Cherry really does darken signifiacntly over time. Some of the newer finishes can slow the process by absorbing the UV that is required to create the reactions for the darkening. The deep wine red can occur relatively quickly in shellac (often franch polished) finishes, slightly longer under nitrocweullose lacquer, and who knows how long under polyurethane (solvent or water based). In any case, signifiacnt direct sun exposure is required. Most cherry darkens slightly after only a few weeks in the sun without a finish. I can easily get the color desired, but make no warranty that it is not fugitive under sunlight. It is possible to stain sapwood to match hardwood, and I do it occasionally when I need large section wood and my normal wide lumber sources cannot meet the need (24 to 30 inch planks). When carefully done you can only tell by stripping the finish.

The range top would go in the general vicinity of the proposed sink. You can play with your drawer base widths to make sure that you have adequate space on either side of the range for prep and a landing area. When cooking, we want to go to the fridge for produce/proteins, the sink to wash anything that needs it, then prep between the sink and range. It's nicer for the cook to have an efficient path when preparing meals. Whether you move in straight line down the countertop or have a triangle, ICE-WATER-STONE-FIRE is a GW goal in kitchen design. If you can achieve it, the kitchen is working FOR you instead of you working around the kitchen's flow limitations ;) TKOs don't like barriers to work flow traffic or backtracking. Your compromise is that the range top isn't in the center as a focal point, which I believe is the purpose of it's placement. My new kitchen has the work area along one wall, similar to yours. It's not as step saving as a triangle can be but, like you, I have limited wall space. Fridge is on a short wall perpendicular to the pantry/work path. I have pantry, counter, sink, counter, cooktop, counter, wall ovens. The wall opposite is where dishwashers, cleanup sink, and silverware/dish storage will be. If running plumbing to the island for a prep sink isn't possible, I'd like fridge, counter with dishwasher underneath, sink, counter, cooktop, counter. You're going in one direction and the d/w isn't in the prep area. If you have a sink in the island, keeping the range top in the center makes sense for work flow.

You have hardwood up against the kitchen floor. If you are NOT refinishing the hardwoods TODAY...then pick another type of floor for the kitchen. These old homes often have a mishmash of flooring. Why? Because owners did 'room by room' renovations. They did a patch-work of flooring because they didn't do EVERYTHING all at once. Adding in hardwoods TODAY means that you will pay to have all the floors (including the newly installed kitchen hardwoods) refinished tomorrow. Yep. You will 'double pay' to have the kitchen floors refinished. So...that's why you do your 'flooring refurbish' all at once. Which for me means the kitchen floor gets done at a later date. Go ahead and spend money on the kitchen counters/backslash and lighting and then stop the kitchen renovation. Wait to change out the flooring until you do ALL the hardwoods. Save your money and do all the floors all at once. If you choose to put in a different floor in the kitchen today, you will simply be adding to the mishmash of flooring that has occurred for the last 100 years. I also recommend a 7 year renovation 'plan'. That's when you take a couple of weeks (yep...weeks) to sit down and think about how you want the FINAL look of the home to be. Put together a story board (photos, colours, etc) with all of your choices. Now that you have a FINISHED plan, you gather together all of your paint chips, colour samples, tile chips, stone samples, etc. You put them in a basket/box in the back of your car (with your story board) and drive go about your business. If you find a "great deal" at a store, simply pull out the story board to see if the great deal fits with your design vision. If it does, purchase it and store it until you get to that part of the renovation. This is the best way to do a room-by room renovation of a whole home. And to be clear, floors are done last.

We are refinishing our shaker cabinets in a small lower level kitchen area. We'll be leaving the cabinet handles under the sink where they were (vertical placement), but we're adding this edge pull handle to the right side (garbage pull out), on the top edge of the door: Amazon.com: Richelieu Hardware BP989819230 Lincoln Collection 7 9/16-in (192 mm) Center, Contemporary Edge Pull, White : Everything Else