Yours is going to be one gorgeous kitchen!!!! I LOVE that you saved the uppers and the color on the lower cabs is divine! I just read your other post about the double doors on the one cabinet and I also think it will be totally fine. I can't wait to see your finished space! I'm a sucker for white marble but even if I weren't, I'd say it is the perfect choice for your backsplash. It's going to be casually elegant with just the right amount of character thanks to those uppers and the hinges. You have great taste! It's coming together beautifully.

Rookie - you are SO KIND. I feel like a fraud though! I STOLE the colors from that Texas designer, Sally Wheat. I even called her and asked her a few questions which she was kind enough to answer (what a stalker - lol)! I don't have enough confidence to be truly unique ya know. But hey - I guess I know a good thing (to copy) when I see one! ;) Here's her kitchen:

One of you - I have no idea now who it was (wish I could remember!) posted this picture a few months ago on here and I'm so glad she did. I felt like everything was overdone and while this is too (gray - ugh) I loved the reversal of color being on the cabs and trim and the paler color being on the wall and ceiling for once (haven't seen that since the mid-'80's)!

But hey Rookie - you didn't tell me what kind of hinges I should use, between the two listed above!!!

If I read you right, the upper cabinets will keep the black hardware and butterfly hinges and the lower cabinets will have polished nickel hardware. Then I'd have butterfly hinges on the lower, to sort of connect visually with the upper.

Thank you John! I was sorta leaning in that direction but didn't know if I could get away with it since it might be so busy looking. That makes me feel better, thanks.

If you keep the top white, you can go with different hardware on the lower part (i.e nickel)since those will be painted a different color. I'd vote for the butterfly hinges as that was the first thing I noticed and admired the first time I saw your kitchen ;)
I think it would look odd if your top and bottom cabs were the same color, but your hinges were a different finish below.

I love how your kitchen is turning out! :)

On the doors, though---I'd get single doors. Doors aren't that expensive, and I think it's going to look really strange if the side cabinets have two doors (I assume that's what you mean?) Under the sink seems appropriate for two, though. It will look so much cleaner, even if you have to eat the cost of the other doors. You could go either way on the hinges, but agreed that if you do butterfly hinges, keep the finish the same.

Dianalo - thank you. I'm tempted to keep the top white or better, paint them and all the trim cream, but I may give in to the inspiration picture above and do it like hers cause I love her kitchen so much. In that case, the PN butterfly hinges will look weird, I know. I was hoping that the fact that the lower cabs are different in design and will have feet where it bumps out in the center (about 6 or 7 feet wide) will make it seem different enough but I know that's a stretch, if I paint them the same color. I wonder if having PN hardware below, will be acceptable with all that in mind along with the fact that the lowers and uppers will be separated by a STAINLESS STEEL countertop? Maybe the stainless will divide things up because it matches the PN quite a bit? Wishful thinking?? Darn it I'm torn. I don't want black hardware down below. I need a change but can't afford to redo the hardware throughout the entire kitchen. And I LOVE the way PN hardware looks on that same paint color in the inspiration picture. Anyway, thank you for helping me figure all this out!!

Artemis - Hi there! It's funny, getting to know all of you over these past WAY TOO MANY MONTHS or so! ;) It's starting to feel like home around here - oh dear! I agree - totally agree - that single doors will look much cleaner. :( But the double doors are already painted and ready to install. So I guess I'll let him put them up and if I hate them, then I'll eat the cost (damn it) and replace them. Still torn about those darn butterflies...

Below is the picture my contractor sent me today of the new cabinet door in his garage. He's waiting for me to figure out what hinges I want, before he brings them over to install them. What do you think about them, when imagining them in those spaces? I'll put a pic of the open spaces (the empty cabs) below as well...

Thank you!!

Personally I prefer the smaller doors aesthetically. The scale of them seems better for the size of your room. The doors don't look awkward but it depends on your preference. I think the PN hardware would be nice with the colour of the lowers. I wouldn't do more butterflies on the lowers - too busy.

Exactly as johnliu said, I would do butterfly hinges to tie the hardware together since the finish will be different. I also must say I love your unique kitchen and that you salvaged those beautiful original upper cabinets. I can't wait to see the finished kitchen!

They actually don't look quite as skinny as I'd been expecting---I'd do as you say and give them a try. You could even put them into place without drilling for the hinges and see how they feel. BUT---don't be afraid to swap them out if they don't work for you. Again, the cost is pretty minimal relative to what you're spending on the rest of the project. It may also depend on what you store there---in our cabinets like that (which have the same middle bumpout between them, though in our case it's narrower and a bank of drawers), the things we store there would require both doors to be open to get to them, which would make me nuts. If you store different things that you could access with just one door open, it might be much less of an issue.

It is tricky with the butterflies, though. With single doors I'd go for it, but with doubles---that's a lot of hinges! Are you going for an integrated look or is it okay/desirable for the lowers to look new and just paired with the original uppers? If the latter, you could put normal hinges on them and not worry about it---I doubt most people would pay much attention to it one way or the other.

Good luck! :)

Hi theresse, your kitchen is so charming, welcoming and it will be beautiful. You are right to try to figure this out before. I think the different color of the PN will be pretty on the lower cabinets of the different color.

Since your doors are finished I would have your contractor bring them over -I'm not sure if you have your hinges already but if not you could pick up some similar style ones(maybe a couple types) in different finishes and you can look at it in real life and see what you like. Even though they may not be just like the hinges you have chosen, that visual will help you. I love the butterfly hinges and will be using some just on my sink cabinet wall too. I also like the double doors but understand your disappointment. I agree with artemis, that seeing them in place will help

Also, will your drawer fronts be slab or a 5-piece and what will your drawer hardware be? Those things may play into your decision too. I'm also wondering what kind of DW you will have - a wood panel door or stainless steel? What brand is it (curious for myself:) and if a panel, will it be fully integrated with the cabinet face?

And sorry to go off topic from your original post but about your cabinets that go all the way to the floor (without a toe kick space)- will your countertop have a larger than average overhang so that your toes don't bump into the cabinet? I love the look but my KD didn't recommend it. I too am going for a period look - turn of the century up to the 1920's so really can go either way. Thanks for your help on this question of mine.

Good luck with your kitchen. And I love the photos that you post!

You guys/gals make me feel so much better...I really appreciate it.

caryscott - today I said screw it and bought 12 fully concealed hinges. I decided the stress I was going through over not liking the effect of both the butterfly and the barrel style wasn't worth it and I decided I'd rather give up space inside the cabs in order to have the look i like on the outside. SO THERE! ;) Who knows what it will cost me to have my contractor drill those big round hole thingies in the cabs. It had better not cost too much.

So anyway, now the only polished nickel that will be seen will be the door latches and the bin pulls, so it will look less cluttered - at least in that regard. Thanks Caryscott!

pricklypearcactus (love your name... ) - well if all goes as *planned*, I'll use these concealed hinges after all so no more butterfly hinges below. But I'm good with that. I like the ones above, and now I'm not having to use something other than that which originally came w/ the house which were the butterflies, in a sense because what IS there will be hidden so it doesn't count! ;) Thank you for your positive words about this kitchen. I too can't wait to see it finished! It's interesting that you say the kitchen's unique. How do you mean? In my neighborhood, all the houses are old and most of the kitchens are small - although now most people have knocked down their mudroom walls and changed out the cabinetry...so in that sense, the fact that there are still original cabinets is I guess unique. Or maybe it's unique because it's got 4 doors coming into the small room. Crazy!

Artemis - thank you for saying that, about the doors seeming a bit wider than expected. We shall see. Before we tore out the lower cabs we had before, I had double doors there so in that sense I'm kind of used to it, but on the other hand they were wider! But most of the things we keep in there aren't super wide...but I'll still probably end up having to open both I'm guessing. Ugh. And as you may have read above, I finally decided to bite the bullet and get the fully concealed hinges regardless of their taking up so much space. I was just sick of the turmoil! :)

amarantha - you are so kind, thank you! I did ask my contractor to bring them over, thanks. My drawer fronts are the plain flat kind which I guess is what slab means (?). My dishwasher is a Miele Optima and so far I LOVE it but mind you I haven't had a dishwasher since 1995! And back then - in my old apartment - it was nothing compared to this one! I have a crazy, messy, chaotic life with dirty dishes piling up every day and sometimes they don't get dealt w/ till the next day so I was willing to pay extra for one that supposedly cleaned exceptionally well and I'm SO GLAD I DID cause IT DOES! It's the fully integrated kind, and part of the reason I was so bummed about the cabinets is because its "cabinet door" front will be a single panel shaker style wide look as the others were supposed to be. :( Painted the same gray-green as the others. It will have one slightly longer bin pull at the top. I'm not trying to hide the fact that it's a dishwasher so maybe in the end I'll feel okay about it - or not. Just won't know till they're in, unfortunately.

As for my countertop's overhang, NO, sadly, it's only going to have a half-inch overhang!! I didn't have a choice there (long story)...it is what it is. Has to do w/ the faucet being wall-mounted and needing to reach into the sink far enough, and so having to push the sink back enough to reach it, and not wanting the countertop to stick out further than the sink which I thought would look odd. Ok well that was the long version it turned out - haha.

Anyway, the reason I chose to have the cabs go down to the floor on both ends was because my 1913 house is craftsman in many respects (though has mostly original colonial revival light fixtures and is a colonial revival house on the outside)...it's a hybrid really. But the kitchen is very craftsman and craftsman cabinets always went straight to the floor w/ no toe kick (was trying to be "period" I guess). So my compromise was to have the bump-out have non-ornate feet, to give me a toe kick and also to make the bump-out portion look more like furniture of course...and I kept the ends looking more craftsman to incorporate it into the rest of the kitchen. Also, the bump-out will give me more counter space so I'll probably only be standing where that is - or most of the time anyway. I don't ever get so up-close and personal that I think the toe kick thing is that big a deal...though I do wish I had more overhang. Anyway, I made all that up so have no idea if it's practical or not. It was just the closest I could come up w/ for having all the things and looks I wanted and staying somewhat period.

Thanks again! I'd love to hear more about your kitchen and see pics!!

Thanks theresse for answering my questions about your cabinets and DW. Sorry to take so long to reply.

I saw your other post and the cabinets and doors etc look awesome. Can't wait to see your progress.

Do you happen to have your DW panel? If so do you know how closely(tightly) it fits into that opening once installed on your DW front? I ask because my cabinet maker says that if I want to do something like that, either the DW panel will bump into the bottom rail of the cabinet (and therefore wouldn't work) or if it doesn't bump then it would have to be sticking out from the face of cabinet(and not full flush or integrated). Hope this makes sense and you or anyone else might be able to shed some light on that. Thanks!

In the link below is a diagram of the cabinet we are having built. I will decide between this version with a square foot on base cabinets (with a toe-kick space) or either have the cabinets go to the floor (and no toe-kick). Just as a note, in case you think it looks a bit odd, that right open cabinet that only has ~5" of interior space is there to bring the DW away from the wall but still allowing my sink to be centered under the window. I will probably use it for either a vertical storage for a tea/coffee tray or to hang my dish towel.

Thanks!

Here is a link that might be useful:

Your hinges are better than your inspiration. :)

John is right--if you go with the softer color hinges, they won't look like spiders. And your new skinny doors ain't bad at all!

Amarantha - No problem, I'm always happy to help whenever I can...the people on this forum have helped me waaaaay more than I've ever helped anyone else - it's the least I can do! ;) Thanks for liking the cabinets/doors. I think it looks good enough when it's all pulled together like that.

Unfortunately I've never even seen the door/panel to the dishwasher yet! It's late arriving cause there was a mistake when measuring for it and my contractor either sent it back or ordered a new one. As soon as it arrives I'll let you know the answer. That would be a good question for the forum though - if you want to know soon. If it's about Miele dishwashers specifically, don't worry - there are a lot of Miele owners on this forum so they'll have pretty fast responses I'm betting.

The drawing looks great! Soapstone sink...mmmmm...gonna be very, very nice! I envy you for having a side cabinet to stick things in like trays and towels. There's just NO SPACE in my kitchen for any such luxury!

How old and what period kitchen do you have?

Hey theresse, really random question for you...on your double doors, do you know how wide your stiles are? And how much space that is between them? (I'm starting to get panicky that our last-minute decision to switch one door width from 12" to 9.5" is going to mean the door looks way too skinny with our 2.5" stiles, and I thought of yours and wondered how they compare!) I think I can still switch ours back but I'm trying to limit my panicky emails to the cabinetmaker and I'm already up to two for this week... :) Thanks!

Thanks theresse. I'll be looking for more updates from you. I might send you a follow-up question thru GW - hope that's okay.

I think I will post a question for the forum on the cabinets with and without the toe-kick space. I love the way your's look.

I'm pretty sure I'll be getting an Asko DW - I looked at Miele too - but the Asko was $200 less and it's still way more than I'd ever dreamed of paying for a DW.

So thanks again!

First of all, I love how you are mixing up finishes in your kitchen. It will be just great!

I saw that you already ordered the concealed hinges, but I'll go ahead and offer my suggestion anyway.

I like the scale of the two doors on the bottom. Ask your contractor about attaching a thin panel between the "seam" of the two doors so that they can function as one door. You could paint the visible "seam" darker so that it would appear as if it was a crack between the two doors or paint the same color as the doors. This way you could install hinges on only one side of the door(s). Maybe you can return the extra hinges.

We just installed concealed hinges in our kitchen remodel and I'm just mad at how much space they take up. I really wanted the barrel hinges with my inset doors.

Good luck and post pics when you are all done