experience can weigh in. Good luck. Keep me updated and let know about the dimensions of the cab to see if you can do the posts! Also, LOVE how your kitchen is turning out!

Thanks, live wire oak and alice 462. Live wire oak, there's no alternative to our building an addition: The existing kitchen is intolerable not just to me but also to our insurance company, and the three carpenters/contractors/architects I have spoken to thus far have all said it would be cheaper to tear down the structure than to repair it. Meanwhile I have been thinking about creating a terrific kitchen since we bought this house in 1972, and it is just too late for me to abandon that idea. So I will just have to manage to keep the costs down. Some ploys I am using to keep costs down are having very few cabinets, staying away from high end appliances, and being my own contractor. And no architect. But thanks much for pointing to the HVAC costs associated with additional height, which I will have to learn about and take into consideration. Alice462, the ceilings in the rest of the first floor are maybe 8' or even a bit less. But this house is a very old farm house. We don't intend for the modern kitchen to flow into the rest of the house (although both the Federal farmhouse and the Bauhaus sort of kitchen are very similar in their lack of ornamentation, straight lines, emphasis on proportion, and white boxiness), so we think the kitchen ceiling doesn't need to be the same height as the rest of the downstairs. I sure hope we're right.