Stove, as a symbolic hearth, rules; sink slinks as much out of sight as possible because, IMO, not only is it not nearly as handsome as many are encouraged to think to justify expensive hardware, but it tends to collect uncharming detritus around it. Let the eyes just pass on by, which is happily an era-compliant look. They didn't know a sink was supposed to be, even could be, a wow! feature back then. BTW, they also didn't tend to know about large, deep 1-sink sinks into which a whole dinner's worth of mess could just disappear. I LOVE mine. BTW, the stove doesn't HAVE to rule, of course; that's a more current idea, and it actually often wasn't a feature at all in those days. Your kitchen might benefit by letting it also disappear into a handsome unified design meant to rule as a whole. My own (sort of traditional kitchen) is a drop-in cooktop with drawers beneath--so the counter and counter line are straight and uninterrupted. The oven's under counter elsewhere where it's not very visible from outside. (In my case, attention goes to the decorative wood vent hood above the stove and the windows flanking it.) I'd definitely keep to a simple open galley, as symmetric as possible--most attractive and space efficient of all layouts when it must be totally open (except a very symmetric U, which takes more space and may have function problems if not equipped with an island). A galley is also among the most highly functional of all layouts. If there's nothing going on at the right end of the island, why not slide a stool around there? Then someone could sit without presenting his back to everyone else in the room. I love white kitchens and have one, but if you're going to do flat-panel simple cabinets to go with the architecture, wood, even very light wood, I think is more handsome than plain white, which usually seems to lack something, even for me. (There is a higher-end high-gloss that looks very good, though; my DIL is trying to talk our son into it, and I'm on her side.) In any case, although I've never wanted wood, in your case I'd at least consider seeing just how light I could go with Ikea flat-panel wood for the lower cabinets, blending with a similarly pale honey-colored maple floor (one of my very favorite features from that general era), and then go white or off-white for the uppers to blend in with the walls. BTW, I don't remember her name offhand, but someone just posted a picture of her simple modern kitchen with green stone counters that's just gorgeous. Shot my "I-would" wad. I'll enjoy seeing your personal vision for your new home develop.

Thank you for your help everybody, I finally found one color that works in both rooms. It is a BM Gentle Cream which is in the off-white collection. I wanted more color but it looks like with the northern exposure combined with the low ceiling and narrow rooms there is just no visual space for anything more intense. Gentle Cream actually lives up to its name, it doesn't look pink or peach in either room and not too yellow either (Papaya was a little too yellow). And yes, the type if bulbs makes a big difference. We have some kind of "true light" in the DR, similar to Reveal and this particular color looks more yellow there. The LR has halogen recessed lights and the color has a slight green tint to it in that room. I also encountered this issue in my kids' bathroom. Picked a countertop which looked beige-cream in the showroom, almost exactly like the color of the tile we selected. I did cheked the sample at home but during the day, the lighting wasn't istalled yet in the bathroom. Once installed, the counter looked almost yellow in the bathroom with the regular flood bulbs. I couldn't believe I was so off with the color! However, after we switched the bulbs to white light it looks a lot closer to what I thought I picked

One way to make the space feel cozy yet spacious is to use color to help define the separate spaces. It helps make each area feel more like a room, yet seeing into what color defines as another room helps make it feel spacious. My lower level has an exercise room that's open to a music nook and the staircase. So I selected coordinating colors that I liked and defined the music nook with the beige wall and ceiling and the exercise area with the paladian blue wall and ceiling. I used the architecture and trim color to help define the tray ceiling and the column to help separate the spaces. The art helps tie the color scheme together. This way they relate, coordinate, but each provide their own separate purpose...cozy yet spacious. My mother's condo had a DR and LR open to each other so we picked a drapery fabric that had blue and orange accents in it against a taupe background. So we painted the whole area the taupe, and the lr wall opposite the dr a terra cotta, and the dr wall opposite the lr a blue. So again, with color the two rooms coordinated but the color scheme helped define each area making the coziness of two rooms with the spaciousness of one large room. I have my FR and kitchen and breakfast nook all in one open area, but in order to define the spaces separately to make the function clear and to lend more coziness, I again used coordinating fabrics and paint colors to define the separate areas. The FR and breakfast nook are in the beige/gold paint while the kitchen is in the rust. The valances in the kitchen and the breakfast nook contain both colors, but more rust in the FR and more gold in the kitchen. This way the color story gets told in both rooms, but in different proportions to define the spaces. The architecture of the soffit also helps to define the spaces. The arch in the soffit was repeated in the shape of the island and in the flooring which again are more visual cues to define separate cozy spaces while still having that spaciousness of a larger room.

Yeah, I know it’s a tall order to come up with something that accomplishes what I want but I figured I'd see if others on Houzz had some ideas. Both sectionals that I'm considering are pretty spacious. The first one is 144” x 79” and the other is 120” x 110.” msteezzy - here’s a picture of the space you asked about.