And don't think that the better part of wisdom is the only way to do it either! Mine aren't painted because when I saw the plywood I decided it was too pretty to paint (how to make a cabinet maker happy? Love wood!). They are also floor to ceiling because I don't really have a laundry room. It's a laundry walk-in closet off the kitchen (that's the doorjam on the far left). No one's idea of a workspace. I take the towels to the LR sofa for folding and everything else straight upstairs. You asked for pictures, and I forgot I had one. On the cabinet side of the previous version of the same room was about a foot of open space with a small, wall hung cabinet from Home Depot or something. The other side of that wall was a pretty useless walk-in pantry. I turned that inside out, so have Butler's pantry storage in the passage to the dining room, a big, double pantry in the kitchen, and these cupboards in the laundy. There's a cupboard over the dryer (to the right, outside of the picture) for actual laundry supplies. The washer goes right next to the sink.

mama_goose - Thanks so much for the suggestion! If we could afford custom doors with glass for the pantry, I think it would need to be safety glass (since we have a little one), but - I will keep your suggestion in mind for future cabinet projects! Thanks! blfenton - Thank you for your reply! I put a 12" deep piece of furniture there last night, and it does feel a bit cramped. I think we're going to need to go with something smaller, if anything. lavender - I don't think that we can exchange our doors anymore since too much time has passed. But - I am definitely going to keep the glass with shirred fabric idea in mind for future projects. (I hope to one day replace the Ikea doors with more traditionally styled wood Shaker doors, and swap out the countertops for soapstone or granite.) Thanks again for your wonderful ideas! They are giving me so much to look forward to. :) taggie - Thank you for your reply and kind compliment! After living with a 12" piece of furniture there, I think 9" is the max that I want to go for the pantry so it doesn't feel so claustrophobic. DH has plans to put an end panel on the side that opens to the kitchen - but, it is a plain, flat panel - not shaker style. Hopefully it won't look too bad... marcolo - Thanks for your reply! We won't make it flush to the wall. Bellsmom - Thanks so much for the mockup! I'm afraid that DH isn't up for such a big undertaking though. It looks like we're 1eaning toward the 9" deep pantry the whole way across. But, thank you again for your thoughtful suggestion and mockup! dianalo - Thanks for your reply! Option B and sticking with the simple doors now (with perhaps some glass doors in the future), is the direction we are leaning. bmorepanic - Thank you for your thoughtful reply! I'm concerned about 21" wide doors opening into the space too. The only way around it would be to use 3 12" wide doors and lose 6" of space. In order to line up with the fridge cabinets, the max amount of space that we have to work with is 42". I wish it was 45", since then we could have done 3 15" doors. Sigh. DH isn't willing to lose the 6" of space. If the 21" doors become a huge issue, we could always change it up down the line. Also, I think we're going to stick with a 9" depth all the way across. DH will have to cut wall cabinets down in size. As for dining room usage - that is yet to be seen. We're not using it yet as it's still under construction (and was DH's workshop in the winter). It does have another opening that is much larger, from the foyer. I think biggest problem will be congestion with people using the garage entrance. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Another mini update - After trying out a 12" deep piece of furniture where the pantry will go - we're going to aim for a 9" depth. It will let the space breathe a bit more, and should allow for 7.5" wide shelves once the full overlay doors and fridge end panel are taken into consideration. The plan is for the pantry to house seldomly used things - like duplicates of food items, cans of soup and veggies, that type of thing. We don't want it to be a place where people linger or use frequently (to avoid traffic jams). Cereal and snacks will go to the right of the fridge (nice and out of the way of people using the sink and stove) - and frequently used cooking supplies will go in the cabinetry by the stove. The doors will stay simple for now - with the hope of adding some glass in the future. Thank you taggie and marcolo for the warning about bringing the cabinetry flush to the wall. I'm embarrassed to admit that we DID in fact make this amateur mistake in other areas of our kitchen (it was either that, or we would of had to lose 6" of cabinetry or do major construction to the wall). DH is comfortable with it flush; he believes in function over form, and the doorway openings are straight (he said that if the walls weren't straight, he would have stopped the cabinetry a few inches from the wall). Being a perfectionist, I'm bummed that we made such a rookie mistake, but I'm going to have to let it go. Thank you all, again!!!

Thank you all SO very much for your thoughtful comments and time. I will post some layout pictures here (just met with our Kitchen Designer yesterday again.) We are going on Year 5 of living here this fall, and I have given constant thought as to the space & use since we have moved it. We have had a project going 100% of the time since we moved in due to the original state of the house. Now it's time to upgrade vs "fix". We are overdue! I've toyed around with ALL ideas (removing walls, extending the bar/not pictured-discussed, etc). For the most part, we like the layout and decided the pantry/2nd Kitchen are functional as is, although I love ideas, thank you all for your thoughtfulness. To answer other comments, I don't need 2 Kitchens + Butler Pantry. But that is the existing layout and it's easier to leave as-is than remove any of these large walls or areas, and I do use the space. I don't need 10K sq ft of house either, but it's what we have. (FYI it was a foreclosure we got for $360K on 25 Acres in Rural Indiana; about $100K put in initially to make liveable, and now we are just slowly chipping away at projects). I am going to reuse a lot of these cabinets in a basement storage room & garage. I hate to get rid of them! The Corian should hold up well in the transition too I think. Here is a picture from standing at the Main Island, looking OUT to the rest of the eat-in kitchen. We'll be adding a furniture-style cabinet piece where the additional cabinets are on the left. This bulkhead we may remove. They are big aren't they..? I have no clue what the $-tag would be to remove all of them (this one cheap likely.) I'll get a quote out of curiosity. My gut feeling just says it will be $$..... Just through that hallway to the left is where the 2nd Kitchen & Butlers Pantry are. I can't wait to get rid of this ugly dark red color. Existing Kitchen. Proposed is moving the Fridge from where it is now (right picture, where proposed Wall Oven & MW are - across to other side). Adding 36" rangetop. I can't go much bigger given the space there and existing gas line. We'll be moving our existing GE Induction, Wall Oven, MW to the 2nd Kitchen so did decide to just do 1 Wall Oven + MW in the Main Kitchen. Thanks for your comments on that! You're all right - as we grow/change, we will need that in the kitchen for sure. I was torn on leaving the 48" Fridge in the Main Kitchen, but it helps me avoid re-doing cabinets in the next picture..... as I have a 48" slot with non-working Fridge. Having a 42" and 48" seems to be plenty, vs adding two 48"s. See below. Here is the before of 2nd Kitchen (Please Excuse the Mess - this was previously a child craft room/nanny area). We would paint these cabs and re-do the ugly hood. Existing Wall Oven + old MW would go in here too on the far left replacing that cabinet. And the other side. Little pocket glass door to the bar. Non working 48" SubZero. 2nd Dishwasher, 2nd Trash Compactor, and Sink. Everything in the existing MAIN kitchen will come into here which is nice. No appliance worked when we moved in but I wasn't ready for a full remodel then. But glad to not be wasteful with those purchases. I have always loved the cabinets/style despite being so wood-heavy, so we are just going to paint these to match the main kitchen, new countertops, new backsplash. PROPOSED: And the Butler/WD/Toilet Room. This is on the other side of the Main Kitchen (behind Range/Wall Oven Area). There is a single toilet behind that far wall. And the other side. Here I don't need a 3rd Dishwasher but am struggling to figure out what to do with that space. I could add another Wine Cooler but seems odd to have in the Laundry/Butler area when we have a Bar. Trash Compactor will become pull-out Trash Bin. Ideas for filling the DW space? Again this will be all painted cabs, countertops, backsplash. But see the big bulkhead in here too? I don't want to take that out. We have 6 Bathrooms to remodel in the near(ish) future. I have to be frugal in some areas if I want other areas to pop more. Layout for these 2 pictures: Comments/ideas/suggestions are all ultra welcome. I will put a separate post about some of our semi-final decisions to our next steps in the remodel and would love your criticism.

The toilet is strange (being wholly exposed from the side view) in it's original configuration, now it is the same but seen in the mirror, so if you can't rework it I would just add a pony wall to hide it. That is an assumption based on you won't be buying a $2400 toilet to be used as an art piece. The new beams is just be cognizant of the sizes, as you don't want to go deeper than an 11 7/8" or probably would not want to widen the Dining wall if you need a (2+) plies. As far as "at least," I'm not a big fan of enclosing the view and constricting the arrival point of the entry caused by the shifted Powder Room. Nor of the W/D being viewed directly across the house (pocket doors are usually left open most of the time because they are a hassle). Also, I'm not sure how big a Dining table you need, but you have 12'x9', and have created a circulation of 3' between the table (closer to 5'-6' actual clear) to get out the new swing door. Having that separate swing door and it's circulation reduces your Kitchen counter/cab space (as opposed to using a slider, which matches the Living slider, behind the table within the 12' room length). And your island probably doesn't need a prep sink, as it is a small kitchen and the main sink is right there. None of these are make it or break it things, the layout you show will do if you're fine with it.