I can see doing a wider french doored (or pocket french doored) opening to the left to increase the accessibility of the kitchen to the rest of the house, but PLEASE do not make the mistake of "opening up all the walls" in this home! Part of any older home's charm is the distinct closed off rooms that are cozy discoveries. If you do the fireplace "keeping area" in the lower ceilinged part, that will be the most highly sought after gathering spot in the house and you won't want or need to "open it up" to any other room. It will be a destination area. A retreat. As far as layout, it's a no brainer than the sink can go along the right where the tall windows are currently located and the range and fridge can go on the opposite wall. I like the idea of a farm table in the middle, but my back does not if you would use it as a prep area! I would need a 24"x36" prep area that was at least 36"-38" tall. Now, if the farm table were to be T'd off of that prep area, that would be the best of both worlds. That prep area could be a chunky created butcher block, or other antique cabinet. Good luck shopping! I think that's more than half of the fun of an unfitted kitchen.

Leslie- I really like the room! That corner banquette is charming : ) Jeanette- Think about how you want to use the spaces. So family room has no TV...is it for conversation, playing games, enjoying view outside? Do you have a lot of people over to entertain or just immediate family? The way Leslie has decorated the room above, the banquette could be for meals, kids' snacks, playing games, having tea....a lot of things. It's a nice use of space and includes those activities with the seating area. But other people might want a larger dining table behind the sofa (off the kitchen) and a large chair and ottoman in that corner, for reading books. So how do you plan to use your space?

We installed these 4" x 10" tiles ourselves, and changed from a 1/2 offset to 1/3 at the last minute. I was not confident in my ability to get the offset perfect, so I thought the ~3" offset would help disguise layout imperfections. Our range backsplash is similar in appearance to the photo above. I prefer the randomness, as no layout was going to allow perfect symmetry there, while not causing slivers elsewhere. Sometimes you just have to work with the wall space :) Edit: the backsplash/counter joint has since been caulked, and the walls painted BM Stonington Gray

@mama goose_gw zn6OH - that wasn't what I thought about, but it is an interesting idea too, although I still think I need a larger kitchen. My current is sort of a G-shape that is 12 ft wide by 17' and uses a peninsula as it has 2 full walls and a short wall. It always bugs me that I don't have enough lower storage and it has a lot more upper storage than I would have with only the 9ft. I currently have just one dishwasher and am so tired of seeing the stuff waiting on the counter for it to complete its very long cycle over more than 2 hrs so not sure I want to give up the second dishwasher to get more lower storage either and this kitchen would be more open than our current kitchen is so even more of a view of the dirty dishes waiting on the DW to finish and be unloaded. Using your squared view and just copy and paste here's the thought on the oven, however I didn't add the extra 3' to make it 12' instead of 9'. Also another thought of putting the cooktop on the exterior wall. It would be much easier to vent that way or I think we may have to have a soffit to vent as right above is the second floor and it would come out in the middle of a room upstairs, or we have to run it between the joists to a point where we can vent it through the roof.