Thank you all for your thoughts. It is so helpful to read a variety of perspectives. Thank you for the info Annie. Maybe a winter project (if the built in benches survive that long--just joking, I am resigned to dealing with it the best I can as is). Bronwynsmom: yep. I didn't want to come across as overly dramatic, but it does indeed sap my energy. My kids prefer lounging on the stairs over the benches and it just makes me cry a little bit inside each time I see one of them on the stairs. And yes, intentional over dramatization in effect! Les: I will look into various upholstry/cusjhioning possibilities. This seems to get pricy quick. I am definitely thinking of making some myself or modifying less expensive ones. Francoise: I have thouth about the deeper seat portions. The parts that hinge up for the storage or only in certain sections, so I cannot just put in larger hinged tops. Actually, maybe I could. Hm, I am going to look into this more. If I can make larger ones, even just where the lids hinge, I could still replace the original ones if needed. But then it might be odd having only certain parts of the benches extend out farther. Unless I make them kind of T shaped to fill in the gaps. Not sure that makes sense unless you can hear me thinking. Teacats: I do think painting the bannister is a possibility. Apparently the house used to have cabinets that matched the bannister, but previous owners had the current cabinets and breakfast nook put in. Updating the bannister all around would be my preference. Grandma: taking out the backs would give us an extra 2 inches it looks like. I am worried that if we try to do that we will mess up somethign along the way. I don't know if it is just us...but any project we undertake becmoes about a gazillion times more complicated than it originally seemed. Geo: If you have little kids, I think the banquette seating is a great asset. Even when we first moved in, almost 3 years ago, my boys were young (small) enough to have friends over and everyone would squeeze into the benches and do projects, have snacks, etc. Deeper and taller seats would definitely be better for people over 6ft. It is interesting the different styles of tables suggested. I don't really know what style this cabinetry is even considered. To me it is more formal that what I would chose were I remodeling a kitchen. I had thougth the dark pedestal tables were the closest match for the rest of the kitchen.

"...All these photos of interiors & exteriors are what brought me to Houzz when I wanted to create better living spaces in my own home..." Yes, of course. But the problem with many of these posts from folks who throw a lot of photos of one thing or another into the conversation is that they don't generally analyze what and why they post the images. It's just a bunch of snapshots without any real reasoning of why some of the photos might be a good idea, or why they might be a bad idea. The result? Like HGTV, some folks get really excited about the Chinese antique elephant tusk table and go no further in their thinking. It's the difference between architecture and decoration.

First no ceiling fan in a kitchen ever IMO. As for the other lighting I think if there is some connesction either with the glass or the downrod color you will be fine. I sure hope those pendants are not Edison bulbs as the yellow cast from those bulbs will ruin the color choices you have made. All lighting in a kitchen should be LED 4000K and in this case also in the nook .

I'm disappointed when people don't follow up on threads like this with their outcome, so I thought I would post some pics. After some looking, we ended up getting a table and chairs that my wife found on Wayfair. The most important thing is that she loves it!