You have lovely pieces to work with. To my mind, it appears you have a long and a short MCM credenza/buffet. I'd prefer them switched and then move the art pieces so they take up no more than 75% of the credenza's length. Also keep them closer to the furniture and lower than the door and window frames if possible. Red is a wonderfully appetizing color and I'd love to see it on the dining room wall as well, although I know it may make the air unit more obvious. The dining wall is the one I'd fill with a bookcase for the cookbooks. As a one-time owner of nearly 100 cookbooks, I found they made for great dinner party conversation, along with an unabridged two-volume set of the English language dictionary. An IKEA bookcase could work well and hold plenty of books. The white shelf system with the red wall behind and the backs of the shelves painted red would look great! Or you can paint the bookcase red and leave the wall white. Group books by color for another touch of fun! Don't forget to show off some great "foodie" accessories too.

As chookchook said in her recommendation about painting, put a drop cloth on the floor. Get a very safe ladder. remove the lightbulbs, and cover the outlets. Turn off the electricity to the chandelier. Then spray it with a mild cleaner (I use one I found at Target that's basically water with vinegar, until it's dripping wet. Start at the bottom and work your way up, so you don't have dirty spray dripping on the bottom of the chandelier.Work your way up and down until the dripping spray is clean. The chandelier may be gorgeous and expensive, but it seems totally out of place in the architecture of the room--more at home in a chalet than a sunny room with a window wall. I would probably try to find a way to get it removed, and sell it to someone who appreciated it better than I.

It sounds lovely. The ceiling will be more than suitable for a transitional style. I think the wainscoting would also be fine but as I'm cautious I'd be adding after I'd lived there for a while. It does seem more traditional than transitional. On the other side I'd love the bead boarding in the hall.

Thanks for your comments everyone. We've taken your advice (Luke and NH) and changed the island to a rectangle (1200 x 3000). We lose one breakfast bar seat but gain storage and dining room space plus it shortens the distances from the island to the cooktops. It also removes the need for a corner carousel. We're much happier with this result. Dairy_maid, we've done what you suggested and walked through some common tasks. Overall it works reasonably well although we may keep some coffee spoons and butter knives in the scullery drawers for morning toast and coffee. We've also invested in a "silent" rangehood which has the motor on the outside of the house behind the fridge and we've upgraded the scullery sink to one that is 600 x 400 (internal size). Fabrication starts tomorrow. Woohoo. Once again, thanks so much for taking the time to respond. The design has been significantly improved with your input.