Threeapples and other forum members, I hope my comments weren't taken as "snarky." I was being respectful but offering another point of view. I was very much influnced in our build by my grandparents' house in South Georgia. It was built in the 1830's and was tweaked through the generations. That house originally had the kitchen as a seperate structure and then on a side porch, and eventually after the REA, the new electrified kitchen moved inside and the side porch became the laundry. Hence my comment about the kitchen being a separate structure. Likewise, when we were in the design and build stage, I took notice of moldings in historic houses. George Mason was particulary noted for his love of woodwork, and his house, Gunston Hall, has very ornate woodwork in the most public rooms, less so in the private rooms, none at all in the kitchen and none in the upstairs bedrooms (if my memory is correct). I thought about all of this when I was choosing moldings and followed suit while acknowledging that I live in different times and making allowances for that. My upstairs moldings are very simple. My dining room is the most ornate. My kitchen/family room molding is fairly nice, since the ceilings are tall and it is a gathering area for friends and family. It is a farily public room. However, the crown molding is very smooth for ease of cleaning. As far as the cleaning issue goes, I cook up a storm and everything in my kitchen needs to be easily cleaned. I have simple beadboard backsplashes and stainless steel behind my range. A tile mosaic would be a nightmare for me after a big stir-fry night. I also have dust allergies and tried to avoid "dust catchers" in my house. Again, looking for easily cleaned surfaces. My apologies if my remarks were taken as disrespectful. No disrespect or ill will was intended.

I love your inspiration photo! And I am kinda facing the same dilemma: we are also in the midst of having a mantel and cabs / bookshelves built. I'd wanted to paint them a kind of pale sage (not too dissimilar from your photo) but now am wondering if I should just go with the pale yellow which is our trim color throughout (most of) the house. Anyway, I don't know if you looked at this thread which has umpteen pics of fireplaces / surrounds -- maybe something there will help? What I really got from your message is that you like the look of the painted cabs. That was what I took away from your post, and to me that's telling. We have a painted white kitchen (I mean the cabs are painted white) and in our den our cabs are painted the same pale yellow as our trim. Both of those rooms / cabs see *a lot* of use, and neither shows any scuffing or abuse (and I have LOOKED!). So I'm not sure the cabs getting scuffed is really a reasonable, realistic fear. Seriously. My sons are 4 & 6 and they and their friends avail themselves of everything, so we are not a precious family. What is the natural light like in this room? Do you like a brighter space or are you a darker, cozier kind of person? I think that would carry weight in which way to go. Of course doing the cherry would be beautiful, esp. in marrying your kitchen island, but that could end up being a lot of dark wood. Are you okay with that? I know I haven't told you in which direction to go, but I think there are other circumstances which will help lead you to the right choice. The lighting in the room, and the fact that it'll be hard to really scuff the cabs to the point of repainting. That really is a super inspiration photo -- thanks for sharing!

Okay, I'm finally awake enough to make sense of your issues. I don't have any experience with slush and all of that, but do know what wet, dirty boots are. I think your Franke boot tray with drain is a great idea! Maybe not with a faucet, per se, but a sprayer with a brush would be great, wouldn't it? As I see it, one of the big problems with the plan is having to kind of stoop down, into the cabinet, to clean the boots. You said there's access underneath...I wonder if you could install a flexible drain and have a whole pull out boot shower? I can also see having wire shelves above the pan for putting boots to dry, leaving the pan itself for the next person's muddy mess. They could double as shoe shelves for the Summer. Since there isn't room for furniture, perhaps you could turn a couple of studs, and have a jump seat that folds flush into the wall, and maybe a couple of niches for things like a boot jack. This is the brutalist house, right? Because my other thought is all wrong for that, but I was thinking a curved niche that didn't look so much like the blind cabinet could house a tiled fountain that was disguising the bootwash and be kind of cool. Maybe you could do a shallow fountain (modernist) set into the wall above the bootwash cupboard, that would also have an exterior drain where you could rinse hands, or whatever, that looks decorative, and otherwise recirculates. I'm thinking a fountain would also be useful in creating a transition space, with the sound of water covering street noise, and the ionization making the air fresher as you come in. The kind of thing a front garden usually does.

Thank you, everyone, for the guidance! I am sorry for the late response. Work slowed my progress here at home! I'm back and willing to look into these colors. I've thought a lot about what feeling I would ike when we walk into these rooms and I think my biggest fear is that anything too gray will be very blah - it also is very shadowy and dingy on our walls most of the day b/c of the lighting from the North and West. I want a warm cheery kitchen - rustic and farmhouse - but not modern gray/white farmhouse. that's definitely not us! I am having trouble finding pictures online that have gray cabinets and darker/non-white walls. To answer your question, Open House Home Staging and Redesign, yes, we have some old/not permanent furniture in the back room. Mostly to see if we could get a feel for what it will look like in the future - just a old dog couch. I'll put a photo below - we haven't added the base molding b/c we are waiting to figure out the trim color and painting before we put on. Even with the random pieces of furniture, the room feels too light for us. We want a deeper color. I think the LRV of ancient ivory is 80 something. Just a little too washed out and with a greenish tinge - I would rather go more green or not at all b/c the ancient ivory looks dirty about 80% of the day and then during the evening, there's a warm glow to the walls that is still too light for my tastes but it's cozy! We were going for warm/cozy feel since we are setting up a wood stove and it's going to be a den for reading and hanging out, esp in the winter. The window look into the yard and woods, so we wanted a grounded/naturey feel but we missed the target with the ancient ivory. I will definitely check out manchester tan! I went to a BM store and spot with a color consultant. She showed me some beautiful colors that worked well with the Urbane Bronze and even the countertop but, unfortunately, they are too gray. Against my better judgement, I listened and got samples of Balboa Mist and Wind's Breath. In the store they looked pretty with the Urbane Bonze and I understood why the consultant felt tans or other colors were too yellow (b/c of the tile) but I don't know if she really heard me when I said that any gray in these rooms looks VERY gray. I tried both and while they are nice with the urbane bronze, they are not the right color for us. Balboa Mist is too purple and too gray. On the wall in the kitchen it looks dreary and blah. It seems very violet in the back room too - I tried in two spots. The Wind's breath is nicer - in that seems to be browner with less gray but it's still very light. In the kitchen, it seems to have a pinkish hue to it with the counter - again, I'm not a fan. I wish I was. The LRV of WB is 70 or so. A lot of the colors I like seem to be a little lower than that - mid 60s. Not that is our only guideline but it seems to be the one consistent thing my husband and I agree on - more color and less gray! Maybe more of a transition color so the cabinets do not look like the are floating I can't remember if I mentioned but the color "skipping stone" by BM was recommended to us by someone on houzz. The BM color consultant talked me out of it but I can't remember why - I think she said it didn't look good with the counter tops? I din't know. I'm going to stop listening to hear and go back to listening to Houzz b/c Manchester Tan looks beautiful. I'll probably try a sample of SS too. Thank you in advance. In case this helps at all...here is a pic of the back room. This is with Ancient Ivory on the walls and the spare furniture. Here, I like the yellow-y feel but the real life view was more green tinged and even more washed out. Just as an example - when we first started the journey. Here is our *before* pic. We've come a long way...the paint color is killing me though.. Also, before we decided to re-do the cabinets, we tried a dark gray on the wall in the back. I think that is BM dovetail (or something along those lines). We also tried SW Repose gray in the kitchen with the yellow cabinets. It looks really pretty but b/c we wanted one color to unify the two rooms (since we have two diff floors, weird granite, tile countertops, there was so much going on) we ended up changing everything. thanks in advance for listing to our saga! I'll get a sample of Manchester Tan!