Really great inputs from all of you. Thank you for taking your time reading and responding! There are some great ideas here, but unfortunately, we will not be able to make all the changes due to various reasons. For example, we will not change the framing of the windows because that will require extra permit (I think); We will not re-do the walls and the ceiling in the wood room so we preserve its historical look (and to keep the budget down); etc. But @kaismom, you gave me some idea for re-doing the kitchen. (Love it in SketchUp since it doesn't cost anything to tear stuff down!) I moved the fridge to behind the division wall and made it tall cabinets all across. I realize that this will make the galley kitchen look even narrower, but it got the fridge out of the way, and since this is a single cook kitchen, being a little narrow is not too big a problem (I have about 39" of clearance between the counter top edge to the other cabinet wall.) I also moved the dishwasher to the left size because now I could put a 33" drawer base by its side. Now, I have two 2-basket trash pullout (for trash and recyclables). Not sure if that's an overkill. The only non-drawer cabinet is there because the code require access to the propane shutoff which is hidden behind that cabinet. (We will not use propane but the pipe is already there.) However, I still face the choices what to do with the opening at the kitchen: leave it completely open, have a one tier open counter, or have a small breakfast bar. I personally like the look of the one tier counter, but I have no good aesthetic sense; hence I appreciate your input. Currently, I'm putting this IKEA VÄRDE drawer unit for the two non-open options. Either way (one level or bar), I have a 40" opening from the short wall to the other side of the opening. I wonder if that's too narrow for the kitchen installation. But with the hallway at 39" wide, and the opening at 40", I can't foresee any problem with getting the appliances and cabinets in. Hope someone can point it out if it will be a problem. Without further ado, let me take you on a tour in our newly remodeled house. Again, click on an image for its full size. Overview. North is up. Living room, seen from the wood room. Looking into living room standing at the front door. Same exact angle, but this time, we put in a bar (open counter or tiered) at the kitchen. You probably have to bring up the full size to see the difference. View from the couch. This picture explains why we choose dark cabinets in the wood room -- so that they do blend in. Now, what if we have a bar (open counter or tiered) at the kitchen? A look at the living room from the desk area. Okay, this series is important. which option would you vote for? Open? One level counter? Tiered breakfast bar? Here is a look into the galley kitchen. Three options again. The wood room.

Lavender Lass - Thanks for chiming in, at work no less. This cheap-o free and easy design software doesn't allow me to play with the hardware placement. The PLAN is to have long horizontal pulls across the uppers and lowers both. With small ones where they make sense. In fact, my top contender is the one shown with the green cabinets in the OP. And, yes, the doors will open the opposite directions at several key points than is shown in my renderings... To both LL and RoRO, and anyone else chiming in for that matter!, I had a big long post a while back about what to do with uppers with the backsplash window. That conversation convinced me to rethink the plan to bump up the cabinets or have glass cabinets on that wall to embrace the illusion of the backsplash window. I'm trying to make myself to not go backwards and do another circle on the issue. We'll see how that goes! We'll have somewhere between 17-20" between counter and upper cabinets and I'll go with a lower profile sink of some kind. I'm short so I don't want the uppers too high (plus we have short ceilings), but I totally get the point you are making. It's tricky to find the right answers for this BS window. For sure, whatever I do will have drawbacks and not please everyone... We put the BS window in when we were doing the outside for an energy audit program 2 years ago and had to guess at everything as we had no kitchen plans. Now I just have to make it work... Roho, thanks for the enthusiasm! I'm needing a little love right now! LOL Just to be clear, do you like the original layout or the revised options to include uppers on the range wall, minimize sink size, add more drawers, etc? Are you saying the counters stained or the sinks with the zero radius? I'm not sure I am understanding... For the fridge, I"m not sold on french doors- just the bottom freezer drawer. If I could find a 30-33" option that had the interior options we wanted in a CD, I'd go for it. Just haven't found it yet... We'll do some kind of paneling around the peninsula seating. Undecided about how that is going to end up looking, but it will look finished. We'll probably leave the wall part (bump out) drywall for now and consider various options down the road, including paneling or wallpaper or tile. We might look at something we can include into the hallway there. But, that's getting ahead of myself with finishes and materials and I have got to make myself stay on layout! LOL I'm glad to hear you liked your 12" pantries. Mine won't be in such a convenient place, but it's something! If we end up finding a place to put one of those neat ones tucked into drywall, it will probably end up much more narrow as the only place for it would be on the LR wall next to the peninsula and I don't want it interfering with the walkway/sense of feeling open. I should post some of my "during" pictures someday. It's been quite a journey so far! For pendants at the peninsula counter, all I want is something shiny to cast sparkley light. It won't work well for task lighting, so we'll have another row of can lights down the peninsula on the working side of the kitchen, I think. I just want 2-3 little mini-pendants in clear glass or crystal that won't really catch the eye much until they are on at night, acting more as accent lighting. The light I showed a pic of will be the drum pendant over the DR table area. I met with some lighting consultants this weekend, and also posted on GW's lighting forum. So, hopefully that is getting close to nailed down...

It shouldn't necessarily be possible from a couple feet away to tell whether a given board is veneered or solid. Edge banding is typically a disaster waiting to happen and should be avoided at all costs. MDF panels, if you go that way, can be edged with solid wood, a much more robust solution. With solid wood every board is different, and care and attention has to be paid to color and grain matching. (With factory-made cherry cabinets this is frequently, and glaringly not done, then the differences are badly disguised with stain). Plywood will typically be more uniform and free from sapwood. The style of door is the primary consideration. Frame and panel doors with raised panel have to be made from solid wood, Slab doors can be done either way. Frame and panel doors, if properly made from well seasoned wood almost never warp. Slab doors will be more prone to change shape with changes in humidity. Some pieces of plywood move more than solid in my experience, other less, and sadly I don't know how to predict which is which in advance. Veneer comes in a myriad of forms, either rotary cut or sliced, The sliced veneer can be laid up in random, repeating, or bookmatched patterns to achieve the look you want. A specialty plywood supplier will have all of these options available for a common veneer like cherry. A cabinet maker can also make shop-made veneer to exactly match solid wood parts, assuming he has the sequential boards cut from the same log to permit precise matching. There's no end to how crazy you can get if you're really fussy about color and grain in cherry!

As far as "styling" goes...I would treat it like a bar cart..I don't put pictures on my bar cart, but I would like to see a couple of pictures on the wall above the top shelf of yours...something like this.. Whatever the main color in the pictures is, carry that through with a small vase of the same color flowers... I do have flowers and decanters and a couple of "good" glasses and a cocktail shaker and a kitschy ice bucket that I picked up from the goodwill of all places. I have some vintage swizzle sticks and I picked up some little paper umbrellas from Party City. Williams Sonoma has some really cute barware...