Grandma, do you mean take down the high shelf and hang the banner up where it was? If I hung it about a foot from the 10ft ceiling it would still terminate with about a foot behind the headboard...is that what you mean? I am not sure I would do that....The shelf is not something we put up, it is not easily removed, and would require extensive drywall repair, etc. I don't love shelves like that generally, but it is the same weight and profile as the 12" of crown moulding and looks very integral. I have blue and white porcelain displayed there that would have no other home. I have thought about using the small round table next to the chair, will try that. As to the plates, there are currently 16 displayed in the room now, but i have many more and could make an entire wall behind the bed with them. I am not sure the plates and the banner would make the right kind of grouping on a wall as they seem mutually exclusive in terms of content. I guess, having just read that, I should either keep the plates and forget about the banner or buy the banner and pack the plates away.

I have a 36" aisle between my rangetop and island and find it plenty roomy... Grown-sized children and 2 big dogs... we all fit. But you have to figure in the possibility of pulling out the fridge to clean under or replace/repair. I see that your work zones may be delineated, but you have crossing traffic patterns. I'm not sure where you'll prep, thinking of the usual fridge to sink-&-prep to stove path. While you're walking that path, also, you're crossing the clean-up zone. Depending on how you want to work with your family, I'd map out task paths to see how they work, and to make sure you won't be walking all over each other or having collisions. I'm not sure if you want this sort of advice, so ignore me if it's out of line. I'd like to see the stove on the side of the kitchen with the fridge, probably next to the lazy susan, creating a work area with the island and prep sink. Then keep the cleanup zone off on its own on the right with the sink possibly next to another lazy susan on that other corner where the stove is now.

Thanks, D-ro, enduring, Francoise, and Herb. I am happy with this. I appreciate your comments. I forgot to mention that, as part of the decision process, I constructed fake "uppers" from cardboard boxes, and hung them on the walls. I also used tables and sawhorses to simulate countertops. I could then swap upper locations around easily, going back and forth between the layouts posted, say, on Wed, Sep 28, 11 at 19:40 and Thu, Sep 29, 11 at 13:38. This made it easy to sort out issues like possible crowding of the big window, the overall airiness of the kitchen, lights in the sink area, and the difficulty of reaching above the shoulders into the upper cabs with a laden soup bowl. Therefore, I am more confident in this arrangement than I was when only relying on Sketchup. Francoise, you are so right about how hard MW placement is. After this struggle, I have concluded that chest-high is the only really good placement; this either means in the middle of a tall cab (like CluelessinCo) or hanging below un upper (like someone posted recently... Dianalo? remodelFLA?). I didn't want to give up the pantry to do the former or effectively give up the counterspace to do the latter, so the drawer was the next-best alternative. Funny that I never really understood that about MWs before.

@Yardvaark. Thank you. I never even thought of arranging the trees like this. I think this will be beautiful. I'd have to transplant the Japanese maple, and maybe one of my burning bushes. I cannot make the front (left of the bed any wider due to the fence gate, but I am going to widen the straight stretch to 6 feet and I am going to extend the flower bed so it curves around the garden shed. The front of the bed is large enough that If I remove the maple I'll be able to arrange Serviceberry as shown in your drawing.