I think you are going to want more natural light. I was desperate for storage, but even I wish I'd had the budget to increase the size of my only window, even if it meant losing an upper. But mine was a reno, and we didn't have the money to do anything that involved cutting into the outside of the house. When we next do the roof, I want to add one of those small skylights. That is my $.02.

My only regret in our reno earlier this year is that I could not talk my husband into expanding the windows on our sink wall. We have a good size window over the sink but I wanted to put windows along that whole wall over to the pantry. It would have added about 6 feet of window to the kitchen....BUT...the exterior of our house is stone and brick and ours was a DIY reno. My husband just could not wrap his head around cutting into the stone...just would not agree to it. I still love my kitchen but if given the opportunity to increase the windows I would do it in a heartbeat and would happily, gleefully give up the upper cabinets to do so. I say put as many windows in as you can...you will never regret the natural light.

This post was edited by dcward89 on Fri, Sep 19, 14 at 8:07

I would definitely give up uppers for more windows in your case. You've got two additional runs of cabinets,so plenty uppers elsewhere in the kitchen.

And my dining room to kitchen spacing is similar to yours with no problem.

not what you asked, but your sink is really far from your fridge. You will need a prep sink in that island with this layout. You should post your layout for review and ask about eliminating the uppers. You will get lots of good ideas.

Have you measured your stuff and made a plan for where things will go? If you have, and you have enough space for everything, I think you should definitely make the window as big as you can. You have a lot of storage in that kitchen, but only you can say if it's enough. I would have loved to enlarge the window over my sink, but my stuff wouldn't have fit into my new kitchen if I had. :(

We built an addition to our home and moved the kitchen to the new area. We have no upper cabinets in the kitchen. Instead we have 2 walls of windows above the lower cabinets overlooking our back yard and patio area. Since this is a farily large area we have plenty of storage with just lower cabinets. We purchased a down drafted stove to eliminate a vent above the stove. You can cook and look out the windows..... We love it and so does everyone else that comes into our home. It is very peaceful to be working in the kitchen area and look outside to all the greenery as well as watch the kids play. Also there is always plenty of natural lighting.

We took the window that was above the sink in the old ktichen area and made a pass through from the new kitchen to what is now the dining room. The exterior of the house is concrete block so some things we just cannot change...... You won't regret adding more windows.

DEFINITELY more windows in the kitchen. How many and where depends on what kind of view you have out the back of the house where the patio is.

If the view is especially picturesque, then you'd want to go big. A wall of windows, perhaps rearranged the kitchen and breakfast space a bit so more of the kitchen runs along the wall with a view.

If the view isn't anything special, then I'd put a couple more windows in for light and a feeling of spaciousness, but it doesn't make sense to make windows THE feature of your kitchen when there's nothing much outside of them. I'd make the one above the sink a bit more generous and maybe flank the range hood with two windows.

Also, I'm not sure I entirely understand what the breakfast area is. You have enough space there for a full dining room table, and in between the family room and kitchen, it'll function just like a dining room table. This looks like a house with two dining rooms to me.

And you have an awful lot of small doorways in between the garage and the main living areas of the house. We just have one, and even that one can be annoying to navigate through when carrying lots of bags. Could you widen those doorways and not have doors in them?

We will not have a great view in our backyard, unless we get beautiful neighbors ;-) . We would have to plant some trees and create the privacy and view. We probably have about 40 ft of our backyard and then my neighbors backyard would begin.

Having the windows would also help me keep an eye on the kids if they are playing in the backyard.