Thanks all. I think I might just count on light positioning to hide the bulbs. And I'll look for the better-looking ones. I know they are getting better all the time. I should just count on industry to fix it. It's not the plastic part that bothers me because it's usually way up there hidden. The bulb part usually looks wrong. The shellac trick sounds interesting...I can see how that might warm things up some. We have almost entirely swapped out bulbs and fixtures in the house for lower electricity usage so I'm used to the light quality. I used GU-24 fluorescents from Rejuvenation in my last kitchen (and bought their default bulbs) and the light was really good; much better than the HD specials the POs put in my current house. (I really do like that Rejuvenation will stick a fluorescent socket into anything it'll fit in.)

Figuring out a cosmetic fix is easy, but there is a more serious issue to deal with first. If those cinder blocks are sitting on the ground rather than concrete or poured pier blocks, they will sink over time, and perhaps not uniformly. In particular, I notice there is a downspout right next to one of them. In addition, even if they are sitting on proper foundations, they are subject to cracking, and I doubt that they would meet building code in this application. I know this is not the answer you were looking for, but I suggest you have a competent foundation person advise you on what can be done so that the porch doesn't end up totally wonky. On the other hand, if you are ready to replace it soon, then I suggest you just live with it until you can do it properly as I don't see much sense in spending money to put lipstick on a pig.

If you want to remove them it will depend on what type of anchor they used, most likely by looking at the stem they used a wedge anchor this will not come out after it was tightened and if that's the case you would have to cut the stem off... If they used a sleeve anchor, sometimes you get lucky and you can take them out if they over-drilled the hole and you can grab a sleeve (not the stem) and pull it if the not same thing the stem would have to be cut... In any case, you would end up with a hole that would have to be filled and color-matched to each brick. If you want to save yourself all that trouble do what others suggested, use them to hang something or cover with some sort of wall ornament or put a decorative trellis in front, etc. Or plain trellis in front of it with some plant growing on it,

Hello, Thank you all for responding. This is my house and not an apartment. It was designed to have exposed ductwork because the majority of the house has no attic. However, there is a small attic that leads from the garage down the hall to the duct you see in the kitchen then it ends. My husband crawled up there and could feel a pretty cold draft. He grabbed a piece of insulation and blocked it. We haven't had any condensation since then but I'm not convinced the problem is solved. This duct provides heating and air to the majority of the house. If you think this is ugly, you should see my bathroom and living room in my loft. We had a design created by the owner of a heating and air company for exposed ductwork that looked awesome but unfortunately, he died of cancer right before his crew started our house and they had no access to his plan. We later found out they had never done this type of work and it turned out terrible. So now we are slowly trying to fix some of the problem areas. Money is an issue so most of the work will have to be done by us. I like the idea of reconfiguring that space but have no vision of how to do that. I'm not sure I would be able to convince my hubby to do that as well. I've attached more photos of the space that was requested. Thank you, everyone, for your feedback, much appreciated.