I think the best thing for you to do is take some time and look at pictures of kitchens. Go to houzz.com and just look at kitchens and save the ones you like. Just make quick decision on the overall look of the kitchen. A trend will appear. Maybe it will help you narrow down what you really want.

Pretty hard to do this if you don't have any idea what you really want. Good luck!

I recommend starting with GW's infamous Sweeby test. Hopefully someone has the link to it.

Then take a step back and gather photos, photos and more photos of kitchens you love. If you have dozens already, start to narrow them down to just a few that you like the most. Figure out what common element draws you to them the most. Decide if thy are fitting in with your Sweeby direction.

This helped many of us immensely.

For the ultimate, final decisions, sometimes it's just impulse based on a particular slab someone saw in real life that they fell in love with. I didn't realize a wood island top would cost way more than quartz or even quartzite. Sometimes things don't get found out until you really start digging. I know I can achieve my look with another surface and still be happy.

It's a process. But if you stay true to your initial feel you want to achieve and the few inspiration photos you like the most, then you can most likely get the look you want. It's when you start questioning things and throwing random things in the mix that things start to get convoluted...unless you can foresee this in your vision ahead of time. Some are able to do this and some can't.

Good luck and keep us posted!

Oh yes, I forgot sources.

Houzz
Pinterest (which can link to blogs that, in turn, lead to other blogs)
Decorpad.com
Head to a bookstore and browse the kitchen and home magazines and decorating books
Housebeautiful.com
Southernliving.com

Maybe trendy, but will you like it for a long time, no matter what anyone else has in their kitchen?

Do you have a vision or 'mission statement' for your kitchen? Do you want monochromatic, or contrast? Do you like serene or more drama? You might try the "Sweeby Test."

What really helped me were 2 things:
1) 3D drawings, narrowed down to 2 color schemes
2) Looking at them and re-looking at them, then imagining different scenarios... Was it what I wanted to see first thing upon walking in? Is it what I want around me and under my cutting board as I work? Is it what I will feel happy and content to see at night when it's all cleaned up and pretty again? Is it a place I want to hang out with a cup of coffee while I take a break?

Whatever types of scenarios help you 'see' the kitchen and will help you identify a connection with one choice over another.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sweeby Test for determining kitchen vision and focus

step back from it all: what do you want from your project....looks, function, integration with other adjacent areas,strict budget mindedness?? finding your underlying "driver" and sticking with it might help. One of the best kitchens I did was a new build and all choices made in a span of 3-4 days with the options and upgrades on display boards sitting on someone's desk. I held to NO upgrades and went with my gut with what was offerred:the kitchen is fine. I'd go ahead and firm up your cab choices:there are so many counter tops to pick from after that.

I want a modern functional space. It's a new build so I don't want it to be particularly "vintage" because that just seems fake, but I am inspired by Shaker furniture - and I've always been. I like things to be clean and simple and unfussy, but I worry about making the space too bland and devoid of personality. I want a little bit of fun, too.

My latest thoughts. Look quickly, I'll change it tomorrow...:-)

There is some good advice here. I too am struggling with choices and I am considering similar ideas to you only I was thinking of using black stained maple and cream cabinets. I think all white cabinets would be safe, but then I think that this is the only kitchen I will ever get to choose myself and so I should do something that is more exciting.

Cottonpenny, that's a good place. But have you collected actual real life inspirational kitchens to see if you're close to where you want to be?

Can I ask a question a little off topic? How did you create that inspiration board on your computer? In Notepad?
I need inspiration boards for dummies.

I like your ideas too, btw. Seeing mixed hardware in one picture gives a sense of what it actually looks like.

Susied3, where have you been? Any kitchen progress?

Sorry to go off-topic, Cottonpenny.

change the hardware on the white uppers-those handles are quite chunky to lay them everywhere,but lowers would be fine..smaller knobs for the uppers...I'd get the counter nailed to 3 choices and then look for backsplash-I'd definitely get a counter to blend floor and base cabinets-grey,pewter,mocha and browns-[nice]-and pull a tone from that and do squares or subways.[what cabinet line are they providing?]

Susie - I used a website called olioboard. It's really cool (and easy).

Herb - those aren't actually the real handles and the program wouldn't let me shrink them small enough so the scale is off. I may do knobs on doors and handles on drawers anyway. We are getting Kemper cabinets (same as Diamond).

Babs - I have found pics I like, but not anything that I want to exactly copy. I like OTKs (white) and I like Sally Wheat (grey) kitchens but I think they are too vintagey for my house. I like a touch of industrialness too (Bluestar, handles). I don't want to do too "contemporary" though.

Look at a lot of pictures of kitchens quickly and note which ones get the happiest response. You'll notice a theme of some type. I had a tough time deciding about light or dark counters in our white kitchen, and when I watched the slideshow in the Finished Kitchens Blog I suddenly realized that the ones I loved all had contrast with darker counters. The all-light ones felt bland or off. Let yourself notice what you really love.

To me, in your inspiration board above, the hood is out of place with everything else.

I could have written waterdamage's post. Add to the fact that DH has been white-kitchen-hesitant. So darker counters make more sense to me now. And now that I look through the kitchens that I feel the most warmth and comfort from. I knew I didn't want a country-vintage vibe. I want light yet comfortable. Yet I want something to be grounded in a way. As I went through the HUNDREDS of photos I'd saved...yes, hundreds, I also noticed that the ones I liked the most had either darker counters or dark perimeters and a light island top. So that's where I am. I'm heading to slab yards this weekend. If I see a light slab that knocks my socks off, then I'll go that route. If not, it's dark all around. I'm not stressing about it until I start looking in person.

Like you, my inspiration comes from a combination of kitchens, not just one. Here are my most loved and why. This may help you...

1) Katieob's kitchen. I like the light island top and outer dark perimeter. And although she has an industrial hood (I'm doing a white arched hood), her white cabinets and polished nickel hardware and the overall feel are really nice:

2) The cabs don't go to the ceiling as mine will not. But I can picture how my hood will look extended to the ceiling even though this one isn't configured as mine is. I like the fel of this kitchenn as well. The window that comes low to the sink, the white hood, darker countertops...
{{gwi:1759704}}

3) Again, darker counters. This one made me realize I wanted polished nickel hardware as the dark wasn't my taste. I saved this one as our range is a little offset like that so we're doing a similar thing with our glass cabinetry and flanking the range with solid on each side to create symmetry by the range. Another low window by the sink.

4) This one has a nice feel to it because of the warmth brought by the dark top of the island. I could imagine the perimeter being dark also. The backsplash was nice.
{{gwi:1759706}}

5) There are elements I've always really liked about this kitchen though it's darker overall than I ultimately want to go with my own (the hood and the island, etc.) But it's stunning and I do refer to it.
{{gwi:1759707}}

6) More country/vintage than I prefer but I like the dark perimeter with the light island countertop as well as the polished nickel hardware on the perimeter. I like that she did ORB for the lighting accents. It seems to work here and I may or may not look at doing that.
{{gwi:1759708}}

We're flanking our 6 foot window with glass cabinets. I love this window treatment (though the kitchen itself has a different feel than the above b/c of the different floor, etc):
{{gwi:1759709}}

Misc (counters, lights):
{{gwi:1759710}}

Anyway, my purpose wasn't to give you inspiration photos but to show you what you can take away from photos. Like I said, I started with tons. And one day, I sat down with them all (online, magazines, printouts, etc) and started eliminating based on initial reactions. I started realizing the super light, white ones were too stark for us. Once I got a feel down, I then could get nitpicky about other things...hardware (polished nickel and not ORB), etc. I have several photos which may be too many for some. For me it works because I've taken elements from them that I look to. But I'm very visual and like that reference. Others may get confused with a wide scope. If you have lots and need to narrow it down to three, then do so. But it doesn't have to be just one.

People tend to be all over the map because they haven't developed a design principle behind their choices. You can fall in love with many, many, things, but you should use your head as much as your heart before you marry any of them.

Your "mission statement" for your kitchen also needs to take into account the rest of your home and how the kitchen will fit into that home. This is one of the backlashes against white kitchens. They don't fit into every home. Putting an Edwardian scullery into a dark and cozy woody Craftsmand is a bad fit. Make sure you don't make that mistake and that whatever you plan fits like a puzzle piece into the whole.

Develop your mission statement for your house first, and your kitchen as a subset element in your house comes second. And then stick to your choices. Don't even look at 50 different granites if they don't fit the right color tones in the first place.

Greendesigns - thanks! I don't think that my mission statement for my house is much different than my kitchen. I would call it "modern shaker" without "contemporary" OR "country" OR "traditional" coming in to play. I like Room and Board and Crate and Barrel more than CB2 or Thomasville, it that makes any sense. I really like these Plain English kitchens, but they don't look very practical to me. And my kitchen needs to be practical and fit in my budget, too.

Babs - thanks so much for sharing your process! Can't wait to see your kitchen, it sounds like it's going to be awesome.

Here is a link that might be useful: Plain English

We remodeled our kitchen six years ago (doing a new build now). I did not have a specific style or type of kitchen I preferred, even after looking at tons of photos and magazines. I particularly struggled with picking the granite. Finally I came up with two choices - one that I thought was classic and would look respectable (I can't remember what it was but it was brown and white and black) and one that I thought was just incredibly pretty. I showed them both to my mother who has very good taste and can have very strong opinions. To my surprise she said "Honey, you should pick the one that makes you happy." I did, and to this day I adore my pretty Costa Esmeralda granite. I chose my paint colors based on it, did the cabinets in natural cherry for contrast, and have never regretted the choice for a second. So....I would say do all your research. Consider the constraints of your budget and your lifestyle. Then, within those constraints, listen to your heart.

I also had a hard time selecting my choices. For me, looking at photos online or in a magazine didn't do it. I spent hours here looking at inspiration kitchens and even enlisted the help of a designer. There were elements about each kitchen that I liked, but I had a hard time envisioning all of the elements coming together in my space. And the designer had all sorts of ideas about the kitchen that just didn't feel right to me (he wanted marble on the counters). Even though my kitchen was mostly white, I wanted my kitchen to have its own personality and reflect the casual, classic/modern vibe of our home and lifestyle. The counter tops were the hardest thing to select. I was all over the place too. I had to see the slabs in person and spent hours wandering around stone yards. I knew as soon as I laid eyes on the slabs that they were the ones. Once I found my counters, everything else fell into place.

Final decisions - I am in the middle of the reno and still making decisions.
First a disclaimer - I started the remodel project planning last summer while putting new siding on the house.
At the same time, my dad was quite ill (and passed away -it was his time, he is no longer struggling to breath, and he is at peace - and yes it was still hard - someone grabbed my heart). Came back from the funeral, etc and was slammed at work and helping my DM from long distance.
Figured out appliance plan
Debated on countertop and cabinet colors and then saw an instal on the countertop - solved.
Still struggling with cabinet color and went to make decision and walked right into the perfect color
Forgot about the plans - first KD just didn't get what I wanted and I fired her. Second KD - plans in place and remodel in progress and saw an idea - the wing wall is gone for now (ductwork went through it but GC re-routed) and called and said - lets put a pantry pull out.
Then I looked at my real pantry and realized that I could put a pocket door as the pipes have also been re-routed
So - the bottom line - be ready to make changes as you go along. You never know what you will find in a remodel!!
Good luck!