What style is the house? It's hard to give any advice on one room alone when it needs to be unified with the rest of the house. Yes the room looks quite dark.

Great looking cabinets. Keep the walls light colored and the room is not too dark. I like the lights you have for your room but they wouldn't have been my first choice. If you do opt to change your lights, consider adding color with stained glass.

There are dark ones:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41IF5n6etgL.SX342.jpg

and those less dark:

http://www.smashingstainedglass.com/image_manager/attributes/image/image_33/1098291627_4241080848.jpg

http://www.destinationlighting.com/images/products_list1/289/460289~list.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41-fljKCHfL.SX342.jpg

You can even get stained glass for your ceiling fan in the next room.

http://photo.foter.com/photos/pi/258/ceiling-fans-with-stained-glass-details-about-stained-glass-ceiling-fan-and-light-shades-of-blue-48-in.jpg

Here are some design ideas:

Here's our new 60' family room. The Windows perfectly frame our mountain range. I want to paint it Silky White, Behr. Our furniture is transitional and I don't intend to decorate in a southwest motif. Any suggestions? Oh and all walks of the house are poured concrete, so no wall removals allowed.

I love your house! I think the ceiling works great with the rest of the space, so keep it. Can you paint these walls the same Behr white? Then look for brighter lights. If those two don't do it for you, then you might consider a lighter countertop. But the overall feel of this space is so very cool.

I think the tin ceiling looks like faux-loft-industrial, so I would get rid of it. It may have just been a cloudy day, but it looks very dark inside. Maybe you just need more lighting and some lighter paint to lighten and brighten. I would love to see the view from that long row of windows.

How about using the ceiling's reflective quality to brighten your kitchen? Right now your pendant light fixtures are shining all the light down onto the dark counters which absorb much of it. If you replace the fixtures with a type that allows the light to shine upward as well as down you might have more reflected light. HERE is the type I mean. Also, I can't tell if there are lights below the cabinets, but adding under-cabinet lights will also brighten the entire kitchen. Since replacing so many fixtures can be costly, you might want to buy one to see if this helps before replacing all of them. Also, the three lights at the end of the counter seem (can't see it clearly) to be part of a track system, so I'm not sure if my recommendation would work with that.

Felizlady, here is the view....

Mindshift, I agree about the lighting. It's horrible! I've found a few things I like but will wait to move in before I order lighting. There's a beautiful granite I might use called Blanco. It's white with brown and grey veins and chunks of grey quartz in it. That would probably help lighten things up too. Here's a photo.

The tin is still wrong. With the organic shapes, the use of natural timbers, south west stylings etc. the harsh grid of (faux or real) tin does not suit. It's down-right tacky in fact, the use of it here is a strike against the home. I don't intend to sound mean here. Perhaps it could be reused in an outdoor gazebo, or...? Donate to Habitat? Etc.

No worries Rusty Empire. While I'm sure the previous owners spent a lot on it( it was originally for a local restaurant they were working with) it just doesn't go. In time we might extend the entire kitchen out several feet and since this roof is separate we might take it off and raise it. Many possibilities as budget allows.

These pendants from Pottery bar might do the trick. I could do a single on each side of the bar and a 3 tier in the middle. I would do LEDs vs the Edison bulbs. I don't like the yellow light. Thoughts?

Very cool house. I'm feeling that the ceiling and lighting needs to change. The pendants are not giving off enough lighting in the space and what lighting they do give off is being absorbed by the wood cabinetry.

Pendants are great ambient lighting but this space needs more. If possible and the tin allows for it I would try to get some led recessed cans throughout the kitchen. Do you love the stain on the wood? Down the road I would consider a re-stain with a opaque weathered (light) gray look, I think you have enough stained wood in that reddish shade throughout the house, Lighter countertops and lighter walls-not pure white and no yellow cast stick to the white shades that have a hint of gray to offset the effect of reddish-orange the stained cabinets are creating. One other tip, I would lose the tin in the backsplash, use a nice reflective glass.

Great advise Murphy's Design! I love grey, but thought I had to stick with the wood color throughout the house, as a design rule. If not, that sets me free to really update the house! All the cabinets in the 5 bathrooms are just like this, so changing to a grey tone would be wonderful. LED recessed lights shouldn't be a problem. What do you think of the pendants I posted above your comment? I like Blanco granite which has quartz veins of brown and lots of grey with a white background.