Elizabeth, the floors have to go as they look better in photos. In person they scream cheap. It is cheap laminate. I will also have bare spots where the wall will be removed that I have to fix up. I was planning on putting some tile in the kitchen area but may just do hardwood throughout the whole house. I have also heard that the ikea cabinets hold up rather well but it seems that they use quite a bit of MDF with a foil over it. I personally would prefer a wood face as that sees quite a bit of abuse and potential liquid spills (I am just at the beginning with a 3 year old and 1.5 year old).

Warming the space with that charcoal island and cool looking flooring might call for some hot orange or yellow accessories on the shelves. I don't have a housekeeper, so anything that requires additional cleaning isn't my style, but wood would help warm things up. It must coordinate with your flooring though. Best to focus on canisters, small appliances for warmth. Red/orange Yellow Cool, but cool...

do you really like two living zones yet a dining table plopped in the middle of everything...hard to feel segregated and have a quiet dining experience if entertaining or the like...... and fridge adjacent to a "living room" or supposed living room? seems a lot of give away . maybe remove the wall if you want but leave the dining zone where it is. Smaller homes necessarily have to work with one seated eating area and they do their best to use a corner or end of a room so to create a distinct spot. but w your available sq footage I dont get why the dining table has to sit like that . Anyone viewing this home with this sq foot space overall I think would expect a different dining set up. SHOWN: dining zone at end of living room spaces generally.....and any adjacent kitchen wall widening or partial removal would keep the dining zone as a somewhat nicely segregated area.

jktop I LOVE your set up for hosting! Oh my gosh, I feel like we live in the same house! Behind my hood vent wall is our music room and formal dining where we have a very nerdy Christmas caroling party each year and host holidays. I can't show my dining table bc it's covered in all my daughters clothes bc we're painting upstairs. We have 3 4-tops that we spread out bistro-style when we host. My problem is where to put all the extra chairs when we're not using them! I LIKE the separation of the formal areas from the casual areas. Our formals aren't very formal anyway, but they are a different color pallet, so I like them separated. And also, for everyday meals we eat at the farm table in the kitchen, and I don't really care if there's some mess in the kitchen. But for hosting, I don't want my guests to have to see the mess in the kitchen while eating. The farm table becomes a 10-top kids' table and the formal room can seat 20 when we set up all the extra 4-tops. If more kids show up, they end up on the floor around the coffee table. About the island, ours is 4' x 8' and I think it would be hard to clean if it were wider. Make sure your designer is working in the proper clearances between things, like from edge of island counter to edge of perimeter counter and so forth. Are you considering drawers instead of cabinets, or at least some drawers? I find them to be really functional. There's an awesome thread on here about drawers vs cabinets but I can't remember the title of the thread. I have all drawers, except for under sink plus one more under my glass uppers to store really wide things like the turkey platter and chafing dishes.