It is personal preference. You see cabinets run straight across in many small apartment kitchens because they cannot afford the loss of space.

In your situation, I usually will do 6" greater wall clearance than the base. So a 33" sink in a 36" base would have a 42" space between the wall cabinets centered on the sink. I would not waste that 9" of space in your base cabinets by putting in fillers though. I would do a 8" tray divider base or spice pullout.

33" is a pretty wide sink, i'd not worry tremendously about more than matching the cabinet (as livewire says, odds are its 36".) i even have a cabinet higher above my sink , no window, and i dont feel uncomfortable at all. i'm a bit short which might make the cabinet above not feel looming.

mostly you dont want to bash the corners of the cabinets with large pots or roasting pans.

Thanks for the feedback and moral support! And good call on not wasting the space with fillers. I guess another solution to buy myself a couple inches of space is to bring down the size of the sink a bit. I look forward to getting this kitchen done so I can quit dreaming about it.

I cannot agree more with all of the above comments. If you cook a lot a bigger sink is probably more beneficial for you. In small kitchens every inch counts so you can reduce the space-waster sink base cabinet somewhat. You may want to make sure that the clearance between the wall cabinets above the sink is at least 33". If you ever decide to install a short wall cabinet there you want to be able to fit an actual 33" cabinet and not having to downsize because you are short by 1/2".

Also, you can play with a slick lighting over the sink if you are still concerned about the "boxed-in" feeling.

Cheers***

Good idea on lighting. I was at the lighting store today and plan to return soon to make all those purchases.