Thoughts on this?

The tile is a 2x6 subway from sonoma tile in "sheer bliss"

You correctly identify the problem-it's just too much white in the kitchen, but then you focus on the hood which is merely one white element in a white kitchen. The hood is probably one of the more expensive things to mess with and I don't think you'll be pleased with enlarging changing or otherwise remodeling a hood and keeping it white. Messing with the soffits is the same issue it's still going to be white. The person who told you to remove the solid white upper cabinet doors and live with the open shelving for a while is onto something. I am not a fan of open shelving but for a test it's fine. It may be that just putting glass inserts on the upper cabinet doors will resolve your problem by adding just enough detail and other colors to the sea of whiteness.

or this

Well...it looks nothing like your inspiration images, but it looks fine. I'd continue the uppers from the larger hood to the outer corners. Are you hoping for a brighter space?

Palimpset, I understand what you are saying and what it looks like. My cabinet guy is very old school, doesn't do computer images or anything. So this was all just kind of visualized in my head, and there was just some lapses in communication, or something.

So now that I am living here, I can see some things I would have done differently, and I am trying to work out a plan to make these changes myself. I want to get my plan down on paper, work up drawings (like my rough photoshop:-) ) and have a plan in place for spring time next year, probably.

The only urgent thing right now is deciding if (can?) need to add more tile to my current backsplash order that is in progress in order to do something like the previous two mock ups.

Practigal, thanks for your input! For me, the white is not what is causing me a problem, I am just really really underwhelmed by the hood. :-/

I'm not trying to copy the images exactly, the main thing I want is for the hood to go to the ceiling. I am trying to work out how to make this happen, and I don't think I would be able to keep the current uppers and make the hood go to the ceiling.

Amy, I would read what Palimpsest wrote and then reread it again. As he said, you seem to be all over the place. You're not happy with what you have so instead of thinking of the kitchen as a whole, you're trying to reinvent small parts of it.

You need a full plan of exactly what you want for your kitchen going forward. Otherwise, you'll never be happy with what you have. Each thing you do impacts other parts of the kitchen and without a full plan, it will never work out right.

Exactly practigal. By removing the doors she can play with the shelves and experiment with combinations of decorative/practical items and colors. It's the best way to see what looks good to HER eye and go from there, rather than just guessing if she would like open shelving or glass doors better than what she has now.

CPArtist I know it seems like I am all over the place, but I am just trying to get my plan together now (and order extra tile in this batch if need be!!). I mainly just want to see if I need extra tile *right now* and then can take my time to solidify the final design.

I don't want to change anything about the kitchen as a whole, I just want to rework the area above the stove.

I like your mock ups.. I think a wooden hood that matches your floor would look excellent.

This (space where the arrow is pointing) is what I am trying to avoid:

Maybe it would ease your mind if you went ahead and bought the extra tile. If you didn't end up using it, you could always donate it.

I would buy the extra tile and if you don't use it, either donate it as llucy suggested or sell it on craig's list. Or use it in your laundry room or somewhere else in the house.

Would it be weird to have inset doors on the uppers in just that one area?

This is what I want:

Was it mentioned in your other threads that the hood should be wider than the cooktop for best capture of cooking odors and grease? Your old-school cabinet maker may not have known that. That is also a necessary design element for a statement hood. I'd remove the two glass cabinets and have him remake the hood. It looks like the doors are all the same width, so the glass ones can be reused to make your double-doored cabinets all glass.

That is still to crunched looking and the hood still disappear because it's the same shape as your uppers.

It looked better when you remove the two small cabs with glass got to give room for the hood to breathe and turn the other two into glass doors.

Changing the shape of the hood and taking it to the ceiling will also bring it out.

I actually really like the last mock-up.

The reason I ask about light in the space is that there doesn't appear to be much in your initial images, but everything is much brighter in the mock-ups. Is it a time-of-day difference? If you want your space to be more open and brighter, well, changing the cabinet arrangement isn't going to help significantly, but under cabinet lighting might, as might a change in window coverings and bulbs, etc... Now's the time (maybe a little late....but better now than never) to address ucl, before you get the bs in place.

Also....if you don't need tiny upper cabinets for storage, your cabinet maker can make a faux front of little doors (not glass, obviously), no boxes. It would be cosmetic but much less expensive than adding cabinets.

I'd replace the solid cabinet doors with glass, get a great piece of architectural salvage (maybe a stained glass window) to hang above the hood, and wait until you're ready to add the stacked uppers. Redo the hood at that time.

If you absolutely can't wait, then I like Lisa's suggestion to build a bigger box. If you take a little off each side of the doors adjacent to the hood, you'd have room (1/4"?) to apply a skin to the side of the new hood box, to cover the joined pieces.

Eam, the earlier photos were taken at night time with lights on, the others are daylight with no lights on.

For me, the soffits really stand out more in every one of your mockups. When you have the tile or cabs going all the way to the ceiling it really draws my eyes to the soffits over the pantries that are remaining. I think Lisa's mockup looks ok where she just has the hood extending into the soffit area. I know how hard it is when things are not as you envisioned, but I do think everything looks lovely as is.

Got it. Regarding tile, if you're planning to take down those two cabinets and increase the hood, you will need more than you've ordered. Check with your installer but my guess would be about 10% of total. Given your herringbone layout, he has probably ordered 15% more than he thinks he'll need, but he will probably want a little more to work with.

I ordered 40% more than I needed, the current BS area is about 19sqft and I ordered 27. The lady at the tile place said 30% more for herringbone on top of the 10% for broken tiles, etc. So I think if I go with mock up #3, I will have enough without increasing the order. It just means I need enough to go 6in wider on each side under the hood.

Lisa, I did not even see your mock up last night! Yes, that is what I was envisioning originally. I might try to work up something like in the mean time.

Does anyone know if I tile what is there now, will I be able to carve out the cut pieces and replace them to go a bit wider under the hood in the future?

Right now the two glass-fronted cabinets flanking your hood look a little lost or sparse. If you removed them (or reused them elsewhere), couldn't you do a new false front on your hood up to the ceiling, overlaying the soffit, incorporating the angle for the longer run?

I would want to resolve what's going on with the cabinets and make the backsplash secondary to that.

"if I tile what is there now, will I be able to carve out the cut pieces and replace them to go a bit wider under the hood in the future?"

Don't count on it. Don't tile if you know you are going to make changes to the layout. If you have to wait, wait. Oh gosh, are you DIYing a herringbone bs?

Lawd. My husband is going to kill me lol. He is already poopy that we had to wait 6-8 weeks for my tile to be made. He wants the BS done like yesterday.

Yes I plan to do it myself. I do have experience tiling, and I'm also good at math and planning. Unfortunately for me, around the time of building our house, I was pregnant with Baby #4, and 3 other small kids frying my brain and I naively left things up to the "professionals" that I should have taken care of or explained more specifically myself. However, I am now gloriously not-pregnant, and once baby 3 is potty trained, things should be pretty smooth around here and the BS shouldn't be too bad.

I am NOT a design person and with that in mind... what stands out to me when I look at the kitchen is not so much the sea of white, but the very small areas that are not white, the glass doors next to the hood. I'd like to see what it looked like if they were all white, or one piece of glass without the dividers, or what they'd look like all glass fronted. You have a really nice kitchen!

Thanks clueless! The lites on the glass doors were a surprise to me when they were installed. Not what I had envisioned, but I am just living with them for now! I assumed the default for a glass door would be just plain glass. But you know what happens when you assume...

I like mayflowers idea of removing the glass door cabinets and putting in a larger hood. Your inspiration photos all show very large hoods.

I also agree that the plain soffits dominate the look. Your cabinets are like a beautiful girl in plain clothes, without makeup (some people greatly prefer that look). That is the nature of shaker cabinets. A bling hood will help but the soffits can also be dressed up. The crown molding size should probably be upped to account for the height.

You look like you have the same soffit height as sanjuangirl. Take a look at this thread. She has some very creative installations of the molding.

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2672090/when-you-cant-remove-soffits

Here's another example of using trim from the Twiceremembered blog.

http://owcl.blogspot.com/2007/03/want-crown-moulding-on-your-cabinets.html

I like the trim in that 2nd photo, but I'm not sure how to dress up the soffits without doing it to the whole room (open concept living/kitchen...lots of shared walls). Do I just terminate chunky soffit crown when it reaches walls?

As one who has changed her mind 100 times and really is all over the place, I kinda get what you're doing. It seems, though, like your increments are just wasting money. If you're going to go for a completely different look -- and you know that, don't waste money, time, energy or distress on the interim stuff.

Take out what doesn't please you -- because it never will -- and dive in and do what you see in your head. I strongly suggest at least graph paper, given the symmetrical lay-out. If you don't like the hood, sell/donate it. It's not going to become something different because you change what's around it.

I can tell you that phases don't work well when you already have your vision. After 10 years' worth of rebuilding, I've changed my mind 3 different, entire, rip-it-out times until I had my AH HA! moment and now things are flowing in the best direction: towards the finish. Once I knew what it was I wanted and started putting it in (money is my issue, which means time) every time I go into my kitchen I stand for a while and stare at the things I LOVE LOVE LOVE.

Don't settle and tell yourself it's a phase. Soffits for future small cabinets? Huh? Leave it blank until you put the cabinets in.
Take down the existing cabinets and hang some shelves to see what you'd like. If I can do that, you I can do it. If you don't know how to use tools, now's the time to learn. Stick something under your uppers to rest them on when you take them down and you'll be fine. Put them somewhere NOT in the kitchen so they don't crowd your vision.
You've already bought a huge amount of tile, evidently, so stack it up and see what you think.

I see no point in this phase thing. Taking the doors off would be a good idea IMHO, but that range hood isn't going to change. You could staple something bigger to it, but it's going to remain underwhelming.

There are no open shelves on your inspiration pics. You don't like the soffit. Stop spending more money and just add small upper cabinets on top of the two outer cabinets. See if you can get a trim piece for top of hood. Remove cabinets immediately to side of hood. Replace the rest with glass doors. Can you mock this up and post?

Here's a recent kitchen my contractor did. Almost identical hood as yours but no soffit

Another option is to do a metal decorative hood

You know.... rather than change the whole hood to a metal decorative hood, why not add zinc trim instead of white trim to the existing white hood? You could always take cardboard and duct tape and mock up the appearance of metallic trim and then decide whether some metallic trim on that hood will work. Metallic trim does not have to be wide and thick it just has to be beautiful. So you won't have a problem on the sides

I really like your second mock up (the one with just a pair of glass door cabinets on each side of the hood) better than the third. Like beachem said, the third one is still crunched around the hood. The single pair on each side let's you make the hood bigger and gives it room to breathe (so it has more presence) and allows you to tile to the ceiling, which will break up the white. (Are the uppers in that pic intentionally not white or is it just a photoshop issue?) Maybe you can leave the outer pairs where they are and just switch to glass doors (also consider removing the soffit there and adding small uppers). But you may prefer moving them away from the tall cabs like your mock up and your inspiration pics. Try mocking it up both ways and see which you prefer.

So, my suggestion would be to plan to remove the soffit and go with a single pair of glass door cabs on each side (with small cabs above) and a larger hood that goes to ceiling. Order extra tile now so you can tile to the ceiling around the hood if you decide to go with fewer cabinets there.

When you get your tile have the tile guy mock up some samples in both the classic 1/3 and herringbone patterns (and any other pattern that might be suggested by the tile that you bought) include the grout color and then decide what you like before actually having them do it on the walls. None of your inspiration pics has the herringbone pattern. Based on your pictures (and your possible desire for walnut), I am surprised that you are doing tile at all. While herringbone can work well in some kitchens it's certainly not my favorite. Cabinets can be fairly easily removed, tile is a mess to remove and generally tile breaks upon removal, it can't be nicely pulled out and reused in some different pattern.

Have you tried mocking up some metal decorations on the hood yet? As to the issue with space on the side of the hood, either add absolutely no space so that the base of the hood is touching the adjacent cabinets and you don't have to clean in between or add enough space that you can get your hand in there and clean it.

You are suffering from an acute case of analysis paralysis . At some point you have to accept your decisions and move on with your life. Usually visualization helps. Your kitchen is a beautiful white kitchen. You just aren't living in it. Why not?

I just reread this thread. In my wildest dreams I could not imagine adding a soffit as a placeholder for cabinets. Just getting the cabinets would've been infinitely less expensive than ripping out the whole wall and buying new cabinets. Maybe you can just remove the soffit and add doors across the existing cabinets to the ceiling.

Ok, I'm back with two designs and an outline of my current thoughts:

A

B

Turns out the space leftover on each side (42") after making the hood 48" is kind of an awkward size...3 doors (especially inset) are a little narrow, 2 doors are a little wide. These mock ups are showing inset cabinets with 1.5" face frame all around. I feel like the upper cabinets in the picture with only two cabinets on each side look a little funky. So I guess option C would be 2 doors on each side, with the small top cabinets scrapped, keeping the soffit on each side of the new taller/wider hood.

Any thoughts on these?

Oh, another difference is that the first picture has narrower 1.5" rails on the cabinets, making the overall feel more like a china hutch I think. Second picture has 2 5/8" rails that match the rest of the kitchen.

I am going to bed, but just wanted to get this posted tonight! Help!

Do you have white dishes / bowls which you'd store in the glass cabinets? How would these look empty, if everything's being used for a special meal? I'm curious. Will it bug you if what's stored in the cabinets, is not perfectly centered?

Also - plan your cabinets around what you WILL be storing. It's a lot more work up front, but you then have a functional solution. The three door solution is more interesting I think because of the contrast (more dark space) than the two door, but I think would be too narrow to be practical. My white serving bowls are ~13" wide, for example - wouldn't fit in either version, if yours are the standard 12" uppers. Or are these cabinets just decorative?

Larger hood looks better.

If you haven't placed the order for the tile, I'd suggest holding off, otherwise that may be another job which has to be re-done.

That's a fun looking sofa in front - is that yours or is it photoshopped? (White sofa plus 4 kids, just wondering...) Good luck, I'll be following with interest. --oldbat2be P.S. Nice work photoshopping!

oldbat2b, the thing that started me on all glass uppers was that after living here, all that is in the uppers is a few spices and white/glass dishes. I'm not worried about what will be in the cabinets. There will be some decorative things, as I expand my vintage pyrex collection and get my hands on some of the pink stuff (you might be able to see my turquoise set in some of the very first photos of my actual cabinets).

The tile is already in production. I'm just trying now to solidify how the 42" on each side of the hood will be set up. This project will take place around March next year, so I have some time to work it out. I also need to decide if I want to hood slanted or straight up and down. I want everything else in the kitchen to remain the same, just trying to rework this one area. I feel like it will be ok if it is different than the rest of the kitchen since it is an area that is kind of set off by the pantry/ovens and can kind of carry its own accent-y style, if that makes sense.

Thanks re: the sofa! I love it. It looks lighter in this photo because of the crappy picture with my on-camera flash. It is light grey, but I did just freak out and oxy-clean some chocolate out of it yesterday! haha. It was relatively inexpensive, and I imagine it will be replaced with the kids are teenagers and theoretically less messy. Unless by some miracle it is still clean by then!

Do you have a preference aesthetically when looking at the 2 wider vs 3 narrower cabs on each side?

Adding lights back in. I think I like the 3 narrower because of the contrast (between dark and light). (I find I'm really drawn to contrast). I added the lights back in, because this is an important part of the decision, too:) But maybe this is a little too busy now...

Also - you will have less room for your backsplash with the larger cabinets.

Thanks! I was too lazy after the other photoshopping to put back in the lights :-) I am leaning toward the 3 also. I am going to draw them out on some big brown rolled paper and hang up later to see "in person"

Three windows looks better in the mockup but if in real life each cabinet cannot hold at least a full size dinner plate it will look odd in real life.

I would make the cabinets narrower and add sconces

After doing the math, each cabinet face opening should be 12", with the doors being 11 13/16" w. I just measured one of our big gumbo bowls, and it fits through. These cabinets would be like 90% decorative, so I'm not super worried about what will fit in it. I plan to fill it with white/glass/pink/turquoise things.

Our main dishes are down below in drawers so I don't have to spend the next 6 years fetching dishes for my kids ;-)

Is that an exterior wall with decent view? If so, what about adding Windows

No, it is interior. The stairs are on the other side.

I think you should keep the two cabinets that have solid doors and change those to glass doors. Remove the skinny cabinets immediately flanking the hood and put pretty sconces there. It'll break up the wall of cabinetry.

I like smm5525's idea.