I agree that the ceilings are beautiful, unique, and cozy. You could really incorporate them into a very interesting modern farmhouse look. However, A. I really feel for your husband who is 6 feet tall, and B. I think the beams contribute to the congested feeling of this space. The beams, the columns, the trim, the multiple levels of tray ceilings, and lighting fixtures trapped between the lanes of beams make this space feel jumbled and confined. There are many things you can do to make this space feel more streamlined, open, and airy without removing columns. (Though I would still explore what is inside those columns and why they were added to this house. It looks like the recessed and tray ceilings were there before the columns because the columns so strangely protrude out into the recessed areas. 1. Remove the beams Check to be sure they are not structural. Yes, they are beautiful, but they really confine the space and narrow the lighting. They would be great in another house but not in this one. If you must keep them, paint them the same color as the ceiling and walls to help them disappear. Again, they are beautiful, but not in a room with a low ceiling, 4 brick columns and a tall guy. 2. Consider recessed lighting. These round light fixtures are awkward to look at and bring the height of the ceiling down when you want it to feel more vast and open. 3. Remove and reduce as much ceiling trim as possible. There is way too much trim happening here: odd trim spanning opening to dining room. The trim at column tops are over the top, and trim around the columns at the front door overlaps oddly with the tray ceiling. There may be some areas where trim cannot be moved. In those areas reduce it's appearance: Replace with a trim that has fewer ridges, a lower profile that protrudes less from the wall, and paint it the same white as the walls and ceiling. 4. Consider switching layout How do you all spend your time together? Do you eat at the table a lot or more so at a counter? When you eat at the table is it dark out? Do you spend time together in a formal living room setting? Do you need an area to play with toys? Does much TV watching happen nearby when someone is in the kitchen? I don't understand the layout here or your usage needs, but for the sake of your husband's height and potentially maximizing light, can you make the current dining room be more of a living room / family room space and put the dining room where the current sofas are? If the dining room with all of those open windows is not being heavily utilized during daytime hours, then you are not utilizing the sunniest part of this first floor.

decoenthusiaste The door is steel by I want to replace it completely because it is very drafty and load of cold come in the house in the winter so we could go anything here. Do your top panels snap out for windows? You mean the garage? It will be nice, they dont right now but it is an idea I could keep for the future and replace the door. The fence is already there I'll add some pictures. It frames the back yard and its been weathered wood since 2005 :/ The tree is a crab apple, you are right that I need to change the landscaping, it is something I haven't thought about yet (so many things!) I loved those pictures with the day lilies the do very well in our climate, diverse the bed a little with different types of flowers. I will trim the tree and take it off the ground for sure. Thank you so much for all the ideas!! And these are the color I was considering to stain the fence: Which one do you like?

She can't clip the beams because they're hollow inside (if I'm understanding). This is an application that really doesn't fit with the kind of modern architecture that involves a lot of clerestory windows, so it probably challenged the imagination of the craftsfolk involved. Looks like they were scaling to normal joists to some degree. I guess my creative solutions would involve one of these, in no particular order: (1) seeing if the lovely wood could be used in a different space (high master bedroom, say); (2) trying the approach discussed above of reducing the total number of beams so that you could use them only between windows, where this problem wouldn't occur (and finding another neat use for the extras, like maybe a fireplace mantel); (3) rotating them 90% so that the thinner width would be in front of the windows, and they could be trimmed to die into the wall there (hiding the open ends); (4) leaving as is, trimming the ends parallel to the floor, and finding a real artisan to use the clipped pieces to seal up the ends so that they look ok from below (might be possible, since it will be a change of plane anyway, so cutting an edge and gluing in might work fine). Even if you get the windows clear, have you considered the effect of these beams on your recessed lights? Gonna be some weird shadow-play in the space unless you either add more cans or supplement with some track lights along the beams. Might not matter in a living room, but I can see kitchen bits, so not sure what kind of space this will be and whether you will have to rely on the cans for task lighting...

Hi, Thank you for your very detailed and thoughtful response. First, some information on me and my mindset regarding updating this kitchen as a whole. My husband and I have renovated quite a few kitchens, bathrooms, etc ourselves over the last 30 years and we are quite familiar with the concerns about the cabinetry you brought up. I have replaced old, dated cabinets with high quality units in previous kitchens and bathrooms and I have refaced cabinets. I have also refreshed those same rooms on a shoe string by reusing what's in place and updating the look creatively while saving a ton of money. I plan on helping this particular kitchen work better for us for as little money as possible, although I know I will need to spend more money than I would like to on certain areas of concern. The house we are currently in is a very dated 1970s house we purchased two years ago in order to downsize and to use as a project for our retirement. We like remodeling and building things, it's fun. The house needs lots of work and we are slowly addressing each issue based on importance. If this were an upscale house in a different neighborhood, I would completely gut the kitchen and start from scratch. However, I can't see spending thousands and thousands of dollars on this particular house. We may enjoy the kitchen if we did a complete gut job, but I doubt we will ever get that kind of money back out of it regardless of how nice we make it. So I need to take a different approach here. The Soffits My main question and concern in this post is regarding the soffits, particularly the big, intrusive soffit over the windows. The soffits house only electrical wiring used for the soffit lights so removing it shouldn't be that big of a deal. I am waiting for estimates from a few contractors and if I think it's worth it to have them removed, I will. In years past, we would have already done this ourselves but our older bodies no longer want to do this type of large, dirty work. If I can find an interesting and attractive work around that visually makes some sense out of it, I will. This is why I posted my plea for help. RIght now the soffit is just a big, clunky light holder. The fact that it stops in the middle of the windows is what bothers me the most about it. I am sure they stopped it there to line up with the end of the cabinets to the right of the sink, but it is awkward and overpowering. It is the first thing you see when you enter the kitchen. The Cabinets While I am not thrilled with the appearance of these cabinets, I would like to work with them. These are not high end cabinets, but the boxes are made out of plywood and they are sturdy and sound. They are better quality than the inexpensive cabinets you can buy today and better than some of the mid-priced cabinets, so I would need to really spend a large amount of money to get mid/high end cabinets in order to make an improvement. I am happy with the general layout of the kitchen cabinets so I don't feel the need to reorganize with the exception of the area to the right of the sink base cabinet which has a tiny 6" countertop. More on that later. The other reason I would like to keep the boxes is that I want to add as little debris as possible to our landfills. As I've gotten older, I am much more aware of just how much our society throws away and I have trouble throwing something out if I can make it beautiful, which I believe is possible here. One of our fun retirement projects we have planned is to reface the cabinets. We have the ability and will have the time to custom create our door fronts to fit our existing cabinet boxes. This is another reason I don't want to replace the cabinets. Prior to the refacing we plan on replacing the cabinet hinges and drawer glides and we may even convert some of our lower cabinets to drawer bases near the stove. Time will tell if we still feel this is important when the time comes. If we remove the soffits, I plan on building open storage shelves/cubes that match the width of each cabinet below. These will be lit and will extend to the ceiling and finished with a matching crown. We have a collection of art that I would like to display. Yes, I know that I will need to dust these, but I'm ok with that. Vent/Range Hood Funny you should mention adding a range hood. We absolutely will be doing that soon and it is one of the reasons we want to remove the soffits. Due to there being no attic above the stove, we have to remove the soffit over the stove at the very least in order to install it. We plan on doing this in the near future. I have done this in the last 4 houses I have lived in and renovated because we love to cook and need a hood in order to remove the intense cooking smells to the exterior. Kitchen Sink Part of the reason we want to address the huge soffit over the window is that we will be adding base cabinets (drawers) to the right of the sink terminating them at the right edge of the windows. Currently, there is only 6" of countertop next to the right side of the sink which disturbs the flow of stacking and rinsing dirty dishes before putting them into the dishwasher on the left. Not only does the shallow, 1970s sink splash water everywhere, but it seems to direct water out and over the 6" countertop and onto the hardwood floors. Temporarily we placed a piece of furniture under the window which has a finish that is very close to the cabinets and is the height almost matches the countertop, but water still has a way of getting in between the two and drenching the hardwood floors. We did this to have a place to stack dirty dishes before rinsing and washing, but it's not a great solution. Ideally we want to extend the countertop out to the right edge of the windows with drawer bases below. Luckily, our sink base is 42" so we plan to install a 36" single bowl sink that is deep enough to wash our small dogs. I haven't yet decided if it will be a front apron sink or not. Whether it is an undermount or a drop-in sink will depend on the countertop we decide on. Finals Thoughts So, I am still looking for ideas on making the monster soffit look intentional or for a way to minimize it's bulk. If you have any creative ideas on how to deal with it, I would love to hear them. I hope this gives you a better understanding about my project/s. Thank you for your input.