The ICSP pads did originally plate though but as the board got more and more parts I realized that it took up way too much space on the opposite side of the board. I'm trying out pogo pins soon but for now I solder on a 6X2 header, program the bootloader and then de-solder it. It's a pain but frees up the entire backside of the board for tracks and components.
This link: https://sites.google.com/site/0miker0/ shows two boards i'm working on that are fairly similar. One is a GPS board and the other is packed full of sensors. I'm no good at programming so the sensor board gives me lots of things to work with. My previous setup was an uno connected to a breadboard with a ton of jumper wires. This packs everything into something that fits in the palm of your hand.