All right, I'll answer as a buyer. Assuming all else in the house was what we wanted and needed, I would buy it, with a couple changes. I would have the DR right there by the kitchen, as you do, and it would be elegant DR. I would have a couple wingback chairs at that DR table because if I were going to sit in there and watch TV (that is a TV at the head of the table?) I'd want to be in a comfy chair. The only thing is that in order to please me, the kitchen would have to look fairly fabulous since it is right there by my living space. The kitchen seems a little light on cabinets and counter space. Just two straight lines... can you do anything to make it very interesting? As I said, I'm different. In our last house we had the family room/kitchen as one big room. We remodeled the kitchen to be droolingly gorgeous and put our cherry DR set in the family room with two big wingback chairs, kicked all living room furniture out. Had the TV in there. It was the room in which we spent all our time and was a great room for parties as well. Warm, inviting, friendly. So, in a nutshell, if I liked the way everything looked, I like the idea, and I'd buy it. BUT, now, to be realistic, when we went to sell that house (and it was just over a year ago so was in the days of real estate decline), despite its gorgeous kitchen and the fact that the decorator had assured us that women would be begging their husbands to buy them the house because of it... nobody wanted it. We finally ended up selling it at a big loss to an investor. So, others are right when they say there are no guarantees, and there is no accounting for or being assured of other peoples' taste.

Hi, Handyfrank: I may be a bit late to your discussion, but part of the beauty of natural stone is in the variations. No two slabs are identical. Blue pearl is my choice for an upcoming project in my own kitchen, and I have loved it since I first saw it in mineralogy and petrography classes in college too many years ago. When I pull the trigger on my project, I will be looking for a slab with a good bit of blue, but I want the depth of color as well. I'm not concerned about being too dark, as I will be doing mostly white cabinets and the dark horizontal surface will be an exclamation point on the light colors elsewhere. For the backsplash I'm leaning toward a granite called 'ashen white', a light grey with fairly strong lineation in the texture and that includes red crystals of garnet in the matrix. I will have stainless and black appliances, and a hammered copper sink which will be the focal point of the kitchen. Best of luck! Winston and Baldurdash, the Wonder-Elghund

Great you told the designer ahead of time, so they have time to let cabinet supplier know. They can usually get drawer or door front replacements ordered in a reasonable time for situations like that. It also gives the designer the heads up to know how install is going & keep things in order with the hired installer. Best of success to your new kitchen ;)

Just for fun I did some mock ups....outside mount and inside mount. I think to look right, the treatment would have to be very light and soft, but then it would contrast with the muntins. If you got fabric that included the color in the muntins, it would make them heavier. So I'm in the 'let it be' camp.