Big decisions

During June the cabinetry went from sketches, to random looking pieces of wood, to actual installed cabinets. Worktops went on and sinks were installed. 

Stair rails went in too, after some to-ing and fro-ing about our insistence that the stair rods go straight into the tread. Glad we stuck to our guns.

Now painting and staining is about to commence so we had to make a big decision. When we started this journey our Pinterest was full of baltic birch, very washed out and skandi looking. But I've leaned more and more into colour and texture and richness and depth - and I just don't think you have have bleached out cabinets with that look. Ash dreads a honeyed, school gym floor hue though. 

Our painter created three samples. No, to Ash's point, there aren't only three stains in the world. He intended these as a starting point and would willingly do more if we needed. But why make life complicated? One of these, I think, is just right. Can you guess which one?

Hope we made the right choice because there's a heck of a lot of cabinets about to get that irreversible stain!