The homeowners wanted to open their kitchen up.  An oversized island was taking up the middle of the kitchen allowing only one person at a time to comfortably use the kitchen.  With a growing family they wanted a more user-friendly kitchen and an overall upgrade.  They chose natural cherry cabinetry in the shaker style with full overlay doors/drawers.  This cabinetry will naturally darken over time, but when installed the wood is fairly light.  The cabinetry had some unique design elements including a pull out pot/pan organizer to the right of the refrigerator; pull out spice rack to the right of the range, and an oversized pantry with deep bottom drawers.  The backsplash is a mixture of 4” tile blocks, rope tiles, and copper tiles as accents that served to tie the sink into the rest of the kitchen.  The counters are natural black galaxy granite, which is a deep black with reflective flecks giving the appearance of stars.  The appliances were upgraded with commercial units including a gas range/electric oven, 36” refrigerator with lower freezer shelf, dish drawers as compared to a standard dish washer, and commercial hood.  The sink is a hammered copper apron sink that will darken over time and a pot filler was added over the range for easy filling of pasta pots, etc.  Lighting consists of pendants over the sink, recessed lighting over the refrigerator, fluorescent under cabinet lighting for work surfaces, theatre lighting for the pantry, and tract lighting for overall lighting of the kitchen.  The windows were changed from bow windows to flat picture windows with grids integrated in the glass and low-E/argon filled for energy efficiency.  The entrances into the kitchen were all widened and a knee wall was eliminated allowing better flow between the kitchen and other living areas.  The carpeting and oak flooring was removed in both the kitchen and the living room and replaced with cork which helped with the natural, visual flow between the two rooms.