This latest, new plan isn't bad at all, but I think the old hutch is prettier. I agree with Sweeby on the overthinking thing, specifically about the part where you're wondering about foci and symmetry. Let's leave the analytic geometry in the schoolroom. ;) What you're saying about things to focus on is that your kitchen is going to be so stinkin' gorgeous that everywhere someone looks will be a beautiful prospect? Try opening a thread on that problem and see if you get any sympathy. (Sorry, couldn't help teasing... I do know what you mean, but in a space where people really do face in all kinds of different directions it's a non-issue.) As to the symmetry, the enforced assymetry of the large, different color hutch and the narrow white toasterish thing helps to offset the enforced symmetry you have elsewhere and make the space more organic and less mathematical. (Well, organic is really mathematical too, Fibonacci style, but I'm not about to start doing numerology on your hutches...) Re how much stuff you have: There's one of those corollaries to Murphy's Law that says, "The amount of stuff to be stored automatically expands to fill the space available in which to store it." Or else things get spaced out farther. My friends are always amazed at how much more I can fit neatly onto their shelves than they. Sometimes you have space and make beautiful arrangements. Sometimes you just get it all put away. ;) Re the overhugeness of the hutch. Toddlers. Toddlers inevitably become taller. They sometimes become very tall indeed. Perhaps when they're all at least moderately tall, like my mother did when we grew, you'll get "good" kitchen dishes. That you want to put in the hutch. Or you'll put the old, yucky ones in the hutch for your tall not-toddlers and their taller friends. Drawer storage is great for some people for dishes. For me it's a bit low, and I'm not even all that tall! My dishes are going up. So while you might not imagine it now, think about the ravenous hordes that will be blowing through your house in another ten years. When they've all left home, and you don't want to reach up for any daily use stuff, think about all the hand print dishes, my favorite grandma mugs, and lumpy first tries on a potting wheel that your kids and grandkids will bestow upon you, and which you'll want to see, but not necessarily in your front room, and that will make you happy but might not make you want to use them. Yep. If you really want the skinny hutch because of your love of skinny hutches, go for it. But I think your kitchen likes the big contrasting hutch.

Fern, Celtic, and Glad, thank you for the additional feedback. Glad, thank you for liking in the old thread. I completely missed it both the first time and in a search before starting this thread. Fern, my drawings show two, too. I'm thinking it's just the design software. Why would they put two separate panels in a 25" cupboard? Hardware will happen! DH votes for one pull in the middle, because of Soaped Up Digit Syndrome (SUDS). Glad, I think I'll order an extra pull and knob, too. I'd much rather have back-ups for down the road, or have to return extras, than have one be defective or destroyed (or have miscalculated) and not be able to get everything done as quickly as possible. Ordering the hardware as soon as I hear back from the company about a finish question... tomorrow, I hope. Whee!

First- thanks for all the ideas. Second- yes, I will paint that receptacle. The others in the house look fine but I agree that it will look bad with anything I end up putting on the cabinet. Boopadaboo- the floor is slate that I got at home depot. I got really lucky because it already came with a touch of sealant so when grouting the excess just wiped off. The divider strip is part slate and part glass tiles. The grout is a mocha taupe color but looks pretty light in the pic now that I look at it. It is much darker in person. We had to do a transition in the pattern because of a funny turn the hall makes. I hated it at first but it was the lesser of the evils and now we love it. Every guest comments on how pretty the strip is. I layed every piece, well, dh did about 10 tiles in the laundryroom then gave up. It took a long time doing little by little as each piece had to be hand layed due to varying thickness of the tiles. homeseller2010- the paint is from the Biltmore Estates paint collection at Lowes. It is Olympic paint's Mountain Trail BC-39. It is not pink, not green, looks like my morning coffee with cream in it. susanwrites- the cabinet is a Pulaski we picked up at RCWilley. The tan/gold color in the panels is all crinkled and there is a faint handpainted flower on the doors. The pic does not show it well but it is not straight but actually three curves. It is about 5'x12" which is perfect for a busy hall. Have no idea what I am going to store in it. I think candlesticks, extra votives and seasonal decorations and such. We first saw it at a wholesale furniture shop and admired it there a few months ago. Then we went to RCWilley to get our sofas. There was a huge painting above this cabinet and we ended up purchasing the painting. While pondering the painting, dh started loving the cabinet. He told me this was the chance to get it, now or never. (See he agreed to finally furnish the formal livingroom on the condition that we do everything from sofas to lights to accessories all at once or he would not do it). After seeing the Pulaski tag and looking at the piece more closely I realized this was a good choice. It is much more ornate than my other furniture but it really fits well where we put it and literally everyone who enters comments on it. Someone has a post about having different wood tones and such in the same house. This is a perfect example of how you can mix things if you follow your heart. Everyone- I will surely post my final pics. I am back to work now so my shopping time is limited. I think I am going to get a large, dark mirror of some sort. The basket thing has been moved, was not lovin it on the cabinet. Right now I have my nativity set placed in the middle. I am thinking of some sort of plant or arrangement for the middle or on the right side. DH really wants to keep the lamp there. Will have to see how it works with the mirror I end up with.

Lovely kitchen in the making but that light fixture for over the table is just too too much. Will you need pendants over the island?