Thanks Karen. I really struggled with deciding if taking out all the shelves would reduce my storage options but I can honestly say this is the best kitchen decision I made. I have room for rubbish bin, plastic bags, mixer, coffee maker etc all in the small space and all are easily accessible. I put lazy-Susan's in the cupboards so never have to reach in the back for anything! As well, being a pantry I can shut the door. I took my inspiration from many magnificent butlers' pantries on Houzz, just downsized the idea a heck of a lot!

In my kitchen design, I allowed for a fridge freezer combo, as I live on a farm and as most farmers know, you can't have too many fridges or freezers to store food, that is purchased to last for a few weeks, living in my case, 25km from town. Having said that, I won't have a built in section to house the fridge/freezer, it will be a free standing area just like you have, to allow for changes in the future, as sure a night is dark and day is light, if you need or want a bigger unit, chances are it won't fit and I will never need to do any carpentry to take these future changes. I will also have a free standing dishwasher for the same reason, so in answer to your question, I would leave the fridge/freezer section as it is but as for the other antique fridge on the left of the picture, I would build a cupboard there instead for whatever you think you need to still have storage for, be it a broom closet/general storage or even extend the shelf and have draws or cupboards below etc...or the breakfast area as midesign0401 suggested, but I would have it in this spot as it appears in the photo at least, that the coffee maker is on the right of the sink already, so a more suitable breakfast area/prep area.

I don't have any wisdom to offer in terms of brands etc, but what are your options for place for the coffee machine if it wasn't in an appliance wall? Both my family and a friend have had coffee machines built in to places they bought, and never used them because they were broken and too expensive to fix! I'm not sure of the brand or quality of them, but food for thought!

Completely different layout but, just to show a glimpse of black and white with the floor colour. All full length cupboards, doors and bulkhead will be in polytec ravine, cooktop alcove in a New York marble and plain white composite for other bench tops so not too busy. I will post an update in next week when tops are on. I think what you have in mind will work. Maybe even 3 materials in your bench... one for sink level, black for a slightly lower or higher bench area and a timber for the table area.