"Could you frame out the larger mirror in wood trim and stain to match new mirror so that it would be a mirror then a mirror?" ThatÂs what I was thinking about doing. I wanted to solve the technical problems first, of how to hang, and the aesthetic issue, of would it look right in the first place. I stained other oak shelves in the room to match the vanity, so could do that. (The craftsman mirror is not oak, like the vanity, though: I think it is rubberwood. If I framed the big one I would have to use oak, but could probably get it to match well enough.) Assuming the cables are attached to screws in the studs over the big mirror, I could conceal that, maybe, by having the wood trim on the big mirror pass over that, with a small hollow in the back. The big mirror goes almost wall to wall on the sides, and right up to the round base of the light fixture above, so if I framed it out, whatever I did would have to float on the surface of the mirror and be adhered with glue.

Anything can be done ... all it takes is time and money! There are 2 ways to do this. Frame out the open tray area and you end up with a flat ceiling at the lower level. Probably the easier and cheapest option, but the value of the house will be affected with the lower ceilings. The other way is to take out the boxed/soffit areas around the perimeter and have the flat ceiling all at the higher height. The problem is that there might be HVAC, water, drain, electrical and other things hidden in these areas. They would all need to be rerouted to allow for the flat ceiling at the higher level. You can make exploratory holes in the soffits to see what is hidden in there and then do a mix of lower and higher ceilings in different rooms, depending on how much works needs to be done and the budget available. Your friend can also go up in the attic of these homes and see if she can see how these trays were framed and what utilities might be in the way. She might want to bring a contractor during a second visit to a property she likes and ask to inspect the attic. Some of those attics can be tight to maneuver in, so you need to know what you are doing, lest you slip and put a foot through someone else's bedroom ceiling!

@Yardvaark It's my partner's house. I don't think he thought this through to the very end when he started. His only goal was the "cut back the hill for more flat lawn in the back and use the sand to make the lawn level up front". I can take more pics when I'm there next time. I wish I had before pics so you could see the difference. This used to be a very closed-in mostly grassless pine and hemlock grove with a house plopped down on the edge of it. There were trees everywhere, very little sun reached the back (west) or side (north) of the house. Once he got the trees removed (some of the big 100-200 yr old pines were professionally removed, but we've done the hemlocks ourselves), the grass started growing, and once he saw he could have a real lawn, he hasn't stopping digging and moving the sand around. It started as digging out the stumps, and it's been non-stop digging anything that can be dug and spreading the sand in other places for over 4 years. It's only now that he's gotten close to the line of driveway reflectors that he used to mark where he wanted to stop digging back to that he's considered that a sheer drop off of sand under an azalea that is floating at eye level (with roots sticking out at chest level) isn't going to be easy to landscape. He saved the last couple of Hemlock trunks we took down so he has 6-7' logs he can possibly use to make a retaining wall, but I'm getting the twitchy (skeptical) eye looking at them. I'll take better pics next time I'm there. It's truly a landscaping nightmare. He will not invest much money into landscaping. It took 5 years of deliberation to buy the birch trees he'd wanted all that time, and only then because they were discounted at the end of the season (the road is called Birch Lane). He refuses to buy any annuals (waste of money, he says). Perennials need to be 95% sure to survive and come back, so he will only buy 1 or 2 plants a year until he's sure it will come back (so creeping phlox, virginia spiderwort, chives, chocolate mint, periwinkle (which is invasive but he doesn't care), hostas, solomon's seal, lily of the valley, azaleas, rhododendrons, maidenhair ferns, lilacs, and day lilies are the only proven plants so far - most of them shade plants and he's reducing the shade more and more). The exception is if I can find it for free (like on freecycle) and the western red cedars he planted for privacy screening after we removed the hemlocks from the back. Something that can be started from seed would be great since seed is cheap, I can just buy it for him and he's not stressed out about wasting his money on things that won't be successful - with a caveat that he's also reluctant to water things as much as they really need because "water isn't free". So, that's what I'm working with, and I admit I am pretty over my head right now because I have no idea how to deal with the sand. The erosion problem is, in my mind, a serious one, but apparently the town doesn't mind that part of his hill (in the front, the road frontage, not back here where this project is) washes out into the road when it rains hard, so we're concentrating on making the back yard nicer since the front hill is basically impossible to fix without a huge investment in retaining wall (which he will not do - he already invested $30,000 in replacing the windows and he doesn't plan to keep this house since it is just his first starter home). I'll get more pics!

if you definitely don't want to move appliances or change existing cabinets, then the shallow reach-in pantries like those posted above would work fine for your space and look good. how long have you lived with this kitchen? if you had been using it for years and like the layout, kudos to you! but if this is a new house to you, then yeah, think really hard about whether or not you can live with that layout. our kitchen is pretty but odd. we've put up with for nearly three years, and figured out how to work with it. so we could spend less, just get new countertops and call it a day. it would be so easy. but ultimately, I know we'd regret it. a more functional layout will be worth it if you can afford it!