Could we see photos of the rooms? I like your idea of a different chandelier that lights the table in all the various ways you want. I also like sconces in a dining room to put warm pools of light on the walls, but they aren't very good for task lighting. At the table, whatever you're doing is likely to be in your own shadow. It's my view that you need two pairs of sconces in any dining room scheme - so that there is a pair on both of two opposing walls - to balance the light. And I'm also a fan of lots of lamps in a living room, but with a very high ceiling, sometimes a dimmable fixture in the center is great to warm and light the whole room. Here's what we have in our 11' tall living room. In the first photo, you're seeing its reflection - the second one shows you the thing itself. The dining room also has one like this, hung lower to accommodate the table. It's dimmable, and provides plenty of light for puzzles and games when it's cranked all the way up. And there are dimmable lamps in all four corners of the dining room, which we use in conjunction with the drop pendant, dimmed down, for dinners. In that scheme, it can give just enough light to keep faces and food from being in the shadows, but it's still gentle and warm. (I don't know why there's a shadow around it in the photo...??)

I vote for hardwood or engineered wood through the whole space, including the kitchen. Opening the wall would be nice, but I suspect your appliances are arrayed along that wall? I'd paint the wall the same pale color as the living space, and hang a really big mirror on the wall if you can't open it. Then you open the wall visually, and reflect the light from the sliders back into the space. (I know...me and mirrors. They are great manipulators of space, particularly when you commit to making them big!)

Depends on the room the chandy is in. In a more contemporary home, I'd probably use the white sleeves. Nothing to really keep clean. Dust the chandy once in a while. If you want to actually wash the sleeves, you just remove the bulb and slip the sleeve off and wash them. I have a small chandy like that in my kitchen, which was there when I bought the house. It has the white sleeves. I should change them to the honey, not that I think about it! The dining room chandy I have from Ace Iron doesn't have any sleeves (it's a ring-style chandy, so no pillars/sleeves for the bulbs). OP's house is a 1900s farmhouse, so I'd def. go with the honey or antique if that were my house.

Not brass in the dining area with those apricot walls. It won’t show up