In my kitchen I'm surrounded by the garden so I have a great view! Plus I have a large window box on the kitchen window so part of my garden is RIGHT there. Love it.

I always notice that, too. I used to have control of the view when I had a larger piece of property...now I live on a city lot. My gardens now (except for climbing roses) are pretty much invisible to me from my windows. I use lace curtains which soften the view.

I once suggested to my next door neighbor that we garden in each other's yard because we saw each other's gardens from our windows.

I am not a gardener, though I've flirtted with the idea in the past. But I do appreciate nice views and beautiful gardens. We could have a lovely view from the kitchen window if DH and I would just get our acts together. We've pledged to each other this is exactly what we're going to do this spring. DH has lots of nice ideas for the yard. I confess that I'm much more likely to take care of gardens that will give me food.

Your roses are lovely, donaleen.

I did and decided to keep the old footprint of the kitchen which is a galley with 3 doors (double french and a dutch door) and added a deepish window seat at the end to add views. I too am a gardener and have been visiting in gardening forums since 90s. When I considered the traffic pattern of my kitchen to figure out placement of the prepsink etc., the walking path to the vegetable beds were as important as the garage.

Donaleen- Those roses are beautiful! I wish I could grow climbing roses :)

We have views out the north, west, and south from our kitchen. Lots of light, and great big windows. Part of the original remodel was to open the view to the south to gain some southern exposure, as well as to keep an eye on the kiddos in the back yard.

Just beyond the south window is where their swings hang from the big maple. It's where we watch "Stuffer" the squirrel make her nest. One day we watched her carry her babies, one at a time, and put them in the hole in the tree. All were compliant, except one. (There's always one, isn't there?!) He clutched the outside of the hole and fought for all he was worth. After him (I'm assuming it was a boy...) she had to go out on a limb and take a break. Had she been human I'm sure she would have been hunkering over a cup of tea on that branch.

We also see out to our outbuildings, which are a menagerie with no fine order. There is my favorite, "the falling down barn" with its aged plank walls. Then there is the big metal barn with its gray-blue sides. Should I match my island to the barn, I've wondered. Then there is the "shop" clad for now in it's tar-papered glory. We tether a few animals out back, and one day I saw our steer happily munching the tar paper off the shop. His curiosity made up for his lack of brightness.

Beyond the buildings are our garden, the fields, and the remains of an old orchard. It is pure pleasure to look out and see my children on an adventure out there, whether it's a snack under the trees, or a group of them heading "west" on the stone boat parked in the orchard, or seeing them jump from hay bale to hay bale and hearing their giggles through the screen door.

Last fall the children and I played "garden fairies" and planted bags and bags of bulbs in the yard. We are really looking forward to seeing them pop up this spring. They will be visible from where? The kitchen windows, of course.

This post was edited by laughable on Thu, Feb 7, 13 at 15:34

Laughable- Please post pictures!

Here's the view from my kitchen window from last winter. Looks much the same this winter :) {{gwi:765260}}From Lavender's Garden

We moved the kitchen from the back of the house to the front, not so much for the view but for the sunlight, though being able to appreciate the view daily is a lovely plus.

We're on a circle with two other houses and boy can I keep track of everyone!

Love seeing everyone's views. We're expecting 1.5 to 2 feet of snow tomorrow, I'll update the picture if we get the blizzard we're supposed to.

OK, LL, here you go: : )It's a steely gray day today, though, so you'll have to use a bit of imagination to bring it to life. Looking south-west (see the missing tar paper?) Lots of wood to be split, courtesy of the town, they removed some of our old trees along the road and dropped them off for us. DH will probably have to build a new tunnel to hold it all:

and south-east. The garden is just beyond that shaggy dog-rose bush.

Directly south: We brought the sheep in close so that the coyotes wouldn't bother them.

Finally, the falling down barn. It's sturdier than it looks. : )

My apologies on the huge pictures. Haven't figured out how to shrink them with the "new and improved(?)" photobucket.

I too see kitchens with unattractive views from the windows. Often, this is due to living in a poorly designed house in the first place. I often walk into houses where the windows were placed in terrible location without any attention to the light and views. Unless the homeowner is willing to put in a LARGE amount of money to completely reconfigure the windows and the placement of the rooms in the house, this may not be a problem that can be remedied in a reasonable way. Most of us do not have an unlimited budget so you live with what cannot be changed easily (inexpensively).

Regarding how to deal with unattractive views: HERE are some ideas.

1. place high windows: clestorey window so you get the light but not the view. For example, I have seen windows placed above the upper cabinet. This also allows you to have wall cabinets if you are short on wall space and yet have light coming in.

2. sandblasted glass or rippled/patterned glass. Again, light but not the view. (I did with my backdoor and it made a huge difference versus a solid door with no light. My neighbor house looks hideously bad from my backdoor! ) This works well if you need privacy from the neighbor or the street.

3. I have seen shoji type of windows work well. You put in opaque glasses that mimic Japanese shoji windows. This will work in certain type of architecture.

4. indoor wooden shutters also work where you can leave the uppers open and lowers closed. (You do not need to modify the window.) Other creative window coverings, top down blinds etc.

5. put in a small accent window that creates whimsy but does not focus on the view. I have seen odd shaped windows (6 inches to 1 ft wide but tall etc) in interesting places that add to the charm of place.

6. If you cannot have a direct view, you should at least strive for a side view. I am not sure how to explain this but if your sink window faces a dark alley, you should open up the side of the kitchen to the back yard through the eating area, for example.

7. I personally do not like island seating where the people have no where to look outside of the kitchen. I see a lot of people put in islands where the diners only look at the wall of cabinets and the range. That would depress me to eat there. I know that restaurants do that but this is my house and I would not like it.... I find every important field of view in a house should have a glimpse of the outdoors and light. Most people need the connection to the natural light as much as possible.

Another way to put this: avoid creating spaces where you are forced to look at solid walls/spaces rather than natural light and outdoors.

Hey, we did exactly what is suggested above in 6, so really considered the view. Our kitchen window looks out onto our neighbor's siding. We are a corner lot in the burbs. So, we closed the window above the sink to get more storage space, and added a side door to the garden to get light. Reno starts mid-March, so we'll see how it goes. We thought alot about it, in terms of not having a window above the sink, and decided that since the view was so ugly, it would be o'kay. I hope I don't feel claustrophobic when doing dishes.

My view is my neighbor's house across our adjacent driveways. Don't think I will be enlarging our windows.

We didn't consider the view as much as we considered the natural light, but the view itself isn't bad. From the two large south facing windows, I can see the flower beds and split rail fence, the road which isn't overly busy, and the hay field on the other side of the road. There is a small window facing east where I can see the driveway and the woods.

We bought the lot for the view.

Take yourself back about 11 months ago...I was panicked over the placement of my itty bitty kitchen window over the sink because it was too high (and too far to the right). So the foreman moved it to the left as directed in the plan. And then he and Adnon, oh, I mean my dh, got into a little "discussion" about the height of the window. He didn't want to move it for a 2nd time. My husband stood him in front of the window and said, "Dave, the creek runs across the window sill, we paid a lot of extra money for this view, get the creek off the window sill and into the window". Foreman just looked out the window and said "ok".

:)

We have a lot of windows on the back of the house that face our creek. OUr breakfast room has a great view, and In fact we added a sitting room off the bedroom right above the breakfast room, with lots of windows so we can sit and look at the water. We have maximized the view.

Absolutely! We almost decided not to open up the kitchen with new windows because the new views aren't nearly as nice as the other views but ultimately we rated the new view as your average city lot at worst but perhaps a tad better since we could see parts of the mountains and end of our lake. The view we're opening up is so so but for us it was about getting the natural light in and being able to have it at our eye level.

Our neighbor's house is directly across about 60' away from the new windows going in. It's a 2 story to our ranch so though it's a reasonable distance away (by many standards for side lots) it still doesn't feel as good as a nice big tree. The side views though are nice.

Once we decided on putting windows in, we decided to add some temporary plantings while the more valuable plants/trees take hold. We're definitely gardening to the new kitchen windows. As the years go on, the area will just get prettier and prettier.

I'm hoping to see other's views from their kitchen window....good and bad.

I definitely considered the views. The main one would be a lovely brickscape, i.e. my next door neighbor's wall 8 feet away, hence there are no windows in either of my appliance runs. Ah, the joys (?) of city living.

Donaleen I would kill for the view of those beautiful roses. Everyone's views above are just gorgeous. I won't be posting my view out the breakfast room view any time soon. :)

The rose is John Davis. Here it is from the front.

Thanks to all who admired my rose. It is John Davis and is a very hardy rose. I ordered it from Cornhill Nursery when I still lived in Massachusetts... it is very hardy (zone 3).

Here is a link that might be useful: Cornhill Nursery John Davis

I walked over to my windows to assess this!

Kitchen view now - neighbor's white siding (80%), privet hedge (10%), sliver of sidewalk (10%).

Kitchen view future - from sink - sky 30%, streetscape (trees, sidewalk, houses) 30%, driveway 20%, sliver of my garden, 10%.

- future patio door - ugly wood deck 45%, ugly huge BBQ 5%, trees and houses 20%, sky 30%.

At least it will be slightly more interesting? Might have to get around to fixing up the deck!

Yes, I considered the view. I have a view of the neighbor's house. They have a view of my kitchen window out of a couple of their windows. The previous owner in my house used a fabric valance in the kitchen window to screen the neighbor's view of the inside of the home. Since we have only the one kitchen window, I wanted as much light as possible, so I removed the valance and mounted a stained glass panel with a pattern of obscured glass, bevels, and some colored glass to provide a screen if any neighbors should decide to look into the kitchen from the house next door.

Unfortunately, we do not have the option of opening up the kitchen to a nice garden view, so when we did add a window, we gave it the very best view the kitchen had, - of the sky! Click below to see the entire stained glass panel and the new skylight.

Here is a link that might be useful: Skylight

My kitchen remodel hasn't started yet, probably won't be complete for a year or so but... I have definitely thought about the view from the windows. We live on a small very urban city lot - 50 ft wide in a very old neighborhood - our house is 85 years old. Our kitchen window(s) will view our narrow driveway and the neighbors fence and house 10 ft away.
So... my plans are to put in a very narrow pergola that will extend across the top of the kitchen windows - maybe 6 ft wide and 2 ft deep (that is all the room I have).
But.. in our climate which is rather warm, bougainvilleas do quite well. My plan is to have 3,4 or maybe more baskets of bougainvilleas hanging from the pergola (they bloom best when pot bound). If I treat them right (they use special fertilizer) and don't water them too much (they are desert flowers), I think I can expect to have a view of beautiful, bounteous, vivid tropical bougainvilleas for at least 9 months of the year (the other three, I will toss the pots/baskets in the garage, not even worry about watering ) and bring out in March. That's my plan anyway.

beekeeperswife: your dining room killed me and sent me to heaven. It's absolutely glorious.

Love the roses around the window. My guest room will have that view one day, as my Zepherine continues to grow.

We busted out the entire back of the house for the view of the beautiful 1/2 acre back yard. So yes, we definitely considered the view.

We took out the back wall of the house ,off of the kitchen ,to install more windows and French doors. The skylights were already there . We made this our sunroom and had antique brick installed to make the walkways and patio. I did the landscaping and painted/ refinished the antique lawn furniture. All of this was to give us views and access to more light. Our kitchen is in the middle of the house and there was no way to move it. We added a skylight over the area where the Twins "live" :) I love the sun shining on the honey-colored 120 year old heart pine floors. It is nice to be able to step out into the garden and pic herbs and wash them at the old soapstone sink in the sunroom.

Wow, so many of you have fantastic views out your kitchen windows. My view is not bad at all, but still not nearly as gorgeous as some of yours. When we redid our kitchen we did not change any windows so what I had is what I still have.
Here is my view this fine winter morning. There is a swimming pool out there under all the snow so not a bad view in the summer either.
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This post was edited by badgergal on Fri, Feb 8, 13 at 10:57

Yes! That was one of my top priorities for our kitchen remodel that I fought hard for. DH wasn't sold, but now that it's done, he's so glad we did it. The back of our house has the only really good views in the entire house, so I wanted to capitalize. We put in a large window down to the counters and a sliding glass door in the adjoining breakfast room created from enclosing a back porch.

Although I don't have a pic showing the view directly outside of the window, it's of our backyard with gardens that the PO put in that we're working to bring back to life.

Before:

After:

Breakfast Room:

Yes, we did...the view and the southern exposure were both keys in our house design.

Of course today picture it with no leaves and a lot more snow and ice....

Hey Badgergal, our views look pretty similar, lol.

I just love to look outside and have sunshine no matter if my views have been big or small.

And yes, there are so many beautiful views in this thread.

We bought our little place for the site, so we're taking down a wall between the kitchen and what will be the dining porch for this south view:

(today)

(summer)

The kitchen window is getting bigger for this west facing view:

I am looking forward to planting and also to seeing chickens out my kitchen window again someday! Chickens in the yard make for a great view. Highly recommend them. :)

Oh, my everyone lives out in the country. How can cities so crowded?

We have kind of an odd configuration. The work side of my kitchen has only one window above the sink, which faces out to the back and has a view of the water in winter, a partial waterview in the summer with woods. 10 years ago, we added a new family room off the back, but needed a new back entry and the only conceivable solution was to enclose part of the deck that was directly in front of the window. There are French doors opening into that small room so we left the "window" over the sink in place as it is now basically an opening that still has the same view through the French doors.

We are now starting the process of designing a renovation to our kitchen. It would be nice to totally reconfigure the layout and move the sink, and add in a prep sink but so far, I can't find a better place for the main sink. Additionally, that one window we have faces west, there are no windows on the wall that faces south. The south wall currently has the fridge, range and cabinetry, and also faces my neighbor's house. I'm contemplating moving the fridge, adding more counter to the left of my range with a prep sink there and a smaller window there just to let some light in. Only problem is that the spot I'd need to put the window is almost directly across from the window over my neighbor's sink. They are not friendly, outgoing people, they keep to themselves in our neighborhood so it would be awkward to be looking right at each other at dinnertime (my previous neighbors it would have been fine - the window in our mudroom looks across to the windows in their breakfast nook and our toddlers at the time used to chat back and forth across the windows)!

We never intended to be in this house this long (16 yrs). This was to be a 3 year starter home as dh was in the Navy and we planned to move, but he decided not to make the Navy a career and we are still here. Had I known, I would have designed our house totally differently, but now we are just trying to make do with what we have.

That was a very long winded way to say that I love the view from my kitchen window!

I was taking pics for another thread so took a pic out my kitchen window today....more snow to come!

My neighbors and I all have acerage that goes straight back in strips. Had we known this, we probably wouldn't have come out to look. The good news is that no one can develop, (Open space) so we have this huge, 6.5 acre vista across the back. Down the hill at the back, I have 1/2 acre of woodland + creek.

When we bought, it was for the night sky. Moving out of DC (off Rock Creek Park), we were flabbergasted at the black velvet sky with diamond stars. I still love this when I come home from work at night. The moon can be huge! Here is the first and so far the last time a night sky picture has turned out for me:

After we had a fire, I decided I'd never be caught in a room without outside egress again. After living in one dark room (with 7 cats, 4 dogs, litter boxes, no electricity or plumbing or heat) with Tyvek paper covering what would someday be a window, I started saving for sliders. I wanted a view other than the diagonal blue word "Tyvek". I wanted light, air, and to see outside. I over compensated inside with pot lights, which I've since toned down, but I didn't want to live in a cave anymore.

I have a funny story like the creek story above: My DH put the window in over the kitchen sink. I admit, I'm so anal I thought lining the top of it up with the slider would be fine. He could see out of it. See? Here he is (The best side of him, these days):

However, I could only look up and see the underside of our collapsing back porch.

Later, when I started saving to hire people to do things I couldn't, I asked this fellow to move the window down.
I said, "See? The view is horrible."
He said, "Huh? I think the barn and field look great."
I said, "Oh. Would you please squat down (to my 5'2") height and look out?"
He did, and said, "Oh, I see what you mean." and moved the window. Now, though? When I get countertops, I'm going to move it again and make it counter height. Anyway:

This was my view in 2009 from the MBR and dining room sliders, I see this, moving from left to right:

I had a serious bout with water damage and termites in 2010 and had to have the barn rebuilt. I'm wondering if you guys remember my story with this gun hired to rebuild the barn, its red color, and the $1000 he disappeard with? But here is my amazing, red barn view now in the fall:

My porch is being rebuilt (again, same guy), the barn will be repaired (again) and my dog fence will be put in properly. Slowly but surely.

And the back and night view remind me daily why I don't think I could ever go back to the city.

As we work on the remodel of the main house, we are all living here in a tiny 2 bedroom apt with a 7x9 kitchen with 6ft of countertop, a single portable induction with a kitchen table *in* the kitchen against the window. We all fight for the seat by the window so that we can see the view. Our mossy garden path and a brugmansia. DD8 loves to sit here and pretend that the brugmansia fairy who lives inside the trumpets, flits down and talks to her. Only humans with at least 1 baby tooth can see her. The brugmansia fairy does not like chip and dale the squirrels and is really scared of Rusty, the neighbors simply enormous orange tabby.

Well, it's certainly a great view... and I can still see fairies.

My lovely view (now don't go getting jealous;) :

While the window is basically worthless, at least it's a window and not cabinets. I think I'd feel claustrophobic doing the dishes with cabinets right in my face.

If I were designing a new house/kitchen the view would be important, but I wouldn't worry too much about it unless there was something spectacular (or equally horrible) to see.

We are on what is a good-sized urban lot in the San Francisco Bay Area. The house is laid out on an east/west axis but took absolutely no advantage of being halfway up the hill with an unobstructed eastern hillside view. Despite being in the middle of the city, no one can see inside our windows. We remodeled from two tiny windows placed so that you couldn't see out of them without straining, to this new configuration.

There are now five picture windows across the entire back of the house (3 above the counters, 2 above those), rising up to a vaulted ceiling. With an open plan for the LR, DR and kitchen, I no longer have to use any artificial lighting from an hour before sunrise to an hour after sunset.

Sometimes when I come up in the early morning, I just stand there and watch the dark blue night sky slowly turn sunrise colors across the clouds. It is spectacular, and everybody else is asleep so I just drink my first cup of coffee in absolute peace and beauty.

I love how the light changes through the day, not just outside but inside. I lost some upper cab storage with these windows, but it was worth it. The hills turn spectacular colors, the sky is all shades of blue, the moonrises knock your socks off.

Because our lot slopes downward, the patio and backyard is a full two stories below these windows. So I pay more attention to what this bed looks like from above, than what it looks like at ground level. The backyard extends another 80' with a second patio, but a large silver maple which is at the other end of that covered lanai, screens that area from the line of sight looking out from the house.
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We feel we get the best of both worlds. We live in a vibrant, exciting area with every convenience and full services nearby; a snug comfortable cottage with a gorgeous fully landscaped garden along with scenic views and natural light to die for. And so far (knock on wood) good neighbors too, which is even more important in the city [smile].

This post was edited by jkom51 on Fri, Feb 8, 13 at 23:59

Wonderful views everyone! I love the blue wall, lol.

Here is my winter view from my small kitchen window, in two takes. One angle on the right where a young steer is drinking from the water tank that is kept thawed by my DH and his supply of wood that he gathers every year:
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The view on the left is of the west side of the barn where we can keep a few head of cattle that need the separate space. In case you don't know, cattle will get depressed if they don't have another herd mate with them, so there is room for about 4 head, easily in this pen:
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Edited to add that historically this view was important to watch the heifers in the west lot for signs of heat, then they would get "AI'd" (artificial insemination) using selected sperm for first time calving ease.

This post was edited by enduring on Fri, Mar 8, 13 at 10:43

When I met with the KD and she asked what I wanted - I pointed to a kitchen with mountains in the background - we both laughed cause no mountains around here.

I do have a garden window that looks out into a Spruce tree and part of our garden -but we are a corner house with a street not too far away - but no one sees us due to the tree...

I'm about light rather than views. My house is a narrow (19' wide) Brooklyn brownstone, and the kitchen area is at the back of the house and leads out into our mini (19' x 45') backyard, which is fenced in on three sides. Beyond our yard is the back of the brownstones on the next block. So up to top-of-fence level you're looking at garden/greenery; above that, it's the back walls of the other houses. An urban backyard view, but nothing like the farmland or lovely landscaping of some other GWers.

We are doing away with an attached mudroom and two narrow windows to bring in what light we can to the north-facing kitchen area. We are going to add a header so we can have the garden-facing wall of the kitchen be all French doors/floor-to-ceiling windows. We'll also do a little more in the garden so it's pleasant to look at.

Zeebee, that sounds wonderful. I would love to see it when your done, or in the process.

We plan to block a window that looks straight across into our neighbor's house and replace it with a window on the back wall looking into our yard. When I asked the guy who built the house 25 years ago why he put the window in such a stupid place, he said "that other house wasn't there when I built yours". When we bought the place it wasn't so bad, because there was a row of healthy Italian Cypresses between the houses, but thos have suffered from mites to the point where they are now way too "see through".

Yes. We have a terrible view. Our cinder wall, the neighbors chain link fence and lovely corrugated metal is a mere 8 ft away from our kitchen window.

We tried to figure out a way to reconfigure so that the kitchen faces backyard, but could not do so without Major renovations to rest of house and 2nd story.

We put in a wall fountain that looks really cool at night.
We are also going to smooth stucco the cinder wall and put some Tall Bamboo in planter boxes to hide the very unlovely view.

Quite different from our wooded view from our last house in CT, but
sometimes one has to make the best of what one has. :-)

Sometimes an unlovely view like mine of my neighbor's house, Olivemom's blue siding next door, Caliente63's view through diseased cypress trees, or Drybean's block wall with a new fountain get livened up by simple visitors like a few sparrows. Birds used to nest in the dryer vent next door, and kept me amused while doing dishes. Drybean has the right idea - even a small space can host a pleasant plant, some water, or other diversion to draw nature into view.

Maybe I will place a climbing plant on my rusty chain link fence this year!