The kitchen - the evolution part 4

Here's how the kitchen looks today.  We love it.  It's possibly my favorite room in the house.  The tour:

We still have things we want to do to make it ours.  New countertops would be great.  Whoever thought white countertops were a good idea has never cooked.  I like the idea of something really dark.  We may just do the island for awhile, or wait and do all of it at once.  Not sure.

The roman shade, the pendant, and the wall color make me very happy.  I love them.  I'm thinking of painting the island charcoal gray, but won't do anything until we put a new countertop on it.

Last summer I painted the table black.  It's a little rough, so I might take another go at the top this summer to smooth it over.  Maybe I'll go for a contrast to the base and paint it white?  Another color?  Thoughts?

I'm also wanting to make a floor cloth with a wide gray/white stripe, or maybe a chevron pattern, to define the eating area.  We're still in the "put Jack on the floor to eat what he dropped" "sweep after every meal" phase, though.

My desk area is coming along, but I want to get a really cute chair or stool for it.  Maybe spray paint it a really bright color?  Something fun!

This table has the working rotary phone from my granddad's house.  It's a sentimental piece to me.  Ella "calls" Lily on it all the time.  And Inspector Gadget.  The flower is a yarn pompom.  I think it's funny.  The big thing I would change here would be to replace the lamp with a more colorful one.

Handsome Hero's handy beadboard.  When we redo the counters, we'll do beadboard again.  I like it that much.

Handsome Hero gave me this tea kettle for Christmas.  It matches perfectly.  He is the best gift giver.  Ever.

My pantry.  I hate it.  I love the door, but inside, it's very deep and narrow.  I put all of my appliances in it instead of food because I kept losing things.  When my mom comes next, she will help me figure out what to put in which cabinet.  She's good at that.  Really good at that.  I kept trying to channel her while I was rearranging the kitchen for the fourth time, but, since she's alive, I guess it didn't work.

 The kitchen window, looking out on the vast white space.  Actually, this picture was taken last week.  We have grass now.  It's brown, but I don't care.  It's grass.

There you have it.  I hope we don't move for a long time, just for my kitchen.