The above counter cabinet doors are MDF 2 pack poly with metal mesh inserts and the floor to ceiling cupboard are MDF 2 pack poly with v grooves. Does that make sense?!

Love the choice of kitchen - shaker style! I have that style myself and I love it. An interior designer definitely will be able to help you with design and configuration, colour scheme etc. Just letting you know, we had to put 5 structural beams in our ceiling for support and the cost blew us away, it is a very expensive exercise. You'll need an engineer to draw these up. Your draftsman will know of an engineer. Also, as a rule you have to allow for budget blowout. Everyone who has ever done a renovation will tell you. Once you start on the journey, you're emotionally involved and you want it all to be right, and you always add on more changes as you go along. It might be worth pricing things from your kitchen to floorboards to fixtures and fittings, ovens, fridges, lighting choices etc and then draw up your own costings. Builders generally don't do costings, they allow a budget for certain things, like $5 a handle, but then if you choose a $7 handle, then you get hit with a bill at the end of the job with all the extra costs. Make sure you know what the builder has allowed for when it comes to the kitchen, fixtures and fittings etc. I also agree with the others, the oven is too tight in that spot. I would swap that with the sink and put the sink in the island. Hope this is helpful. Good luck with it all, it's very exciting!

Nice transformation. Eliminating the little partial wall at entry smart idea. Love the light, bright openness, materials and appliances. Really has turned this into an inviting modern space. Well done.

I think the decision rests with whether you NEED a butlers pantry! No point in putting one in just because the room is there. But as one post suggested you could loose the current pantry, thus enlarging the family room, and then you maybe have need for a large pantry. I am a little dubious about a 'butlers pantry' idea in general - a storage pantry is most useful but having appliances etc in another room just means more walking from room to room during meal preparation. I think deciding to include a butlers pantry would require a great deal of thought on exactly how you would use the space. A cleanup space - yes that could be handy; where dishes and pots could be stashed during a meal, saving the kitchen proper for serving up. Still means a lot of walking! I think the kitchen work triangle is still a useful concept! And those big island benches with a sink - so your guests can sit and chat while you cook, and watch the dishes piling up under their noses? Ugh! Not for me! They look lovely when clean and EMPTY, but as a usable sociable area, not practical. (Sorry for the rant; has nothing to do with your question or your kitchen, but this is a bugbear of mine!)