I would mull those windows together so that it's one large window first of all. That will need a single larger header rather than 3 individual ones, but the effect will be more than worth that additional expense.

Then, for the wall to the right, I'd do a wall mounted pot hanger to display some pretty copper or other stuff. The cabinet should be a blind corner cabinet, with a door panel on the blind portion facing the shelf. That way you will avoid having the door smack the display, and the shelf could just dog into the cabinet if you chose to do a wooden one. Or, do an L shaped corner cabinet there, and the shelving could be a continuation of the corner very smoothly.

For the left side, is there a reason that the base cabinets don't extend down that way? I don't see doing any shelving or anything else there without some type of base underneath to ground it.

holly - thanks very much for your advice including the details. I understand about combining the windows with one large header. And that was my original idea. But the way it is drawn in the picture I uploaded was done by the Ikea designer that visited me a few days ago. Ikea doesn't do windows so she just put a placeholder... but

I kind of like how she put the three with more separation than I was thinking. Do you think it makes the kitchen have more of a "living room" feel to it? That is how I'm seeing it and I like it, I think. The kitchen will be Ikea modern but the house built in 1935 still seems to maintain a "vintage feel". I'm wondering if keeping the separation between the windows for 8 or 10 inches will keep a slight vintage feel that is not always a bad thing. I don't seem to know what I want here. Guess I need to sleep on it a few more nights.

The left side where there is an obvious break in cabinets is the back door, something that has been a bit of a nemesis. I was thinking of putting a small to medium size art print on that wall, maybe even with a "wall washer" light.

I'm coming to grips with the backdoor because it makes a great recycle prep area - there is a small outdoor porch there. The city authorities seem to be changing our recycle process here and soon will be adding back in glass (they took it away about a year ago). There is room enough to put a large can there and stacks of newspapers and containers of cans. And with easy access to the kitchen, allows me not to feel the need to provide recycle space inside the kitchen.

Considering that Bloomberg is promoting composting in New York for city pickup, I'm thinking it will be here eventually and I'm thinking that porch would be a good place for temporary storage. Times are a changing and with my porch that has a roof and that has steps to driveway (which we rarely use) and is not enclosed except on the door side between porch and house, I think I'm ready.

What do you think about my putting more separation between windows?

inspiration at:

translated to my kitchen - below is elevation of west wall only which includes cleanup sink in the center:

How do these changes affect the home's exterior look? There's nothing worse than having a renovation that is very obvious from the exterior. Ideally, you'd like to have the windows blend in with the existing windows in both size and features so it looks like it belongs.