Does it have to be a shaker door? You could achieve a modern look with a flat panel stained door but shaker doesn't really say modern to me regardless if it is stained or painted.

As drawn, your Shaker style won't give you modern. You really need to go to a slab front door. I'd also lose the glass door and move to an open shelf (or skip it if you are concerned about dust, like I would be) You can definitely do it with wood doors, simple pulls, clean lines, maybe waterfall your island. I do think lighter counters work well with wood cabs -but they do not have to be white quartz (I dislike that too)

You should also post the true kitchen layout - it may need work...

I hear what you're saying about the shaker style, I will talk to my husband about it as he's the one that's opposed to the slab style.

Using a slab door removes the necessity wiping down all those small ledges on a shaker door. Not that I spend a lot of time doing that, but moving from a kitchen with slab everything to shaker, I've noticed there are a lot more dust catchers!

If you want shaker you can choose traditional or modern looking pulls. Here's two examples. Note both have mix of shaker and slab fronts, cream paint, black/dark green counter, moulding, but modern backsplash and wide polished chrome pulls and exposed stainless hood cover help make the kitchen look more modern than the round pulls on the bath cabinets.

Greenlake Custom Home · More Info

Bathrooms · More Info

Slab doors will immediately give you very modern look. Agree with previous posters. But Shaker is pretty..what they call "timeless", and can be taken many directions too.

Maple will read modern enough. You can go with slab front drawers as in the picture above.

Are you sure you want to stain it? It's a beautiful wood..modern usually underscores the natural beauty of materials, rather than playing with it a bit.

Also, kitchen is not only cabinets. Bigger rather than smaller tile on the backsplash, maybe stronger graphic motive in backsplash/floors if you prefer patterns..

I'd also go for a very non-busy countertop.

I agree with the posters above, and I think you should also look at Cherrywood. I am confused by your original floor plan it seems to have a very small sink in the island only. The elevations seem to be showing a different configuration. A sink in the island only would not be a good idea and you have plenty of space to do better than that.

@practigal: it's an L shape kitchen, there's a sink by the window on the short wall and there's a small sink on the island, I've asked the cabinet maker to move the island sink to the side of the fridge and then to leave space to the left of the sink. Our current kitchen has cherry so I would really like a different look, hence maple.

While Hickory is beautiful the color variation is too much for us, that's why I want to stain it to minimize the variation.

I think we can go for a mix of slab drawers and shaker cabinet doors, and I like the that green backsplash. Maybe something like that with dark gray or black counter?

Canbria doesn't have any slabs that I like in black so we'll have to look elsewhere.

Thank you for all the good advice.

Don't be afraid of white cabinets! With the new paint finishes, they wipe down very easily. At least with white, you KNOW when they are a bio-hazard!

There are many choices in quartz. Do not limit yourself to Cambria although if you want black you might want to look closely at granite.

Some other bits of feedback on your cabinet diagrams:

1. Your lower cabinets would benefit from being mostly or all drawers, rather than doors. More here: http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2502678/drawers-over-pull-outs-in-cabinets

2. Microwave/wall oven combos don't get a lot of love here ... if the microwave fails, you have to replace the whole unit. If I were you, I'd put a Sharp microwave drawer in the island and put in double wall ovens.

3. Do you have pullout trash and recycling somewhere in your layout?

4. What are you doing with cabinets over fridge or wall oven? You might want to have vertical tray storage built in there.

Shaker Cherry Kitchen · More Info

@Matt E: Thank you for the tips. We are going with a speed oven so we can use the microwave as well. And there's a pullout trash in the island towards the main sink. Yes, I'm planning on having storage above the fridge for trays. I bake a lot too.

The reason I'm not looking into granite is due to the maintenance it requires such as sealing and the stains etc. I figured Quartz will be the safer bet. Although I've seen some beautiful slabs that's Quartizite.

What are your thoughts about the upper cabinets opening horizontally instead of vertically? I think it gives a modernize look as well. I don't know whether there's a downfall to that in the long run.

not all granite requires sealing and not all granite stains either

So how can I find out white granite doesn't require maintenance?

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/129619295505162320/

This is the prettiest modern kitchen with stain and white counters I have seen, I think. I love the finish on the wood, very fresh. This doesn't look old style to me, do you think so?

@Briana Johnson: Its a beautiful kitchen, live the island. But I would prefer a little bit darker cabinet stain. And yes, it looks very modern.

Hello,

Thank you for considering Cambria for your kitchen project. Cambria is very low-maintenance. For daily cleaning, simply soap and water will do the trick. Cambria is also nonporous, and never needs to be sealed, unlike granite. It is a great choice for those who want incredible aesthetic beauty with un-matched performance. For more information about the benefits of Quartz, please navigate to the 'Advantages' section on our website.

You mentioned liking the appearance of a grey or black countertop. While we know you considered some of our black quartz options, we do have plenty of grey options you may like. Carrick is a rich, warm grey that pairs beautifully in a verity of spaces, and it's concrete-like appearance is perfectly on-trend.

Thanks, we hope this helps and we wish you the best with your kitchen remodel project.

If u want white go for it! I can't imagine the cabinets getting too dirty

Gorgeous kitchen Sochi!

That's a beautiful kitchen Sochi. I have upper cabinets and I'm wondering whether cabinets that shows lot of movement would be too much. Your's nicely blend in with the white uppers.

So fun to see your kitchen again Sochi! I remember when you posted your reveal or maybe it was just you posting a pic. You are so talented! Your kitchen is unique and warm.

A great example of slab doors giving a modern look with the beauty and warmth of wood not white.

Sea Cliff Home Kitchen Remodel · More Info

What a great kitchen omelet, thank you for posting it! I'd love to work in that space.

Sochi that's one of my favorite kitchens ever

the look I'd go for, have I had a different house

I think there is a disconnect here in terms of what "modern" is, versus say, transitional. And I think we all struggle with aspects of these terms.

Your husband wants modern but is opposed to slab doors, which are almost always a more modern cabinet front. Shaker doors are in my opinion, more transitional, and as such, can go either way depending on color, handles and knobs, the whole shebang. We just created a kitchen from nothing (historic home), with shaker doors and slab drawers (cheaper to go this way versus shakering up the drawers) painted in Farrow and Ball Pitch Blue, brass-colored hardware, Silestone Snowy Ibizia. I really cant say what style it is overall, but it certainly isn't traditional and it certainly isn't modern, but I do think it leans modern.

I agree that staining the wood is a more traditional treatment, maple on its own is always clean. But as for modern, I really think it depends on the rest of what is happening in the kitchen.

The white granites I have seen look meh. I do not like the dotted stippled look, and the weird sparkly specks. But personally, I am over granite. It is everywhere and sort of pedestrian.

I highly suggest quartz for color selction and upkeep. Only thing is you still cannot put anything hot directly on it, but otherwise it is pretty indestructible.

I also think that people do not put enough thought into their hardware. Or at least, do not really broaden their searches. I think hardware is KEY to taking a cabinet front and determining the overall aesthetic of the kitchen. My kitchen, for example, with different handles, knobs and faucet would have a very different overall look.

Here is what we have done so far. Still need...backsplash, hood installed, and a few other things. The reason there are no uppers is because we have two large butler's pantries.

I'll leave it to others to offer you aesthetic advice but I hope you don't mind my 2 cents' worth regarding your proposed kitchen lay-out. You have a large space to work with - how wonderful! - but I don't think you're making the best use of the space.

Is your island positioned as far from the perimeter as the overhead plan view shows? That aisle looks to be nearly 7 ft. That's a ridiculously wide aisle between your cook top and island and prep sink. Move the island closer to give you a 48" between island counter and perimeter counter. That will also make it easier to arrange table and chairs in your breakfast area.How do you plan to arrange a table and chairs in the breakfast area? The door into the space could cause issues. The space looks to be 10 ft wide. If your table is 42" wide, that gives you 39" aisles at the top and bottom. If you plan to position the table towards the left end of the breakfast area, the door's swing will come close to the table (most exterior doors are 36" wide). Whoever is sitting near the door will need to get up and move out of the way.

Do you have pantry cabs as shown in the overhead plan? I don't see any in your elevation drawings. If not, that means your fridge is all the way to the right with the oven/MW column to its left. What counter do you intend to use as a fridge landing area? Where do you intend to set grocery bags to unload into the fridge? I strongly recommend that you place the island's prep sink at the end closest to the clean-up sink so that you can use the island counter closest to the fridge as additional fridge landing space. It's still going to be farther than NKBA's recommended 48" minimum distance but at least you won't have a sink in the way.

Do you have plans for the wall area opposite of the fridge and oven/MW column? The overhead drawing doesn't show any cabinets here. Seems like a lost opportunity and a great place for pantry cabs, a drop zone and/or a breakfast station/beverage/snack area.

@Amanda DRo: that's a beautiful kitchen. I'm not bold enough to go for such a color so I'm going to have to admire from far. I've been considering shaker cabinets and slab drawers, I think it looks great in your kitchen and I think it helps because you don't have drawers above the cabinets. Do you have drawers in those base cabinets eventhough it's not a traditional drawer? I think I need drawers for all the cutlery and silverware so I'm wondering whether there's a different way to achieve this while having a full cabinet door.

Lisa_a@ thank you for your opinion. The distance that's shown on the architects plans are not accurate. There's 42" between the perimeter counter and the island. Next to the fridge it's a pantry that I'm going to have the GC build and it'll have doors from the cabinet co. To match the cabinets. Shopping will be dropped by the pantry because the panty is where most grocery items will be stored. I hear what you're saying about no landing space for fridge items but we're going to have to use the island as the landing space. We want the island sink to be moved a little bit more towards the cleanup sink to give some landing space but we don't want it all the way in the other corner. The breakfast are that's shown in the architects plan will be replaced by a beverage station later on. There will be a dining table behind the island towards the other wall, I know it doesn't show on the plan.

I'm glad to hear that the issues I saw on your overhead plan have already been addressed.

Good luck with your remodel! It's going to be a wonderful kitchen!

In total I have 8 drawers, I didn't show you a pic of the peninsula. Challenging layout indeed, but I was dead set on having one area with a large, uninterrupted counterspace, not facing a wall, that I could scoot stools around. I hate prepping food looking at a wall, seriously depressing. The two windows we have go low to the ground, so we couldn't put cabinets in front without it looking weird, and raising it and replacing with wooden historic windows was ASTRONOMICAL. And to not do that would make those two lone windows not match the other gazillion windows in the house, which offended my OCD!

We spent so much on rough work, electrical, moving plumbing, closing off a door way, fixing plaster, adding drywall...

I actually came up with this layout myself, after four kitchen designers/carpenters were stumped. Its admittedly weird, but I can get 4 stools around the peninsula, and it has been great for meals and for having people over!

The reason you don't see drawers above cabinet doors in the pics above is because the space is tight. And to pull out a drawer in that corner seemed annoying. The corner cabinet cant have one, and then next to the stove I needed more drawers, I decided to do all drawers. In the pantries, we actually have a lot of storage for small appliances, etc, lots of cabinets, but are lacking in actual drawers.

Sorry, this is the best pic I have at the moment, but this is the peninsula. in the center are three drawers just like next to the stove. Everything is literally a wonky size to fit exactly.

The peninsula cabinets are 60 inches long and with the counter and overhang I have 70 in by 34 inches, and its huge for me! In a good way. Three stools along the window and my mom stool at the end.

Thank you Amanda DRo, now I understand your design.

I'll try to post a picture of my med dark stained modified shaker cabinets that look a little modern...

Linda, that's a beautiful kitchen. Thank you for posting. Love your island.