Great improvement, I'd say you've helped your resale, plus you get to enjoy it, including your gorgeous marble! Lol, I had that shade of pink tile as my 1986 backsplash.

Looks great now! That mauve laminate--I guess they didn't spend a lot of time in there, what with it being so small. By the way, when I blur my eyes, your backsplash looks kind of cool, like an abstract painting. LOL.

Wonderful improvement. Love the marble. Can't wait to see it with a BS installed.

It looks great, I love the marble, the backsplash will be the icing. I see you have the 5 door refrigerator, if I may ask how do you like it, are the drawers spacious enough, I want to get the same one but am worried that two drawers would be less space that the model with the single produce drawer.

Love the counters. Very pretty.

WOW! I love the after pic - great choices. The countertops are gorgeous!! That should definitely help sell the house someday. When I see orange oak I go running lol....

tiggsy, I love, love love the fridge. I'm sad we have to exchange for something else. It's too big for our space. I think the 2 drawers are plenty spacious. I have drinks in the left and produce in the right. The left drawer has it's own temp control. There's plenty of space if you have a family. It's just the two of us right now so our fridge is pretty empty. I'll save about 6" when we replace with this one http://www.lowes.com/pd_646957-49317-LMXC23746S_0_?productId=50300091

Beautiful - Glad to see Lowes is going to exchange the fridge. New CD Fridge will look much nicer. Enjoy

Suggestions on grout for tile? Light gray or white? DH and I are disagreeing on this one!

Yes they are letting us use this fridge until the new one arrives in 3 weeks! Lowes has been awesome to work with! No complaints!

I just grouted a couple of sample boards myself today! Do a sample board of each and go from there.

I'd go light gray. A little easier to keep clean and would look nice with your counters.

Gorgeous! We were in the same situation of living in a 3000 sq ft house built in 1972 with a tiny kitchen. When we eventually redid our kitchen we were able to enlarge it and now within the context of the size of the other rooms it makes sense.

newlywed2011, that's the other one I'm considering, please let me know if the single drawer seems like more space than the two drawers.

Tiggsy, I will! It's coming at the end of March so it'll be a while.

Very nice.

What is the ceiling? looks like a popcorn. Will you change it?

I was hoping to remove the textured ceiling. However, I've been told it's not popcorn that can be scraped off. Not sure what it's called but it would have to be covered with sheet rock or some other drastic measure. Pretty sad it can't be easily fixed..

Glad you're replacing the refrigerator with something a bit smaller. Right now, it's the "elephant in the room"!

I have the same "before" cabinets right down to the handles and drawer pulls. Oh I can't wait to finish my new kitchen! Yours looks great!

In a small kitchen the "elephant in the room" always seems to be the fridge. I've dealt several times now with 100 year old kitchens, tiny spaces, where the original ice box was on the back porch and eventually turned into a fridge and stuck into the kitchen. It never looks right. Bane of my existence!

Very pretty! I think the new refrigerator will make it feel more spacious. It looks like a very nice efficient kitchen.

That's great that you found someone to buy your cabinets.

Very nice! I'm sure you will enjoy your new space.

Positively gorgeous, great choices. I vote grey grout.

Love your new kitchen! What a gorgeous piece of marble. I had the same mauve formica & similar oak cabinets. Please feel free to do a whole new reveal when you get your new frig & backsplash. We love reveals. It's very easy to do a couple of grouted sample boards. Congratulations!

Perfect choices! Good call on switching the fridge to cd. Thanks for that great photo of the blanco silgranite sink in the metallic silver next to the marble. I hope you don't mind if I refer people to your photo in the future because it show how perfect it goes together with the marble. The wood floors and doors are gorgeous and add such warmth. As does the wall paint color. Sorry if I missed it. What is the paint? This kitchen will sell your home quick!

rebunky, Sure! I don't have a problem with that! I do love the doors in this house. All solid wood. And your right about them adding warmth. My paint color is SW Amazing Gray. I painted my entire downstairs that color. I love it!

And I'm open to any suggestions on ideas you guys might have for my kitchen! Short of knocking out walls, of course :)

So much brighter.. great job! Looks beautiful!

Very nice! You'll be much happier with a counter depth fridge, as far as how it looks in your kitchen. We replaced our full size fridge that extended too far into the aisle and the new counter depth size made such a big difference.

Beautiful Carrara! Etches are inevitable, but after 5½ years, I still love my island top, despite the etches. If you need to do a buffing of the etches before putting the house on the market, there are several threads which describe using a scrubby and/or polishing powder. I use a fine-grit sanding sponge that's had most of the grit worn off.

Love it! What new cab knobs & pulls are you getting?

It may be small but it packs a big punch with the lovely choices of colors and finishes. And the new CD fridge will make it feel and look so much more spacious. I'm glad you did it a few years before selling so you get a chance to enjoy it, too.

The counter-depth fridge is going to be so helpful!

The marble, dear lord, the marble. Very classy.

That is one beautiful rock you've got there! Nice choices...you'll be very happy with everything.

Very nice! So much lighter and brighter. It'll probably feel more spacious because it's lighter feeling and not so oppressively dark.

It's finally finished! Here are a couple of shots. I love everything about my new kitchen! My grout is actually silver. In the photo it looks darker because it hadn't dried when I took the pic.

So beautiful it looks really amazing! I'd love to see how you ended the tile over on the right in the second picture (behind the light).

There's a bull nosed edge. You can see it in the picture with the tulips. (First pic)

Beautiful! Thanks for coming back & sharing the backsplash. The rug looks great & lovely tulips.

Newlywed2011 did you get the lg refrigerator? If so do you have a picture of it in the space? Also do you miss the 'measured fool's feature of the previous refrigerator?

Could you please share your backsplash tile source and grout? Thanks! My kitchen is nearly the same size and layout as yours and will look similar when we get done!

Yes, I replaced the first fridge because it was too big for the space. The 2nd is an LG and I love even more The space is perfect for us and it give us another 6-7 inches in the kitchen which makes a world a difference! And I'm still loving my honed Carrara marble! Every night I have to go say goodnight to it haha. It so beautiful! We've had it 2 months and we have absolutely no etching or stains. I purchased my cabinet pulls at Ikea. The rug was pulled from my foyer and I'm still debating on it. The subway tile is from Lowes. The grout also from Lowes and it's called silver. It's 48 hours old and has dried to the perfect color.

Cool. Did you take your cabinet right to the edge of your wall or have a small sliver of painted wall or small sliver of tile? Thanks!

Up date on my honed Carrera marble! We've lived with it for nearly a year and I'm happy to say there are no stains, no itching, no issues. It looks just like it did the day the installed. And we don't baby it at all! We LOVE it!