rtwilliams - You are too kind! What a beautiful kitchen! I wish I could get my kitchen to look like that, but our soffits go over the eating area too, not just the cabinets. If we painted only the soffits white, it would look like the ceiling was low (well, which I guess it is!). Our DIY kitchen remodel is being done on a strict budget. One day, for a future remodel, I hope to have enough funds to get custom cabinets (or at least custom doors) and completely remove (or at least shrink down) the ugly soffits. I can't WAIT for the day when I can take a sledgehammer to them!! It will be SO gratifying!! :) I talked the ideas and photos over with my DH. He doesn't think the crown where the ceiling and soffit meet will work b/c our kitchen has some strange angles and opens up to both the den and foyer so we couldn't continue the crown to envelop the kitchen - it would have to stop awkwardly in a number of places. =/ Sigh - I think, in our case we are going to have to "embrace" the soffit. Maybe I can dress it up with some pretty decorative plates, and add some collectibles over the non soffited cabinets to try to make it look cohesive. Our kitchen is never going to be anywhere Near as gorgeous as the kitchens that are shown on here. It will probably look like most people's before photos. But, we just have to try to be grateful for what we have, and make the best of it. Thank you again, for all of your thoughtful help!

The layout I believe would work best would NOT be an L formation as earlier mentioned. I do think it’s perfectly okay to place a couch back along the stair wall, and would do that, with another couch of the same dimensions facing it, placed along the sliding glass door of the living area. You have three sliding glass doors in that room, and will never use or need all three. It doesn’t make sense to do so. I would leave the center SGD available for easy flow, and arrange your furniture the way it works best in front of the other two SGD. If you do an L formation in the living room, it drastically limits the flow in that area. I would recommend instead to use two couches facing each other, one backed up to the SGD and the other to the stair wall. Then you could even float another short couch or two arm chairs in the center, directly facing the FP, if you wanted. Also love your color choices and the use of headboard or board and batten, as well as the painted kitchen cabinets. I am in the process right now of replacing all my kitchen cabinet doors with newly sprayed white shaker door fronts after already painting all the boxes, and it has completely transformed my space. This is the second home that I’ve done this in and the results are well worth the effort/and/or expense! It will be a lovely room when you’re finished.

Don’t know where you live and I love big windows, but I would think carefully about the summer heat gain from big windows on a south wall. We increased the size of the windows on our south wall and lost some trees and we have way more heat gain than I would have thought or like. You can cover the new windows and that is our next step, but is that what you want? If this could be an issue for you, maybe there is a way to get some more light with strategically placed smaller windows. Of course you have to think about how the outside will look also.

Hi, Chad, The installation of a two-level (high/low) return is a good practice in climates which require both heating and air conditioning. There's a good chance that both are returns if they are aligned vertically. The lower return should be closed when air conditioning and the upper closed during heating mode. This helps with air distribution. With respect to HVAC returns located in closets, the code specifically prohibits them. The mechanical section of the 2018 International Residential Code (IRC) which forms the core of most statewide building codes says this: "M1602.2 (4) Return air shall not be taken from a closet, bathroom, toilet room, kitchen, garage, boiler room, furnace room or unconditioned attic." This doesn't preclude ductwork installation in the closet, just a return into that ductwork from inside the closet.