looking good newyork! It's exciting to see it come together, isn't it?

As far as the handles go...I know with my remodel, it took a little time to get comfortable with seeing an element brought into the whole picture. I think your handles are appropriate for your door style and also mimic your appliance handles very nicely.

What kind of counters are you going with??

KA:)

I think it's beautiful! Very sleek. The handles do seem a bit obtrusive at first, but I agree with KA - I think you'll see the entire look come together once everything is complete.

Nice work!!

Katie

cabs are beautiful! what kind of wood is that?
love the lights, too.

sorry, I just noticed you already mentioned the cabinet wood.

I think the handles will settle in. it's rather bare right now. I don't know what would look better for handles. those are plain and let the wood shine.

The cabinets are beautiful, its looking like a great modern kitchen! Love it. I had a hard time getting used to the pulls on my slab walnut cabs as well - four months later they've grown on me, but I would have preferred no handles at all.

Good luck with the last leg of the renovation.

Thank you everyone! My countertop is Labradorite / Bora Bora from Walker Zanger. It has a green base, so I did green floor tiles (which I LOVE) to go with the countertop. The backsplash and countertop are the same.

It has been a long and arduous process, and I changed the kitchen plan several times before settling on this one. We ended up overpaying for one change because it was so wrong - I decided to go with my gut and contractor's recommendations. My contractor, who makes custom-cabinets, had very good ideas. I let him run with the kitchen and am very pleased with the outcome. He kept insisting that I do lower cabinets instead of drawers, but after reading the forums here I did mostly lower drawers in the main counter and island. The ugly gas pipe in the island will be covered with wood.

All my bathrooms have the same wood as the kitchen, to bring the look of the entire apartment together. I cannot wait for it to be done!

The cabinets are stunning. Congratulations. It will be a completely different feeling when you get it all together - you will have the different surfaces and textures all working together/complimenting one another versus the handles standing out on the naked cabinets. I am having a hard time picking handles because I cannot imagine anything interfering with my cabinet wood :)

Lookin' gorgeous! Can't wait to see the whole thing. Like others, I bet you'll adjust to the pulls and love them. It's just a change that takes some getting used to after seeing the bare doors.

Love your cabinets!! You must be thrilled to have the kitchen coming along. Looking forward to seeing the progress!!

Those cabinets are gorgeous! kudos to you and your cabinet maker. nothing like cabinets made from exotic woods!

cant wait to see the finished kitchen...

The wood is really beautiful. You are lucky to have such a skilled carpenter. I like your MW placement too. I have to agree with you about the handles. I think the length of them is just right. The finish is perfect too. It's the thickness/bulkiness that doesn't go with the beautiful wood grain. Can you switch them out for handles that are the same length and finish, but thinner?

Alwaysfixin, I asked the contractor but I think its a bit too late because all the handles are already in. I don't want to ruin the cabinet doors by changing them out. I agree about the thickness - that is what is bothering me. On second thoughts, would thinner ones made a big difference?? In any case, they actually look better in the photos here than in-person. Even though they are satin nickel and the appliances are stainless steel, you can barely tell the difference! I will try to live with them :)

I did small polished chrome knobs in the bathrooms which don't look too bad, but I don't think they would have worked in the kitchen.

Get thinner handles the same length. That should do it. That wood is TOO wonderful for handles at all but ya gotta get da door open.

I have to agree with pinchme.

The standard modern bar pulls (thinner) of the same length will match the linear grain of the wood.

{{!gwi}}

the vallis are gorgeous but the wood is even more so... too much gorgeousness :)

Here is a link that might be useful: cheap bar pulls

Very beautiful. The pulls match the GE profile mw, which is prominent, I suppose, and, imho 'go' pretty well with the rest of the space. I love the 90 degree pulls but they may jar with the curved elements of the mw. And yet the 'kind of curved' pulls go quite well with the gorg. cabs. I think you have transitioned well in merging the curves of ge profile with the quite nice pulls. It's a modern k and that's what you aimed for. Again, beautiful and interesting. Let's keep the airwaves open, oh what?, this is the modern tech age. An old broad-person-lady

"after reading the forums here I did mostly lower drawers in the main counter and island."

I'm so glad you did. I think you will be also. I think I've only read 1 person post that she wished she had more doors instead of so many drawers. and that was a new kit so maybe she was having 'newbie regret'.

you handles will look better when the granite is on - you have no counter top now to balance them.

Gorgeous. I would go thinner on the pulls :)

What beautiful cabinets!

I hope you don't take offense, the pulls aren't bad. To me, they look a little industrial where your cabinets are very refined. There's something a little out of balance in the scale- your cabinets are like a wonderful jazz bar with a soloist and 3 piece band and the handles are the entire metropolitan opera in the same space.

I'd try A252 if you have the 8" version - same holes, same maker, different vibe.

Love the cabinets! They are absolutely stunning.

My favorite hardware are these Restoration Hardware Spritz bar pulls. I actually put them in my own kitchen (it really helped improve the ugly cabinets). I love bar pulls but I prefer the mounting points to be farther out than most of the cheaper versions I've found. These Restoration Hardware Maxon pulls are similar to the ones you currently have, but have a more delicate taper that might minimize the impact on your cabinets. I think you could try some different hardware like these options (or something different) and see if you could find something that you like more.

newyorking: I am using African mahogany for my flooring and cabinets and labradorite (Green Eyes, combined with Cambrian Black Polished for one section) for my kitchen. I just checked the forum to see if anyone had posted African mahogany or labradorite photos and needless to say, I am absolutely THRILLED to see your kitchen. I intended to use the lumber horizontally, but after looking at your kitchen, I think I will use at least some of it vertically.

Do you have any pictures of the labradorite in place yet? I would love to see the two together.

newyorking: one additional question: is the mahogany a standard cut or quartersawn?

Wildebloem, I am excited that you are doing a similar kitchen! I found such few photos of both African Mahogany and Labradorite, that its good to see someone else doing something similar. My countertop will go in a couple of weeks. I will post pics once done, so keep an eye out! Honestly though I don't think its possible to capture the beauty of labradorite in pictures - somehow the gorgeous blue never shows in pics.
I have no idea if the wood was quartersawn or rift - I just told my contractor African Mahogany and he used it. Its wood veneer actually, not solid wood - I will ask him tomorrow and let you know.
I used quartersawn and rift red oak floors, and I LOVE LOVE them.

Interesting: The house we are building has two floors (and an in-between entry) and we used the white oaks we had to remove for flooring for the downstairs. We had them quartersawn. We initially intended to use quartersawn oak upstairs as well (albeit white oak in our case).

We ended up with the mahogany flooring because we were offered a fantastic price (just a little more than the white oak) on long, gorgeous boards. What I did not understand well enough was the enormous variety in African mahogany. We ended up sorting the wood by color and using different colors in different rooms or areas. One bath is very light. A landing is striped almost black and reddish. My study is medium. The living room area has purplish boards. The kitchen and dining area ended up with orangish boards. The boards are in but not yet finished (they will be next week) and I do hope it will all work together!

The most difficult part of building this house for us has been to reasonably anticipate the results of what we are choosing. No matter what we choose, it seems to always be a surprise to see it in place.

As for labradorite: yes, it is very difficult to photograph. I finally managed to get some good shots of the inclusions, but getting an entire slab on is still eluding me.