What a beautiful job you did. Especially, I am impressed that you were able to capture so well the 'look' of the rooms you had used for inspiration. Not only does the craftsmanship look immaculate, you haven't ruined the integrity of the era with that pantry. It's as functional as it is beautiful. Nice, nice job.

I'm with Roses, plants are my favorite accessories. Right now I'm a 100% focussed on my inside and outside plants/flower gardens. Here's a new plant stand I bought a few weeks ago. I have plants all through the house. This isn't a great picture. Here's a picture I took a couple of weeks ago, it's just a tiny portion of a large cottage flower garden I'm growing. And THIS is my kitchen fixture. Lizzie, the little kitten we found in the backyard a year ago this summer! What a keeper! She's figured out the granite is a cool place to rest. :)

I live in New York City and this is a 120 year old brownstone and we left the original hardwood floors intact and just refinished them except for where we removed a wall between kitchen and dining room (and added three strips of wood where the wall had been - the island is installed in the middle of where the wall used to be - and we also installed about 10 partial strips of wood where we removed a dumbwaiter and some ducting to make the kitchen about 25" deeper which is where we placed the fridge. here is a pic for context - there has definitely not been temperature control since installation - being an old house, it can get pretty cold in the winter and pretty hot in the warmer weather - we don't have central air, but do have centralized heating via boiler ( and thermostat placed on the parlor floor where the new kitchen is) As for whether these are carpenter ants, I googled big black ants and found pics of carpenter ants and that is what we have. Whether they are doing anything problematic, I don't know. Another forum poster said to check where the steel deck is anchored at the bric of the house because if water is getting in, that is a perfect place for a carpenter ant infestation. So I'm going to investigate that as a priority although I don't know who might be an expert on that It might be worth mentioning that the door to the deck used to be a window so we had a window converted to a door in addition to adding the deck... So a number of places where perhaps the changes could end up with structural issues and/or risk of new places of entry from the outside, for ants

Do you have enough space today for pantry stuff? I would consider what Herbflavor suggests, and when you turn the corner you could do another pantry (even a shallow one at 12" along the wall. Alternatively, could you consider a mini mud room there for coats & a drop-zone? A coat closet that is about 3' wide and 2' deep could be made to look like cabinets. That would give you space for some pull out shoe storage inside & a rod for coats to hang from. It may look like a hulking, bulking behemoth in the space, though. I'm not sure how much room you are looking at. But I like the idea of a mudroom type usage with spaces for people to drop book bags, brief cases, etc in cabinets & have a charging zone for phones & tablets & things.