That's not humdrum at all! I love your drawer pulls and your granite and your in-ceiling lighting. It makes me want to see the rest of the house. Congrats on taking matters into your own hands! What I'd love to see for the breakfast bar is a window into the next room if that would make sense in your space.

I love it, especially the backsplash!

Wow, you did a great job! Your kitchen is stunning. Can you tell us more about the backsplash?

Thank you for your input, I really appreciate it :) The backsplash is tile, an italian brand - St. Agostino - Ferro - Town Black - http://www.ceramicasantagostino.it/en/collezione/56.
It was VERY expensive but lucky for us we got it for free due to getting a defective lot for a bathroom. We refused to redo the whole job so they compensated us with the backsplash for the kitchen.
For the rest of the house most of the ideas came from the designer. However, when it was time for the actual doing, he stopped answering his phone and was no where to be found so we had to improvise. I'd post pictures but is there a more appropriate topic/area?
I do like the idea of a window to the living room, unfortunately it's not really possible at this point in time (I just finished with all the building, there's no way I'm tearing down walls now :D).
I also love the pulls, they are from Cebi, a turkish manufacturer I think. I would have liked to get black but they weren't in stock so I settled with what they had.

Although it sounds like you've resigned yourself to settling for a few things you don't like, I can tell you overall, this is a stunning kitchen. I'm not a modern fan, but yours is SO coordinated and clean. Great job.

Oh - pics?
Right here, honey bunny. Right here where we can eat all the eye candy!

I love seeing non-American kitchens, thanks for sharing! Very cool space, you did a great job.

Beautiful! but where is the refrigerator? I couldn't find it.

JadeBRZ, the fridge is built-in, that's why you couldn't find it :) It's to the left of the appliance tower (that's the reason both pulls are on the left side, it made more sense for the fridge door to open to the right than it made keeping the symmetry).
I would like to post more pics, since this here house is my baby, I've been nursing it full time for the past year (I've been my own GC) and I'm quite pleased of how it turned out.
We just moved in and we're getting settled so I haven't had a chance to take pics of the other rooms (as there is still stuff I need to unpack). Hopefully I will get the chance in the next few days :)

I like how your backsplash and cabinet hardware reflect each other.

Thanks so much for posting!

Could you post some classic Romanian cooking next?

it's just lovely! I'm not into really modern, but if someone gave me that kitchen, I'd sure love it...

could you also post a close up of your handles? I tried copying to my pic file and zooming it in but it's rather blurry.

what's at the end of the kitchen - window like that has mirror in it?

having a sliding glass door into a kitchen from another room is interesting. Is that often done there? I too love seeing kitchens done in other countries. Just love to see how others live and decorate. We can get so used to how it's done here and it can get boring...especially when we know there's so much else out there somewhere! One of my favorite kitchens posted on here was in Spain!

over the eating bar - art work? calendar and schedules? family / pet pics? travel pics? you could then change them out periodically.

I figured your fridge was in the wall by the ovens.

I also love the uppers that look to open upward too. And lots of drawers.

You did an awesome job! Look forward to seeing more of your home.

btw, your floor wouldn't bother me either. It might be what takes the edge off of too much white-white?

I like the floor tiles with the cabinets. The variations in tone and slightly earthier color make a nice complement for the strong pure whites.

The ceiling is very dramatic. I can't quite tell from the photos, are the lights behind glass, set into the ceiling? Or just recessed into a darker colored area?

I think it's beautiful, and I'll look forward to seeing any more pictures you post, when you have time.

Thank you all for your wonderful words :) You make my heart sing, really :)
The window is normal I think, no mirror in it. However, we do have treated glass so maybe that has an impact?
Romanian traditional cooking will have to wait until Christmas. I'm not that much into traditional food so I only cook it once in a while.
I managed to take a few more pics today. Sorry for the mess, our drawer organizers came today and I just had them installed and didn't throw the boxes yet.
The light are recessed into a darker colored area, I've uploaded a detail pic. Handles too :)
Uppers do indeed open upward, they are Aventos HF from Blum. Drawers are Legrabox, also from Blum. I took a few pictures with the drawers (and my good China, lol) and with the Ambia line cutlery organizers. They look very pretty but are insanely expensive here, so I only got the bare minimum.
I also installed Servo Drive Uno for the garbage so that I could open it with a light leg press. I just love it!
Lastly, posted a pic with the glass door. Left it dirty on purpose. One night it was clean and closed and I just banged into it :: We decided to apply a sticker on it, but until then, it stays dirty so that I can see it :)
I don't think it's all that common here. But having grown up in a house with an open kitchen, I wanted to somehow be able to close the space when I cool, but still keep it semi-open the rest of the time. This seemed to fit the bill.
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Wow! Fabulous and thoughtful. I, too, think that the backsplash is absolutely perfect! Congratulations.

I think that you posted this before correct? (And I tried hard to get you to put the sink under a window.) This came out absolutely beautiful! When I think of a "traditional" black-and-white kitchen this is certainly not what I am thinking of but this is gorgeous!

What a beautiful job!

I do love that ceiling detail, and your backsplash tiles are even prettier up close. Very cool!

I think the color and proportions of your pulls are perfect with the pattern in the backsplash. (Maybe it was a good thing they didn't have the black pulls in stock!) I like the heavy texture of the pulls. The modern interpretation of a hand-crafted hammered feel is a nice contrast to the perfectly smooth and glossy cabinet surfaces. So pretty.

Wow, you did really, REALLY well!

I think the floor goes with everything else in the kitchen - it adds a bit of texture and a different but neutral shade of color to the room. Thanks for posting a link to the name of the backsplash tile.

I have to ask, what's the rest of the place look like?

Well, just installed under cabinet lights today. Backsplash is sooo far from perfect :)) You can actually see every little defect because the light is mounted very far back. Trying to be zen about it :)
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This is how it looks like from below:
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Yes, I did post before asking for advice, but at that point in time plumbing was already done and I would have had to go to a lot of trouble to move them (we have brick walls). But so far I really love the spot of the sink, I think it would have bothered me more if it was in front of the window because I would have had no space to the right and it would have restricted movement.
I like to think the rest of the place looks nice (well, since it was a new build we did almost everything we wanted).
I'm very excited to show you guys pictures but I still have boxes and cleaning products lying around, and cardboard on the stairs, it just won't do to show it at this point in time. Sneak peak of our chandelier tho :)
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This post was edited by LittleJo1 on Tue, Dec 16, 14 at 13:13

Beautiful kitchen. I really like the floor tile and cabinet colour combination. The tile helps to warm up the space a little and with the variegated tone to the floor it flows really well,

That backsplash is beautiful.

And you teased us with a photo of a chandelier? - you know you can't do that right :) not without showing us the rest of the room.