DH and I talked about a cherry kitchen in our future, but after he convinced me to completely replace our white cabinets so we could start fresh, I couldn't see that much brown. I've always been partial to white kitchens and when I went through kitchen photos, at least 80-90% of those I was drawn to were white. Sooo.... I would call our kitchen transitional I had never seen or heard of Christopher Peacock and white kitchens were not so popular, but I think the shaker and similar plainer front cabinets were, so going simpler seemed a popular choice. It was driven by hating the heavy moldings on our custom cabinets (wall trim used on cabinet doors). It made a statement, but that and the short counters meant every drip got caught on the paint and stained -- and there were lots of grooves to clean. DH is s slob in the kitchen. I had to have something very simple so the choice was desperation, not fashion. Our tile had to be patched in the reno and was done poorly, so we later replaced the floor. The dark wood was probably a popular choice then, but it fit our house. Risky -- did white marble counters in both the cooking and clean up zones before it was making every magazine cover. I am not a granite person, didn't like my mom's Corian and the cool recycled glass was uber expensive and didn't really go with our house. I saw a slab of marble with squiggles that reminded me of the stray marks on old ink drawings and thought of Da Vinci (my boys and I were into him) and I had to have it. End of story. Other not so safe choices -- I did three cabinet finishes (wall of tall blue storage surrounding my fridge and knotty cherry island and hutch in the breakfast room, did a 3 tile combo (from 2 different sources) for the inset in my backsplash, and mixed metal finishes on hardware, lighting and faucets. All of the above plus the fact that the layout was designed by me to maximize every inch of possible function for the way we wanted it to work and adding fridge drawers to our hutch made it right for us. I designed it to make me happy and with no consideration for resale or what others would think. My favorite design element -- the different cabinet finishes -- the wall of blue as a backdrop plus the knotty cherry -- and the custom leaded glass in the uppers of the hutch. But my favorite thing is how it functions. DH even said out loud last night (8 years later) how he loves the way we designed the kitchen. It just works for us. I'd say the marble and the three cabinet finishes were a bit of a ledge, maybe mixing metals -- no regrets. We didn't name our kitchen, but we had in mind a couple of things -- an old bakery or ice cream parlor and kind of the gentrified plantation/ranch style of the rest of our home. I also kept saying I wanted a workhorse, not a showplace. It needed to be almost understated and yet, at the same time, go big or go home. Probably doesn't make any sense, but no sissy stuff here. The sparkly bridge faucet, chandelier over the island -- beautiful, but didn't fit here.

Thanks Ranton and Christina. The stucco repair is somewhat less of an issue since its on a side of the house that no one would really see so that would not need to be perfect. At a minimum raising the existing window will create this work. My short term goal is to end up with three different plans and compare the pros and cons between them; counter space, cabinet volume, function and cost. Lisa - I see great benefit to moving that exterior door I would just need to consider the cost aspect. As far as the large window, that would be great, but I do not have an attractive view on that side of the house. I essentially look at my neighbors house and driveway which is very narrow. Pic shows my neighbors driveway on the left, my kitchen window looks over their driveway and their own kitchen window. Very narrow and not a great view. This was my thought on walling up the window since I have no real view, but natural light and fresh air is also important.

For an island that size, I would make it one level instead of two level. I LOVE the big open counter space I have on my peninsula which is a similar size as your island, although a bit longer. If you could make the island a tiny bit wider than 3 feet, you would just have room for 2 small size barstools on each side of your island. Ideally, you need 24-28" or even 30" of width for each seated person. At a minimum, this needs to be about 21". I would not do a dining table with personal space this narrow, but you could prob get away with it at your island because there will only be 2 people on each side of the island, so one side is open space for each person. If it was 3 people, the person in the middle would be bumping elbows, lol. You may not even be planning to have stools at the island. Some people don't when there is a table right next to it. I'm one that still wants stools at the island/peninsula bar. In fact, I just went the other night to see a house my friend just bought. Her island did not have overhang for stools and we BOTH remarked on wishing it had, even though it is an eat-in kitchen. For resale I wouldn't be happy if it didn't have island stool seating. Plus with kids your age, it prob won't be long before you have spouses and grandkids so you will need all the extra seating you can get !! With that plan your fridge definitely needs to be counter depth. They are quite a bit more expensive. If you can recess the fridge into the hallway behind it, you can have the look of counter depth without the expense. I am assuming that the microwave will be in the upper cabinets between the fridge and pantry, or either built in under the counter there. Unless you plan it to be over the stove ? Shhhhh ... don't say that out loud around here, hahaha. The GW folks talked me into a hood above my stove. I had always lived in houses with the MW built in above the stove. I don't think you can steal from the dining space. What you have now looks to be only about 9'7". Our house has a similar width, and we had to be sure to choose a dining table that was only 36" wide to allow room for the chairs and maneuvering behind the chairs. The size of the dining room on your plan leaves little room for barstools to be used at the counter at the same time as the table. Our dining does not back up to a bar. It's not ideal, but it works. Your dining area needs to steal some room from somewhere not vice versa !! Here are dining table clearance rules ... Allow 24" for a seated dinner with no obstruction (wall, furniture, etc) behind. Allow 32" from table edge to wall for a seated diner with no traffic passing behind diner. If traffic passes behind a seated diner between the table and an obstruction, allow minimum 36" to allow someone to slide behind / edge past a seated diner, or minimum 42-44" to allow traffic to walk behind a seated diner. And allow 60" for a wheelchair to pass. To allow for a dining table right next to an island with barstools, add approx 18", assuming a fairly modest sized barstool. So ... you would need minimum 42 + 18 = 60" between the edge of the dining table and the island counter edge to allow traffic in between. Understand, these are minimums, more would feel more spacious. Doing the math ... If your room is 9'7", you have 115" minus 60" on the island side minus 24" on the living room side (no obstruction behind) = your dining table can only be 31" wide. It may not be easy to find a table you like with this width. The length of your room is 14 ft, but it has a door opening on each end. Instead of the 42" minimum, you really should go with 48" minimum on each end. This would allow for a 6 foot long table.

Yes, I too don't like this shade of gray. The cabinets are white though, not gray. You suggest just white walls? I will post more pictures tomorrow when I can get more. But for now, here are some pics of the space before the counters were installed. Is it ok to not have a big backsplash? Just keep that border? Not sure about sink water and then cooking without a bigger backsplash. This is 3.5 inches. I'm thinking I don't like the little border piece though that is all the way to the right under the window. Thinking to removing just that piece there. (in the picture of the original post.) Video of kitchen attached! First pic is same pic I posted but without counter... Second pic is that same side of the kitchen, but you can see fridge more clearly. Third pic is the other side of the kitchen you didn't see yet. You gotta imagine a built in gas stove top, built in electric oven and a chimney cooker hood in that place between the upper cabinets. and of course, the black counters in.