I'm no expert, but I guess a copper sink would make the place darker and probably will not look good next to an SS DW.

As to counter I wouldn't prefer busy and dark colors.

Meanwhile do you have yellow or white light bulbs in the kitchen? Although yellow ones feel warmer, I am more comfortable with white in my kitchen.

I love your kitchen! Would you consider a panel for your dw? If not I think a cast iron farm house sink would probably look better with stainless. With that being said I have been kicking myself for choosing the Kohler Whitehaven as early as I did because I fell in love with the Rachiele copper farmhouse sink but I already had the cast iron ordered.

I think a copper sink would look gorgeous in your kitchen but not next to a stainless dw.I would use a light granite with a lot of movement with some bordeaux or coppery colors in it to go with your Rachiele sink (If you chose that).

So if the kitchen were mine I would:

1. Go with the Rachiele sink
2. Do a custom panel for the dw (so I could go with the copper sink).
3. Use a light color granite to brighten the kitchen.

I'll try to help, but I'm not a kitchen guru although I've been hanging around here for almost 4 years now (haven't done my own reno yet). Have you considered painting your cabs to lighten things up? Are you keeping the cabs above the sink? Taking them out would allow light from the LR or FR into the kitchen and go a long way to opening up the space. You probably need to plan on doing a new lighting layout to help rid your kitchen of the shadows.

I think what sink is not a priority until you figure out some of the other issues. As far as what countertop, it's a very personal choice and you need to figure out what would work best for you and how you use your kitchen. Personally, I'm staying away from speckly granite/quartz or stones with a lot of movement because they bother my eyes. When I work in my kitchen I need a visually calm place. I also don't want to worry about babying my counters so I'll be using either quartz or soapstone (a hard variety).

If you paint your cabs and use a lighter countertop material, it would go a long way to making your kitchen feel airier. (I'll try to find a few examples from the FKB and post back with some examples.)

What is the floor? Can't really tell from the pic, but it looks like it might be wood. That would work well with painted cabs, even if they're fairly dark (grounding the space). With all this being said, I know I sound like a white TKO person, but I'm really not. I'll probably be going with stained cabs, but I definitely have learned to appreciate how white/light cabs help open up a space in my years on GW.

I don't think I've helped with all your questions, but hopefully the pros will chime in soon.

Here's a photo of the granite that "we're" thinking of going with but I'm worried it may be too busy. Cool thing about this granite is it has some quartz in it & it doesn't really have that much "speckled" stuff....or does it? thoughts???

Lighting - I'm not sure if it's yellow or white but I'm thinking they're white. I'll have to double check on that.

If I go with the Rachiele sink, should I do farmhouse or undermount? And if I do this, would a black dishwasher work or would I still need to panel it? I suppose this would also determine the color of the microwave drawer since it will be in the lower cabinets but on the opposite side?

I'm afraid I can't change the color of the cabinets because the rest of the house has the same stain. It all flows and there's no real "stop" point. That would have been a great idea but unfortunately, I don't think it's going to work in this kitchen. :( Or would it look funny if I painted the upper cabinets white and left the lower cabinets medium brown???

thanks, everyone!! I love your thoughts!

The floor is wood, medium brown, too.

The granite is gorgeous. The colors would really go great with the copper sink. I actually like your dark cabs.

I am by no means a designer but I think the apron front if you go copper will really look great. OTOH if you go with a traditional mount the stainless dw would be fine. I just think that if you go with copper it would be a shame to not show a lot of it.

Poohpup has a beautiful Rachiele apron front with cabs that are on the darker side. Maybe you could look at her kitchen for ideas.

If it were my space I'd do an undermount sink-look at stainless and silgranit both.... higher arc bridge mount faucet with nice traditional style/stainless dishwasher and probably lighter counter .Look at some colored or custom tiles with some interesting design/color for the narrow strip around sink and then mimic that above cooktop..... a wonderful chance to play off the glass doors and really "shine" with your good lighting and make the space a little more dynamic since there are no windows...all kinds of tiles with floral/leaves/botanical/or geometric/arabesque??.....the counter you show is a little muddy-it works but doesn't provide that something extra that a beautiful color or pattern on the backsplash and above cooktop would....stay with simpler counters. good luck and do look at all the beautiful custom tiles.

Speaking of faucets, would you go with a waterstone faucet? Are they really worth the price?

Hi folks! I've decided not to go with the granite, above. Found these 2 slabs. What do you think? Which one would you go with?

Here's the 2nd slab.

Those are both beautiful! I think that I would choose #2 for your cabinets -- but, with your concerns about darkness overall in the space, are they really what you want? If you used either of these, I would stick with a white sink and be sure to have a light backsplash and walls. There are some lovely light colors in #2 that you could pull from. WIth busy granite and busy glass in the cabinets, I would keep everything else simple.

I know. Darkness was a concern but that labradorite blue extra (photo #1) was just SOOOO beautiful! I figured we're putting in extra under cabinet lighting so maybe that would help. I was just concerned if it would "go" with the cabinets. Now I'm leaning towards photo #2, like you said.

Backsplash: yup. light, off-white and very plain & simple for sure!

THANKS!