Oops...I forgot a few. I love this first one, but maybe more wood, less white?
{{!gwi}}From Pink kitchen

And this island is beautiful... {{!gwi}}From Fairy tale cottage

But, I like the wood countertop, on the island too...maybe a combination? {{!gwi}}From Snow White album

Of course, I still want to use ceramic tiles on the perimeter, but the blue and white would look good with wood cabinets, too.

I like wood cabinets, but I still like the original pictures you had of white cabinets. But I also like a combo and that island is a beauty. Someone on the kitchens forum posted a picture of their kitchen today with a gorgeous wood top on their island, but I didn't bookmark it.

I don't care for that picture of the white cabinets with wood trim. It just looks unfinished to me.

Marti- I know what you mean. It does look a bit unfinished...but I love that plate rack! :)

I've noticed that most of the kitchens I like, don't have uppers or they're decorative, like the plate rack or have glass doors. Maybe that's why they often don't seem as heavy. I like the stone/brick floors, too...especially with the wood islands.

I have a soft spot for white cabinets. *swoon* I love them. I agree with no uppers - I think regular wood cabinets with lots of windows and no uppers would have that bright feeling like white cabinets do.

I like that plate rack too. It's one of the prettiest I've seen.

With two of my big uppers gone now, the kitchen seems so much bigger. Too bad I need those cabinets, I can really see windows all across that wall.

I was so stressed when remodeling my kitchen when it came to making the decision for uppers. My brain told me that it's the "thing to do" for future owners and would be great to have a magazine kitchen with the glass fronts; but my heart told me I would lose any sense of spaciousness in my little kitchen if I did that. So I told my contractor to tell the cabinet maker to hold off until I had the money but really it was until I could make up my mind. It's been nearly a year and I'm still hedging.

I like the first picture in the 13:40 post the best. guess I like painted. But then again it is crazy me.The person that just installed ANOTHER 8 1/2 SQ FT of glass mosaic on my wall.What is a little color or not to me.

My very favorite island picture of yours is the jade green painted one.

Also love the mantel over the counter. What a GREAT idea. I sure could have fun with that.

I think the blue/white would look great with the mid wood tone in the pics posted here. Not real dark and not on the really light side either. just mid range.

have you thought about white along perimeter and wood for the island?

I do love the arched windows pic'd here.

Steph- I don't know exactly what I want to do, wood wise, but I do think it would be neat to mix up the wood and white. Either wood island with white perimeters...or maybe wood base with white uppers and wood, white or even green island. I'd love to bring some green in, from the tiles, to go with the blue and white :)

Why does it have to soooo hard??? I don't know about you LL, but I wish the decisions were made and the stuff done already.

Love those kitchens Lavender. Whenever I see those kitchens it reminds me that that's the style I originally wanted but couldn't figure out how to do it. I thought it would be easy since my space is small... ha. The simpler things always cost more $$$, where I live.

Schoolhouse: You sound like me !!! I was going to get rid of uppers on one wall but I decided that I couldn't considering my location(city) and storage issues(meaning small space needs as much storage as possible. I'm going to do a mix of open reclaimed wood shelving and traditional uppers. I too have been indecisive, it's such a big cost that I'm afraid to proceed...I just emailed Shiloh to find dealers here...

"I wish the decisions were made and the stuff done already"

yep, me too. A good step that way was me deciding to keep the cabs (those I can) and just paint them / get new doors. sounds easier - lol! I'd decided on counter top and handles.
Then I saw cabs in turquoise and wiped down w/dk brown or blk and thought that'd be a good idea. Except I don't think the counter top will look good with it.

I'm glad it isn't something I have to decide soon or I'd be in a real mess.

I'm still for the white cabs. Some features of the "rustic" are okay, like the plate rack would still be nice au naturel, but just as an odd piece up there, don't have to do the whole kitchen like that.

I'm for all the light I can get.
And if you think you need more storage in your kitchen, then you might think about utilizing some space in nearby rooms, like I'm going to knock out the wall between kitchen and dining, and put my pantry into the dining room. I have in my little kitchen currently a double upper cab, which I can only reach the bottom shelf, have to throw everything else to get it higher, or use a "grabber" to get it down.
And then two skinny uppers one door each on either side of the sink area. I'm removing all of those. In their place I will have an open front plate rack on one or both sides of the sink, but nothing else.

Perhaps around the upper perimeter of the kitchen, I'll have that shelf that was in my beloved "infinity window" kitchen, where the window came down to the counter tops, and the shelf at the window tops went all around the room. This will look great, I know, because I have some large items which display well but are not frequently used. Like my big cast iron dutch oven, a boiling pot, huge mixing bowls. I can reach where I envision the shelf being located, just above the height of the doorways, which are 80 inches tall (plus a few inches of door frame molding) and when I knock out that wall, I'll leave the top of the wall and case it out like a really wide door....just in case we have to put in a header to support the weight of the roof as a loadbearing wall. Who knows....DH is all about overbuilding, and I'm not going to stress HIM out. He has agreed to put in $8K more money to the project, because the roof replacement will need that much at least.

But he has finished the reverse mortgage paperwork, and some time next week I'll be able to get really serious about doing the work on the kitchen.

No matter how much money I can spend, my kitchen will still be a white one. I think of the wood cabs, natural not painted or dressed wood, and I immediately feel disorganized and stressed out. If it was a cabin, fine. But not in a house where you wipe up spills every day and have to wipe down pancake batter dried on a rough piece of wood.

Gotta go. Must see if my new hosta plants have grown any overnight. :)