I agree with the idea of making a swath of grass/path following your existing shapes, and gardening the rest of the space. I also agree with a brick or stone edging. Both those things worked very well for me. I don't have a sidewalk on the outer edge; my constraint is a deep ditch, which forms the outer limit of the garden space. I like the relatively straight line it makes as the edge. You don't have to do it all at once - start with Yard Advisor's corner bed. Get that set up and planted and keep thinking about the rest. Over the following year - or two or three..., you can gradually extend the corner bed towards the house bed, and along the sidewalk. If you do it gradually, it won't feel like such a big change/lot of work but rather like a natural evolution for the space. That's the way I did mine. Initially, I created a big bed in front and a narrow one along the driveway. A couple of years later, a small one was added behind the driveway border where the driveway curves plus another small bed was added in the N&E corner of the property. After a couple of years it was clear that all of those needed to be made more coherent and connected. So I measured a consistent distance from the edge of the main, large bed to eastablish the ribbon of grassy path that ties it all together. The ditch limited the outer ('moat') bed to a very narrow shape but the brick edge gives it more definition and it all works quite well I think. I think something similar would work well for you as shown in Yard Advisors drawing. Here is a link that might be useful:

Have you considered doors for at least some of the cabinets? I worry about the visual clutter of having everything sitting out there, especially when kids are doing much of the putting-away. I'm less worried about the crowded feeling by the door than many of the others, but I also live in a smallish house where space by the doors is at a premium. I thought you might find these photos helpful. They're of a small cabinet by our back door. The door is hemmed in by a wall on one side and this cabinet to the other. The cabinet is about 7.25 inches deep from the front of the doors to the back of the cabinet that runs into the dishwasher, providing an interior space that's about 5.25 inches deep. We live not far from you and share your weather, and this tiny cupboard is a lifesaver because it provides a space for wet shoes, bird seed, and assorted other things we use outside.You have a significantly deeper space, so it will be even more functional. It also doesn't feel claustrophobic or too tight to us, and the small loss of space by the door is far outweighed by not having things pile up on the counter and floor there! Here's the doorway with cabinet: Here's the interior, showing how shallow it is, but how much stuff we store there. It regularly gets crammed with much more stuff (all the more reason to have doors!), but I'd just cleaned it out when I snapped this photo. Please ignore the cardboard dividers in the cabinet--I didn't want to have permanent dividers put in, and I've been playing around with spacing before buying or making something for the space. As for the bench issue, I think that its utility may somewhat depend on if you're shoes-off or shoes-on people. If you leave shoes by the door, then it's helpful to have a place for the kids to sit down to put them on. I think you'll love having some sort of built-in cabinet there. It will make that space much more functional.

oh man Renee - yes welcome to the north! lol! I have more coats than my kids but I have work coats, and walking/running coats of varying weights, windjackets, snowblowing coat (old), lighter weight fleece coat, etc. I use them all weekly with the crazy weather around here and the different activities I do. Summertime which is a very short 3 months - it's a lot less congested but still more than one jacket with the weather swings. cevamal-I agree on double or triple hooks. I hate having to unload the hook to get to the coat on the bottom and I'm the Mom. My kids would just let it fall on the bench... We also have a place for our boot dryer to plug in and on any given day there are gloves sitting on the vent to dry out. I also like a side mudroom/closet because of all of the wet that melt off produces. We don't wear shoes in the house and when I walk down that hall I do not want to be walking in puddled water. The mudroom off of the hall solves that issue as well. The backpacks make their home in the mudroom, lunchboxes live there over the weekends and breaks or hot lunch days (so you are right they unload in the kitchen and stay their for re-packing for the next day). They take their binders out when they need to do homework. I do not want the backpacks sitting in the kitchen where I have to work around them. Homework is often done at island counter but whether it's the binder of the whole pack, back to the mudroom it goes when they are finished. It's all right in one spot when we are trying to get out the door in the morning. But that's just how we do it. I was tired of the kitchen clutter so when we built and incorporated a mudroom it all resides there where I don't have to step over and around it or work over and around it. But now instead of papers my kitchen counters hold electronic devices - go figure!

Your inspiration photos seem to solve your needs. A long bench, with drawer or basket storage below and a double hook (possible a shelf) beneath each window, would give you a lot of storage. You may even have room to add a tall, pull out cabinet at each end or you could modify the closet to have a pull out as well as hanging area. You could add ceiling height, deep cabinets over your washer and dryer and a countertop for folding. If you must have a hamper, as in your pictures, buy a decorative one and store it under your window. After that, just add a rug and it would look great.