I just lost my reply -- let me try again. I agree with not painting the stairwell and ceiling all in navy. I think that it might be possible to pull off something like that, but I think you'd need to do a lot of planning and behind the scenes kind of work to do it. (Keep in mind that the LR photos above have lots of white trim, light wood floors, and furniture to break up the navy -- a stairwell doesn't have all that.) I think you'd need to put in additional lighting for starters -- along the stairs, in the risers, runway lights, path lights -- something to define the steps and avoid serious injuries (yours or a guest's). And they'd probably have to be on all the time -- day and night, or at least anytime anyone might be on or approaching the stairs (motion detectors nearby -- and what happens if they don't work?). Definitely would need more overhead lighting too. I'm about to flip from design to lawyer/insurance mode. Just don't do it. LOL I think you can do one wall and carpet navy and the other wall and ceiling either in the pale blue or white -- just make them both the same. Don't do a white ceiling and light blue wall. Make it a clean 50/50. I like the idea of white if there isn't a reason you need the light blue to continue there. Look forward to seeing the carpet installed.

Your original kitchen plan is VERY similar to my current kitchen. Except that our fridge is next to the pantry door, and we have wall oven/microwave where you have the fridge now. And our island is a little longer -- matches same size as its opposite wall, not counting pantry door. Our place (a condo) had no space for an L with island, so our options were more limited. I like having the sink in the island opposite the cooktop because it allows me to face the views/ windows and socialize with those in the living area while i'm prepping/cleaning up. It is true that it can get messy (sink splash) behind the sink, and for that reason we only have 4 stools, two on either side of the sink. But I love having the pantry and fridge together, as it makes pulling together ingredients for a meal easy. Your plan would frustrate me as it would seem you'd have to walk to the pantry... walk all the way to the other side to the fridge... If you move the sink to the L part then it seems a long long way to the fridge. Imagine getting out some veggies from the fridge, walking them ALL the way over to the sink to wash them, then to the island to prep them while you chat with family on the stools. Now it's clean-up time and you've packed away leftovers at the sink / garbage can, but have to walk ALL the way over to the fridge to put them away.... I'm going to also say that our kitchen works because we have ample walk-in pantry space (coffee station and cleaning supplies live in there too) AND also have floor-to-ceiling built-ins along the DR wall for entertaining items, china, tablecloths, seasonal stuff too. Overall I love our kitchen layout as it's tight and super efficient. I don't get a work out making a meal as everything is close by. Making pasta? I fill the pot at the sink, turn around, walk two steps, and put it on the cooktop. Draining the pasta? It's reverse. I prep on the side of the right side of the island across from the fridge/pantry. I pull out hot oven trays and leave them to cool on the left side. I have less comments on the master bath/closet as I dislike double sinks and toilet closets. I would prefer more closet space and less bath space, but that's me. Master closet: you may be different than us, but it was #1 priority for us to have separate closets, having had to share for years. Mine is a walk-in his is a built-in along one wall. You could possibly do a built-in across from the bed and have a space for a t.v. if you want a t.v. in the bedroom. Laundry wise, think about noise, if you do laundry at night. Linen closets are awesome, but you do seem to have enough space in the baths for towels in drawers, and the laundry is generous and not far away. Just think about non-linen items like extra TP, toiletries, maybe cleaning supplies, etc you generally store in the linen closet now (if you do). Where are your cleaning supplies going to go? Vacuum? Mop and other tall/ bulky cleaning tools? We have a very small entry but it works; but it does have a closet. We don't use our DR table all that often so we were fine making the trade-off for a larger kitchen/ smaller DR (in fact we swapped the two spaces in our reno). The space is probably below standards for clearance but we put in comfy DR chairs and mood lighting, and nobody complains.

If you want an entry area, put up a wall and have one. We have a home now where someone knocked out the wall between the nice entry and the living room and we basically put the wall back with a shoe bench and shelf arrangement (freestanding because we didn’t want to do construction work) because it just flows better that way. We also just looked at another house which we decided not to go for after much deliberation in part because if we opened it up to get much needed space, we’d end up with a big box with the front door entering right into everything, like a small apartment layout. Houses, especially houses with kids and lots of visitors, need some way to control the flow of traffic and direct people to where they should take off coats and boots and what have you. If you have room for a mud room, great, but if not - entry area is a necessity, IMO. And people are going to be beyond bored with HGTV style everything probably sooner rather than later - next year or the year after it’ll be some other designer and they will be putting walls up because everyone is sick of open plan and always being on display while cooking. If this is your forever home then do what you like and what feels good to you, not what’s popular on HGTV. (If you were going to flip the house then I might be saying something different.) Personally, if my front door were that close to my kitchen, I’d really really really want some kind of wall for privacy. Who wants all your mid-meal cooking mess to be on display to anyone who comes to the door?

I'd ask the genius architect who created the problem . Let him know your height too.