Advice/opinions wanted! Ongoing kitchen update.

I've made an imgur gallery to show you all where I started in this kitchen journey and where I'm at now.

To give you an idea of my aesthetic, here my dream kitchen if I had a bazillion dollars and didn't live in a bog-standard suburban home.

Here's a more realistic idea of what I expect I can achieve.

Ok, on to the full gallery: Clicky

Your opinions?

I'm definitely going with black semi-matte painted shaker doors. Slab or shaker drawer fronts? I'm leaning toward slab as I sometimes think those skinny little shaker middles in drawers look strange.

I've decided instead of trying to paint the 5 end parts of the cabinet boxes, I'm just going to hang shaker "doors" on the ends as caps (no hardware obviously). What would you recommend to mount them? That stuff they use to glue mirrors to walls?

Finally, I included a picture of my new sink and faucet. I installed this, plus a new garbage disposal myself. That in mind, do you all think I'd be handy enough to make my own cabinet doors?

I have a router, a router table and an airless paint sprayer and do know how to use them.

I'm planning on MDF for the inserts. What sort of wood would you recommend for the rails and stiles? Any drawbacks to MDF for the inserts?

Also, I plan to do frosted glass fronts in the upper cabinets with LED strip lighting inside. Any advice welcome as to which cabinets (all or ?) you think I should do this with.

The granite countertops are in good shape but have way too much brown in them to work with my overall design. I'm thinking of replacing with white concrete or cesarstone at some point.

Also, I'm aware that fridge looks like I parked a semi in the kitchen. I thought it wasn't available in a counter depth. It was, just not where I bought it. Might try to sell it at a discount (it's brand new) and buy the counter depth. Anyone in Henderson/Las Vegas area who wants to pick up can get a good deal...

Sorry for the novel. Thanks in advance for any feedback!

I agree with the slab drawer fronts and adding doors to the gables, screws from inside the cupboard.

So just short-ish screws from the inside to hold them in place? That seems like a good idea.

I also agree with you about the slab drawers.

TechLady said:

I'm definitely going with black semi-matte painted shaker doors. Slab or shaker drawer fronts? I'm leaning toward slab as I sometimes think those skinny little shaker middles in drawers look strange.

Click to expand...

Slab will work just fine, both aesthetically and ease of installation.

Having an airless is fine for general painting, but when you are applying durable finishes to cabinets an HVLP gives you far better control.

TechLady said:

Finally, I included a picture of my new sink and faucet. I installed this, plus a new garbage disposal myself. That in mind, do you all think I'd be handy enough to make my own cabinet doors?

Click to expand...

The key to the door frames will be the joinery, so, do you have any bar clamps.

TechLady said:

I'm planning on MDF for the inserts. What sort of wood would you recommend for the rails and stiles? Any drawbacks to MDF for the inserts?

Click to expand...

You'll want to match the grain pattern of the cabinetry.

TechLady said:

Also, I plan to do frosted glass fronts in the upper cabinets with LED strip lighting inside. Any advice welcome as to which cabinets (all or ?) you think I should do this with.

Click to expand...

Aesthetics, "is a matter of opinion", and your's counts, so experiment in one of the full height uppers, by placing them in the back and tucked behind the face frame, also dimmed.

TechLady said:

Also, I'm aware that fridge looks like I parked a semi in the kitchen. I thought it wasn't available in a counter depth. It was, just not where I bought it. Might try to sell it at a discount (it's brand new) and buy the counter depth. Anyone in Henderson/Las Vegas area who wants to pick up can get a good deal...

Click to expand...

Advertise it locally, "tis the season."

I'm not a fan of counter depth refrigerators because of the cost and volume loss. The last couple of kitchens I've done I used 3/4 plywood side panels faced with 1x2 stock to build a cabinet to the depth of the refer body. Blends in nicely.