I really need to take some updated (read: clean) pictures. I've posted these pics a zillion times, but here you go:

I know I need to paint larger areas on the wall, but now this Wythe Blue is making it really difficult.

home office

Behr Light French Gray

This is my materials board - we have planned for painted cabinets (Barker RTAs with Shaker panel) in Ben Moore Fresh Butter, a small bank of Shiloh inset in vintage cherry with a walnut-y finish they call "Sundance" (I think), Electrolux Icon appliances, Newport Brass faucets in uncoated brass, wooden knobs on the painted cabinets, and brass on the stained wood. Gasp now, Corian Witch Hazel for the countertops with 2" walnut on the wood toned cabinets. Silgranite main and prep sinks in biscuit...

All this is fine and great. I'm confident in my design and my materials and layout (a split U with separate cooking/prep and clean up zones). What has me nearly about to pass out is going back out into the wilds of a construction project. You see, I've *never* had a good result - even when I research, meet old clients, etc. Somehow, I'm always the client where the contractor's entire business falls apart. I don't know how to shake the fear. And I don't know how it is that I always pick these unskilled - or outright thieving- losers.

The new contractor is hearing impaired - and I don't mean in the usual contractor way, he's really hard of hearing :-) - so I already know that I have to write out what I want. Good. So I already have my Day One page drafted. A reminder of what exactly is to be demolished and what is not. What it to be saved/recycled. I remain nervous. I'm hoping this is good because on every other project I was super confident and ready to start slinging hammers. Today, I'm feeling cautious.

If anyone else has had a bad contractor experience and then actually had the nerves required to do another project, how did you manage your fears? Conduct yourself on the jobsite? Keep your expectation realistic? Not see disaster at every turn?

::bites fingernails, pours bourbon::

(and yes...I scheduled a kitchen renovation for Thanksgiving and yes, I do have people coming for dinner. The poor layout we currently have will make for a pretty sweet temporary kitchen. It just sucks as an everyday kitchen.)

I love crackle tiles too. My backsplash is also Grazia Rixi in crema (with noce accents) and in real life it is not as white as it appears in a2gemini's photos. Here's a photo of mine:

If you have a Home Depot nearby, I found that Leviton wall plates in Light Almond are very close in color to the crema tiles, as you can see in my photo.

Rixi also comes in a yellow color called dore. I found a thread that has photos of Rixi crema and dore next to each other so you can compare.

Here is a link that might be useful: Comparison of Rixi crema and dore

Clumbsycook - the floors are 130 year old reclaimed birch, brought up from the bottom of a nearby river.

Okay, the details on the wall:

I've been researching living walls on-line and at the library for about 2 years. After some research and visits to a few local living walls, I figured out which "type" of living wall I felt was best for the house. Essentially I opted for a "Patrick Blanc" style living wall - essentially the plants grow in a felt medium with little, if any, soil. Patrick Blanc is from France, and he is considered the "father" of living walls/green walls/vertical gardens. Here is a link to Patrick Blanc's website: http://www.verticalgardenpatrickblanc.com/

Here is a link to an outdoor Patrick Blanc style garden in San Diego - this website is a great resource and has dozens of great pictures of living wall eye candy: http://www.livingwallart.com/do-it-yourself/constructing-a-vertical-garden-patrick-blanc-style/

I determined that it was possible to build a Patrick Blanc style living wall on my own. A guy named Matt in New York has a fantastic and unbelievably informative blog on how to build your own Blanc style living wall. Here is a link to his blog: http://diygreenwalls.blogspot.com/ He built a stunning living wall in his NY apartment.

But I was a little nervous to make one myself, I admit. Plus, I have a crazy busy job, two kids under 6 and an on-going home renovation, so I ran out of time. Earlier this year I found a company in San Francisco that builds pre-made Patrick Blanc style living walls, the company is called Plants on Walls. I decided to save my pennies and buy a 31" x 82" recirculating living wall from them. I am still determined to make a living wall on my own, and I think I will in my master bathroom that is due for renovation over the year or so. The living wall "kit" from Plants on Walls contains the galvanized steel frame, water-proof back lining, the reservoir, pump, tubing and the felt pockets that the plants grow in/into. I bought the plants here and planned out the "planting design." I'm very happy with the Plants on Wall product, and they were very responsive to my questions. That said, they aren't cheap (my kit was $1,300), and I'm determined to build my own living wall next (the master bathroom project). Here is the link to the Plants on Wall site: http://www.plantsonwalls.com/default.asp

I do keep a small carpet under the reservoir, it catches the odd drops of water off the ends of the leaves. I do mist the plants whenever I think of it, so the mat/carpet takes care of that. If you could put one up in a room with tile floors that would be ideal I guess.

It does add humidity to the room, but not much and we welcome it in winter (we have to use a furnace here in the winter and the air gets dry). This size living wall isn't big enough to create serious humidity issues I think - and we do live in an area with hot, humid summers - and I hate A/C. No smells or mold - that is the point of the felt growing medium, the felt dries totally between watering. That said, my living wall is also in a relatively large, open room, so there is lots of air circulation.

You of course need adequate lighting for a living wall - this often determines where you build it. I didn't want to build it anywhere that would require artificial light.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

Here is what we are going to do - one row of 5x5s, a band, and then accent pieces over the cooktop.

For your kitchen, I would like to see more black in the accent band - brings in color - but not too much.

This is Grazia Rixi Crema (there are other color choices) with Beach band and copper accent pieces. The tiles came from Tile-shop in California. The accent pieces came from Pennsylvania.

PS - I loved the touch and feel of the Heath tiles - but never could get my color match...

I may be just a tad let down with the countertops since I have been so keyed up about them... But it could be that i'm overwhelmed and I can't see the whole picture yet.

Note: behind island, in pantry/microwave/snack wall we are still figuring out how to remedy the bad call my cabinet rep made by ordering a 24" drawer base for a 30" opening... right now they have the wrong color fillers in which the installers THINK they can paint to match. Marble will be the counter material here too. The OTR type microwave will be hung under the middle upper cabinet. Obviously the cabinet installers are STILL not finished.
Oh and I think the island lights need to be lowered a bit. Should probably call manufacture about ordering 2 more extension rods.

My major disappointment so far is the way-too-big bottom moulding on the upper cabinets. I SO wish I'd told them to hold it up for me BEFORE they installed it. Nothing would have been better than THAT.

Marble thresholds our stone guy made for us. They are entirely TOO high, so our builder is going to remedy this...

DW also fixed some problems like light placement without me asking. They are drilling new holes to make sure the glass shelves line up with the mullions in the glass doors.

I pretty much acted as a go between with the contractor but it was few and very far between. They called him once and confirmed a measurement with him regarding the hood vent. But they measured themselves and pretty much took it from there. They are a pretty sophisticated outfit. Just look at the jobs they did at Bees and Beagles.

Sink wall unfinished

Hood/Stove wall still needs egg and dart crown and corbels under hood

Hutch wall/Freezer needs panel and egg and dart crown

Hutch closer

Front of island needs microwave drawer

Back of island with 15" deep storage cabinets

I used it in my bathroom remodel below. I put in a lot of pictures so that you can see the variation in the stone (or lack thereof). It's a beautiful stone, has an amazing texture, and works well in older homes. Some people do not like the veining or fissures, but I like them. A few spots have an iridescence, which is what you see behind the one hot water knob (a greenish spot).

(my hidey-hole is on the left)

This replaced a baby blue, which I could not stand. Definitely silvery blue grey, good in all lights.

Here are a few kitchens that make me think of your
ideas...
~boxer

We didn't go totally white/white as we have soapstone on the perimeter counters, but we have a large island with white calacatta marble. We chose Benjamin Moore Wickham Gray for the kitchen and the adjoining family room. I love, love the color. Fresh & crisp & airy with the white.
A few other blue/grey tones we throughout the house that look great with white trim: BM Cashmere Grey, BM Quiet Moments. Good luck!
Katie

Color is mostly visible above sink:

During construction, not a great shot of the color.

Overall, I love this kitchen. It's proving very family friendly and I haven't had any issues with the primed shiplap as a backsplash. The marble island top DOES etch, but we're closing our eyes and hoping to make it to patinaland sooner than later. With 18 years of school fundraisers ahead of me, I'm certain we'll get there. But there's NOTHING like making pastries on it and I'm going to try my hand at fudge and candies soon!

Our FAVORITE spot, where we spend 70% of our time, is firmly planted on the BOOs block. Chop chop chop. Walnut end-grain... can't say enough. A quick sudsy soapy wipe after each prep and a once a month oiling and it's beautiful.

So here are the pics of our very lived in by a young family of five new kitchen!

The only tips I can give are: expect it to take longer than you think. We were probably too obsessed with making it perfect when laying them. We were trying to get the best fit possible and making them touch and interlock. But, if we realized that once you do get to the grouting stage, it doesn't matter if the space between them isn't perfect on the wall. Just check for level and plumb as you go along. You want to keep those horizontal and vertical lines straight.

We did not install it the way you see tile usually installed, the first row all along the counter, then do the 2nd row all the way around, etc. This was more of a "pyramid" pattern to it. It was the best way to get the lines straight.

Order a bit more than the 10% that you usually order for waste. Just because. We didn't make many (if any) cutting mistakes but maybe it's their shape...I don't know--just order extra.

We piped the grout in using a piping bag (not the pastry bag, but similar, find it at the tile aisle in Lowe's or wherever).

We used Permacolor by Laticrete for the grout, in bright white. This is a true white and it gives the desired result of having the grout really be the same color as the tile, and not a slightly off-white look that other bright whites have.

Hope this helps!

Some electrical yet to be finished. Over/under cabinet lighting will be installed this weekend, new woodwork has also been ordered. I'm working on backsplash ideas now, but couldn't wait to post some pics.

I can't thank EVERONE in this forum enough for your generous sharing of pictures and expertise. I've learned sooooo much. And there were many days when it was just reassuring to know OTHERS were going through the same MESS that we were.

A few details:

KraftMaid Marquette Maple cabinets Canvas with cocoa glaze
Bianco Antico granite - love, love, love it!
Marazzi glazed porcelain tile - Campione in Armstrong
Blanco Silgranit sink in Biscuit
Moen Vestige faucet in ORB
BM Cabot Trail walls

I know there will be a lot of people who will tell you that monochromatic is boring and you need a "pop" of color. I think if you want to have the serene room that you are thinking about you should not add a chair in another color. I think it will pull your eye straight to the chair. That is not what you want.

When I was changing out my pillows in my family room (where I have a white couch, white rug) I was trying out fuscia pillows, and also pillows with lime green in them. I have lime green accents throughout my home. But what I found was those two options were too eye grabbing. It wasn't serene. They just didn't look like they belonged. Here are some not-so-great photos. Don't mind the crazy placement of the couch, a hole in the ceiling was being repaired. I had to do a lot of eye squinting imagining the couch back together. I ended up going with cream and gray pillows in various textures. Even though some people will call it boring..zzzzz....I like that it is more serene to the eye. And I am sure in a bedroom that is what you are looking for too.

These are the audition pictures:

This is how the final look came out:

Here are colors, along with perimeter cab color (same as trim) and countertop:

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

And original...

As always, comments/suggestions appreciated. Thanks!

Bee is correct, houzz has a lot of great gray inspiration pictures. This is one that I saved that you might like.

Glass Slipper Benjamin MOore would go with both floors

Palladia BM

Mystical Blue BM

A creamy white that is super pretty and might brighten
up a space without windows.
Swiss Coffee by Behr

For paint, something in the smoky blue gray would work well with the warm reddish colors of the wood.

Valspar Shark Loop

Benjamin Moore Blue Springs

Or even a greyed down blue green.

Benjamin Moore Covington Blue

Sherwin Williams Halcyon Green

So, anyway, here is the Finished Kitchen Part I with Part II pending in a few months if you aren't all sick of my kitchen already :) Part II will also feature interior shots of the drawers, as there's fun stuff inside all of them and I don't have pictures of that yet :)

So, without further ado...

Don't mind the odd silver thing on the drainboard- that's just the plug to the sink, it won't live there forever.

And, just for fun since so many people in the kitchen forum helped me to design these cabinets, this is the finished gathering/keeping room area off the kitchen. Note- the really ugly cabinet knobs are not staying. I wanted white marble and these were the only ones I found but they are not attractive:

Details:
Cabinets: Dutch Wood Kitchens
Granite/marble: Statuario marble for the perimeter cabinets and marble sink. Fabricated by IMG Marble and Granite. Blue bahia for the island, fabricated by Sinai/Big Brothers Marble and Granite who did a perfect seam
Island sink Concrete, fabricated by Paco Originals
Knobs/pulls Custom-made glass, created by Designer Glass Mosaics to match the granite.
Appliances Miele 42" cooktop, some kind of Jenn-Air oven, Sharp microwave drawer, integrated Bosch refrigerator (behind the mirror), integrated Fisher & Pickel dishdrawers (one next to each sink); integrated Bosch dishwasher
Pantry door Custom design, Sans Soucie Art Glass
Mural Stone impressions (custom design, they sent us the graphics and we created it ourselves
Chandeliers James R. Moder Crystal
Faucets & potfiller Whitehaus.

I think that's all- let me know if I forgot anything :)

Anyway, a BIG thank you to everyone on GW who gave encouragement, advice, and information about things that I never even knew existed etc. etc.

I wanted a gray that had brown undertones in it. After much struggling, I landed on the BM strip 1464-1470. It includes: Light Pewter, Nimbus, Smoke Embers, Baltic Gray, Willow Creek, Eagle Rock and Bear Creek. I absolutely love them.

Here are samples, starting with the lightest:

Nimbus. I have this in 2 bathrooms.

Baltic Gray, Foyer:

Willow Creek,Master Bedroom:

Another shot of the room, there seems to be some blue undertones in the photos, but irl I don't see that

Eagle Rock, in my laundry room, not such a great picture of the color:

Here's the link.

Here is a link that might be useful: ths13 black white zebra kitchen

In our 8 x 10 main bath I put in a surface mount Restoration Hardware cabinet and like it. Saved some framing etc. and it looks nice over the large pedestal sink.

In my small 4 x 7 powder room I'm doing now, I'm installing an inset cabinet (also RH - polished nickel etc. to match the rest of the fixtures and surprise my wife who has no idea I have the cabinet yet).

I think we paid about $2.25sqft for the tile at the time.

Below is a few photos of our bath just after completion.

Here is a link that might be useful: Original reveal post

Here is a link that might be useful: BM Azores

Here is a link that might be useful: linear undercabinet lighting.

I finally uploaded some pictures, they were taken on different days, some raining and shadowy but it's raining again today so these will do for now! First of all, thank you SOO much to everyone on this site who was a huge help, inspiration and motivation. I very much appreciate the many thoughtful, creative people who gave me advice along the way. I am sure I will forget some details so feel free to ask questions. We did an entire first floor remodel (mostly cosmetic) so there was a lot going on. Cabinets- Shiloh, inset beaded soft white with slate highlighting and brushing. Tons of details on these, everything is upgraded and pull out or soft glide, etc. They were our biggest expense. Kitchen Table- Antique tables made daily. Chairs painted and distressed from my old set New Windows (expanded in kitchen, replaced in entire house)- OKNA. And very glad I went with casement in kitchen in the end as I wasn't going to originally. Pendants- Mercury glass, shades of light Range- GE Monogram 36 inch dual fuel with grill (love it) Sink- Shaw 3018 (love it), also got the stainless grid, love it too. Prep Sink- Rohl Round 18 inch with Tapmaster (tapmaster nice but not end of world if not) Faucets- same for both sinks, Delta Leland single hole Air switches- from home depot (very frustrating. Don�t place these near a faucet handle!) Floors- Character walnut random width, distressed edges, Waterlox finish, Blackford and Sons. LOVE! Vent- GE, free with range 1200 CFMs, loud but works and free is free Undercabinet lights- seagull ambiance lighting on dimmer, great lights Disposals- Evolution and Evolution compact, no trouble Dishwasher- Meihl, some trouble here. Had a flood already! Due to filling the soap dispenser up with soap, apparently a BIG no-no. Backsplash- subway, Emser cape code in artisan cream crackle ordered from Studio Tile in Fl for around 14/ft, Above range, not sure, some small mosaic from a local store. Hardware- cabinets, hafele antique black, doors ordered online , Emtek black ordered from simpsons hardware Paint- Ben Moore (have to look up colors, forget) Warming drawer- Kitchenaid (used every day!) Microwave- Sharp MW Drawer (fine) Fridge- Samsung with convertible fridge drawer (can be used for wine, kids snacks, deli meats,etc) (like it) Wine Fridge- Uline Captain (some trouble here, two repair visits) Railings- Iron panels and railing elements ordered from Kings Architectural Metals and welded locally (love the result) General Contractor- Tom Christie, Quality Craft Carpentry in Northern Virginia. An absolute doll and has an amazing team. We cannot recommend him and his work highly enough and thankful to our friends who referred him! We also replaced all our dishes, silverware, glassware, baking and cookware- love all the new stuff! I think that's it! It took about 4 months of real work for the renovation then some minor details dragged on for a long time. Overall we LOVE the new kitchen and the new house overall. It's amazingly functional and comfortable and we are really happy with it. Thanks again to everyone for their great advice and support! From Kitchen Remodel Let me know if these links dont work, I moved to Picasa and never tried to post from it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Creamy French Classic

tans/beige:
Revere Pewter-used this in my kitchen, family, hall, etc. it's a great beige that also has grey undertones
Shaker beige (as already mentioned) is a nice beige
baja dunes
cabot trail: a darker tan, but if you have enough light it is a gorgeous color

blue:
adagio - I love this blue

yellow:
mushroom cap - really pretty muted yellow

The glass shower door is installed now:

Someone asked to see the upper cabinet opened. I have 8(!) outlets inside of my tower.

Our contractor built a beautiful cover for our baseboard heating that really blends with the woodwork on the walls

This is the final version of the vanity with the mirror installed.