I agree with the previous post regarding adding a banquette on the back side of the island. Add a small round table and a chair or two around that for a small breakfast nook. You obviously would still have room for a dining table near the windows. You don't have a window with natural light in the kitchen work area, so I would consider going with a light wall color. First and foremost, you must decide how you want the entire space to function. Do you need a breakfast nook, as I suggested along with a dining table or would the area near the windows be better suited to use as a small seating area for guests to be near the cook while she's busy in the kitchen. Regarding the wall of cabinets, as suggested by other posts, glass inserts would glam up that area, the overhanging counter needs to go or be moved to the opposite side of the counter if you prefer counter seating as opposed to a banquette. You have so many options! If you're feeling overwhelmed, do consider consulting a kitchen designer who will be able to guide you in making it the kitchen that works for you. You have a GREAT space but must consider it's use, then decide on the look you like and go for it! Lucky you!

Curtains: need to touch the floor. Yours are too short. If you can't find curtains that are long enough, consider adding a band of a different coloured fabric to the top or the bottom. I'll find you some example pics. So the chaise is against that wall next to the fireplace? Could you move it away from there a bit? Or how about moving it to the other side of the room? Would that be an option? Generally I'm not the biggest fan of ceiling fans (ha!), but sometimes they are necessary. If they are not necessary... hmm. But I have to say that I looked at yours and thought that it looked quite characterful. But if you don't like it I would remove it and hang a lamp that you really like there. If you go for taller bookcases than the ones in the Eagle Rock photo, you could add lights to the top that shine down the bookcase. That always looks lovely. Think about the lighting in your room. Only a ceiling light isn't the best or most interesting way to light a room. Here's an ideabook about lighting a room: https://www.houzz.com/magazine/10-ways-to-get-your-lighting-right-stsetivw-vs~10558866

Thanks for suggestions. Carol - have thought of painting the garage door the siding colour. Thought 1 set of shutters on the window above garage would look "off" when there are no other shutters on the other windows. Gary I liked your projects on your website. You have some great designs for entry and driveways. Looked briefly online at heated driveway info [never the walkway] but we aren't there yet. Thought the priority would be to change the original 25yr old builder steps and the walkway..Stuck on design and material options of concrete vs stone. We have seen our neighbour encounter so many problems with their steps and walkway.

Our project has finally started. The demo went well over the weekend with no issues. We did encounter one potential snag. We brought in one base cabinet to see how it fit into the existing area with no flooring and discovered that the new cabinets are about 1 inch narrower at the bottom. This means that the gap between the end of the laminate flooring and the cabinet toe kick is too big to install the quarter round. We may not have enough flooring to account for this as we only have 6 extra flooring planks. We could remove the flooring in our front hallway, but that will require new flooring. We could also leave the front hallway alone and replace the kitchen/dinette area flooring with a different laminate. Any thoughts on a suitable laminate floor type/color if we keep our hallway flooring? The shell of our existing kitchen. We will install the cabinets tomorrow. We did pick out a wall color which is Sandy Beach (Pittsburgh Paint). I'll be painting the walls tonight.