Lavender, WOW... your plan looks amazing! I am still deciding on what to put into the kitchen. I have always been drawn to clean lines but with warmth - I want the space to have some rusticity to it as well. I am hoping when we gut it that we will find the brick in good enough condition to keep it exposed. Another GW posted this picture and I just LOVE these floors. I had not considered porcelein/ceramic/stone floors because I really like the idea of something bullet proof (such as vinyl), but I dragged home a lot of samples for DH to look at and he is not thrilled about the idea of putting so much into the kitchen and then using vinyl on the floors. He loves this inspiration pic of the floors too so this is our new direction: This is what I am considering for the main kitchen for cabinetry - It would be a cove inset where the frame is 5/4 and the doors are 4/4 so the doors/drawers are recessed in - I will have the cabinets combined wherever possible so that there won't be any seams. I will also eliminate the rails between doors and drawers so that I can have extra space inside the cabinets - in other words, there will be a frame on the outside of the doors and drawers but no frame between them. The wood is called cerused oak, also known as limed oak... I saw a sample of it and fell for it (DH did too). It has sort of a worn old french look to it but also what I would consider an understated elegance. For the butler's pantry, I am thinking of something painted that will pick up on what happens in the kitchen. If I have any glass door cabinets in the kitchen, I will have the interiors of the cabinets painted with the same color as the butler's pantry cabinets. Ignore, the doorstyle, but I like this color that the cabinet company offers - it is called farm fresh: I want the butler's pantry to be a transition from the kitchen to the rest of the house. So the butler's pantry will be just a little bit more dressy than the kitchen. The kitchen will have what I would consider a "pro style" look to it but warm, homey, clean lines. I think what will tie the two spaces together will be doorstyle, flooring, and countertops. The floors in the rest of the house are a honey oak (which is not my favorite so I don't want to bring that in at all -- this is why I think painted cabinets in the butler's pantry will ease the transition of the honey oak floors in the rest of the house and the cerused oak cabinets in the kitchen). For the peninsula I am considering frameless cabinetry in a different doorstyle and having panels on the side and back of the cabinet that match this doorstyle but in the same cerused oak finish as on the other cabinet. Here is the doorstyle: I LOVE the arctic pear light fixture by Ochre but I highly doubt I can afford it, but I would like something decorative along these lines somewhere in either the kitchen, over the peninsula, over the sink in the butler's pantry or over the dining room table. It comes in several different sizes - obviously i wouldn't need anything as big as this but either way not sure it will make a difference as it is likely out of the budget My dining room looks like this... it is just on the other side of the butler's pantry and I am working toward having a cohesion between all the rooms - I like a lot of color - just love my orange chairs (they are from the 1940's and I recently had them reupholstered). I will paint the upper part of the dining room walls but will wait until after the kitchen is done so that I can tie in colors, etc. I am sure I have totally bored you by now, but thanks for looking!!

Thanks for responding!! Yes, it's going to be on a half wall. And it's really just going to be a quick snack/homework area/serving buffet spot. I just couldn't put my finger on what I hated about this "dead" area of the kitchen--and had one of those "eureka" moments one day about opening it up a little bit--not really changing the integrity of the house and still keeping separate rooms, but giving the kitchen a little more access to the living space. I'm sure it will need a header and a few finishing touches, but nothing that my husband and FIL can't do. Just trying to keep the project cheap at this point, since we spent our little nest egg on the kitchen/bath reno. And I know all about the "patina" of marble--I have to go take a look at this marble and see if it's what I'm looking for. It's used, so I'm sure there might be some stains/marks on it--but I don't mind since it would go with the rest of this old farmhouse. For some reason, used marble holds more charm to me--maybe because I won't have to worry so much about being the one to etch/stain it the first time!! :) Sarah

Here's ours, which still is not used as a desk, although we're getting closer now that the construction tools aren't here as much. I never thought it should be desk height, but DH did and he won. We have the swiveling t.v. over it so if HE wanted to, he could look at it from chair I think. We still have to decide on an appropriate chair. Currently we have a wastebasket and dog bowls under it. Cute, yes? Items jump from that lower surface to the upper one constantly. I had hoped that it would be a barrier, but it's not. In my thinking, we might as well have had entire surface flat. Cork board between cabinet and desk is now used less decoratively. It's a working message center. That's where calendar hangs, thank-you notes and such are posted and oddball coupons get put. Although there's a "pencil drawer" we keep a pencil mug on the desk. Cabinet above desk is 16 inches deep--allows notebooks for financial statements, phone books, etc. Top shelf is unrelated storage of party gear. A permanently mounted power strip at front of bottom shelf of this cab allows DH to put chargers in here and let cord dangle down so that the device is seen and not forgotten once it is charged. He can turn off power to all chargers with one switch. Lobby is to left of desk. I'm trying to put "things going elsewhere" into the shelves in the closet in lobby instead of on desk--lib. books, stuff for Mom's sr. residence, things going to friends, etc. Otherwise, they accumulate on desk. But that's fine with me--better there than in the rest of the kitchen where they used to cluster, esp on top of refrig. because that was by front door. Because the peninsula is right there next to the desk, I would rather spread out on that to do any work with pencil and paper, but then, I'm a person who needs special glasses to focus on arm's length stuff, so I suppose that little desk just looks like too much work--easier to stand and write at peninsula with my multifocus lenses and squint. I clear pencils and paper and calendar and address book off the peninsula at least twice a day and plunk them back on HIS desk. Computer will never be used at desk, I'm sure. (It moves between peninsula and dining table all the time.) Telephone holder lives on desk, at least for now. I'm hoping to get it wired into a place on wall closer to dining room, but until then, it's here. This cordless phone is another thing that hides throughout the kitchen and has to be put away on desk when I spy it. One benefit of this space: For parties, we can clean off the desk and bulletin board, put up a sign or something decorative like this framed piece, then put beverages here. Keeps traffic out of kitchen. Remember--this is Formica, so it's not going to mind.

I'm not sure I understanding the question...If you are worried about the depth changing from 2' at the lower cabinets, to 3' at the peninsula- don't be. You will purchase your countertop material in slabs that will be large enough to accommodate. I would NOT have a raised bar. Keep it all at the same level.