We are struggling over making some decisions and trying to DIY the kitchen design without the added cost of a kitchen designer. (Hey I designed the whole floor plan for the house and got it drafted for $1000.) We are building a 2500 square foot arts and crafts style bungalow on an infill lot in a historical area. The living, dining and kitchen will all be open to one another. We are using a stained craftsman moulding and trim throughout, wainscoting in the dining room, and several built-ins in all three rooms. So lots of wood! I went back and forth over the kitchen cabinets but my current thinking is to continue the wood for continuity to extend our living spaces into the kitchen since it's all open. The darkness doesn't bother me because we will have good light and adequate windows. I'm going for a real craftsman feel. I want it to feel warm, organic, and cozy.

Here's what I'm pretty sure are definites: wood cabinets (hopefully quartersawn or rift sawn oak, if not then cherry) finished in a medium tone, soapstone countertops, with a zinc eating bar on one side of the peninsula. The sinks will be stainless and undermounted. I would like to get black or oil rubbed bronze colored hardware for all of the cabinets. I do NOT want stainless appliances to show except for what is necessary on the 48 inch Bluestar. I would prefer a color...possibly red...on the range. The ventilation hood will be vented in a wood clad chimney or mantle.

Now here's the dilemma. I really wanted to recess my refrigerator into a 36 by 36 inch alcove but I can't find any non cabinet depth refrigerators that will accept custom panels. So I basically have these choices:

#1: We can put a regular depth refrigerator/freezer into the alcove which would give us adequate refrigeration storage. This option would not allow us to hide the appliances. My choices here would be black or stainless. I think the stainless would look too modern and I'm not sure how it would look with the zinc, but the black might be a better choice. What do you think? If I went with black I probably would not get the range in red so I would do a black front on it instead. Maybe this would be more classic in the long run. Again what do you think?

#2: Buy a cabinet depth panel ready refrigerator/freezer that will drastically reduce our cubic storage. This option would probably require us to buy a secondary frig for the laundry room although it will be a tight squeeze to get even a small frig in there. This option is about $1500 more than the first option in addition to the cost of the cabinet panels. I would still be able to get my red range and the appliances will be fully integrated.

#3: We can put a cabinet depth paneled 30 inch refrigerator in the kitchen and a plain white cheap upright freezer in the laundry. The freezer wouldn't be as bulky as a full refrigerator/freezer and would line up nicely with the shelving in the laundry room. This option would allow us to gain some cabinet storage in the kitchen and would be fully integrated giving us the same cubic refrigeration storage and twice the freezer storage. We're going to have an icemaker elsewhere. This option would cost us about $2500 more than the first option but would be very well suited for our lifestyle.

So I sincerely appreciate any feedback you can give me, especially on whether the black appliances would be a good look or if I should stick with hiding the appliances with cabinetry. Even though the range is high end, we had not intended to go high end on everything else. So is black the way to go to trim the budget? By the way whatever we do with the refrigerator we will do with the dishwasher. Thanks in advance.