Not imposing at all Brian. I love suggestions and appreciate you taking the time to post with your ideas. I am free to take or leave others idea's and I always get god stuff to consider from other's idea's.
So whats funny is I actually started out with a drawing very similar to yours and deliberately designed away from it. I decided it was just too Arts and Crafts for what I wanted. The truth is that while I like Arts & Crafts furniture I see so much of it that I get bored of it. Frame and panel though actually isn't something I've ruled out. In fact the whole reason I abandoned it in the first place was because I wanted a a shorter apron/body. Now that I might be going back to deeper, f&p is back on the table. I guess I really need to make up my mind about how much storage I want in it. The F&P case and something more like your drawing really makes more sense if I decide I really want a true storage bench vs sitting bench that happens to have a little storage space.
My leg blanks are all glued up so that next step from here is to look at my actual wood and look at things in life size. Currently I'm pretty attached to the exterior curves on the legs along with the curved uprights under the arms to match. In deciding whether or not to go F&P I'll begin by prepping my nice 10" wide boards as if I will use the full width for the apron. I'll also mock up some template for leg shapes look at the apron (or rail & style stock) next to the legs and templates. At this point i need to see full scale to make up my mind.
Thanks for all you input Brian. Again, very appreciated and no, not imposing at all.
Woodworking is terrific for keeping in shape, but it's also a deadly serious killing system...