Just got back to read what's been happening. What gorgeous kitchens! A couple would aaalmost convert me to the furniture look, even though I've always (since childhood probably) loved a built-in look for a kitchen. Which is an awfully important point newbies to their designs probably don't consider right out when it needs to be -- do they really love boxes bolted to the wall (my usual description but wholly inappropriate to some of the works of art here) or built in? Five, your design sounds luscious. I can't wait to see pictures. We dropped the ceiling in a single little hall (budget build), but its contribution is so real (and maintenance-free :) that if I had it to do over there would have been more. Regarding dust-catcher tops, having a shadow line up there can be another simple but significant aesthetic contribution. If we'd done that, I was going to mount a vertical "back" to it, painting it a deeper color if necessary to hide it, so I only had to run a vac hose over the front few inches.

Personally...I have to tell you, then when I see a window in the middle of a run, I do like to see that decorative board tie them together, so I'd take this as a design yea verses nea :) (Although I am known as the soffit police girl around my place). My plumbers kept telling me I was going to have a one or two inch soffit that had to run the legnth of the kitchen, including the window area, and I said "Nope" get rid of it...somehow they did (perhaps they just cut the pipes) :oP But it's gone. The way your's is though in my mind sounds ok to me. I think the trim idea you've found is a great option :)

I'll have to find the picture of Tony Shaloub's house. Especially in a kitchen, I'd be sealing the wood because all that cooking vapor etches the wood, puts grease into it. And that will gradually make it darker and darker. Like Shades, I am a light lover. I like lots of natural light coming into my house. (Frosted? no, not the right word.) (Antiqued? no....) Whitewashed?....hmmmm. I love your gas stove, and I think the room will be delightful with a 9 foot ceiling. When we put the loft into my Teahouse, it had these exposed big beams holding it up, with one post in the middle of a 25 foot span. I like the solidity of the space now. However, to point up the beams, it would be good to have them contrast to the wood beneath them. At least a little bit. THE WORD IS PICKLED!!! PICKLED WOOD. And I love the way it looks. Still wood, but not hidden. Then sealed. I created an album of 12 photos private because they were not my pics, and I can upload a few here. If you want to see all of them, let me know and I'll send you a "friend" link to it. This is Tony Shaloub;s dining room look: These beams are further apart, which keeps it from lowering the ceiling height so much. Open rafter not beams I suppose. I think this was Lavender's vision too. Very rustic, a Florida cracker style porch ceiling, I think it was one of Sandy's pictures. And here we go with natural beams and infill of plaster painted white. Really old old kitchen space with log beams. See, I think after a long time the place gets dark so they end up painting at least part of it. Here is one I think the DH might like. It has heavy natural beams, some cross beams natural but the infill is white. Note they are further apart and contribute to a feeling of higher head room. All painted, very sophisticated, nothing left natural. A peaked up ceiling with open beams across the open space, stained dark probably to counteract all that white kitchen look, the floors are also dark wood. If you are gonna have wood ceiling, floors, beams, etc, you will have a wood cave. So paint something. Here it is reversed. They painted the beams, left the wood natural. This is a nice compromise. Also, the beams are far enough apart to leave the feeling of higher ceilings. And that's all I found in my files. Hope it wasn't too much.

Independence Palace in Saigon, Vietnam. This building was the residence of the President of South Vietnam up until the end of the Vietnam War, or as the Vietnamese call it, the American War.