Dreams of a new kitchen

Lately, I have been thinking about what we should do in the kitchen when we redo it in the (hopefully) near future. When we moved in, we knew the kitchen needed to be redone. The previous owners had taken off the cabinets and replaced them with basic painted plywood. Nothing special, but we wanted the original cabinets. They are very deep, which I love since there are very few cabinets. The drawers all need to be replaced because none of them ever close all the way without some major hip action. Luckily, I have the hips to close them! :) First, I guess you need to know how our kitchen currently looks.

Our kitchen now is small, cluttered, dark, and has the "dorm-room special" washer and dryer. I would like to move the washer and dryer out of the kitchen and into a closet near the bathroom. I want to put a pantry in the kitchen and make the pantry into the coat closet it used to be.
Here are the ideas I have:
A desk set-up to put next to the side door so the kitchen table stops being the "drop off" area for stuff.

contemporary kitchen design by san francisco interior designer Amoroso Design

Or maybe this desk idea?

traditional kitchen design by philadelphia kitchen and bath Superior Woodcraft, Inc.

I love these drawers for the pantry, which will be where the washer and dryer are now.

contemporary kitchen design

I like these glass cabinets. I feel like they would open up the space, but I would probably do a textured glass and not clear (because my cabinets aren't usually the neatest).

eclectic kitchen design by los angeles kitchen and bath Laurie Burke

I really like this microwave shelf. Right now our microwave (bright blue, from Chip's college days) is on a tray table.

modern kitchen design by other metros interior designer Becky Shankle

This would be great to hide the microwave too:

contemporary kitchen design by boston kitchen and bath Divine Kitchens LLC

I like this wine bar for under the window next to the refrigerator. I think more cabinet space is definitely needed in the kitchen.

contemporary kitchen design by other metros kitchen and bath HomeWerks, A Design Studio

This project is probably a ways off because we have to save the money to start it, but I really want to redo the kitchen and make it more functional, but not lose the character that is there because the house was built in the 1950s so to take away that would be terrible. I want to go modern, but contemporary. We will see what happens....