Why on earth would you get rid of the clerestory windows? Put them back. That’s s very shortsighted. They suit the architecture of the house. Late Century Contemporary is very desirable. As are those windows.

You need to put the brakes on here. You are in the middle of remuddling things that shouldn’t be touched.

Fire the carpenter and whomever had been hacking the design work here. There’s are not qualified and they are ruining your house. Hire a kitchen designer. ASAP.

put back the windows. install the heat proof double or triple paned glass. (I have it on my bay window and you can't feel any heat at all). if the view bothers you, then have an obscure glass or a leaded glass of some sort.

you can still put boxes in, below the windows. Or, just do taller cabinets like they've done here

perhaps the arched windows aren't helping, but what do you think about the rectangle windows in the kitchens above?

and you can do those boxes w/the glass above the cabs you have, and still keep the windows above that. I'd do the windows as pictured, in the examples.

Even decent designers can throw out a turkey. That’s a turkey. And it probably costs as much as replacing everything. And ASID doesn’t have anything to do with kitchen design. Or functionality.

I’m still trying to figure out why Sophie called your cabinet maker a hack? What did he do so far?? It looks like you are just in the beginning stages of taking apart your kitchen...

why couldn't you design them like this, and use newer, longer clerestory windows? That way you can keep the design element of the home, but update the look

this is a crude photo shop,,but you get the idea.

use this type of window, over the add-on boxes

or something a bit more traditional looking, if you prefer.

and if you could move your stove top to the other side, you could make that middle portion, between the windows, a perfect spot for the hood vent.

I think the point is that people don't usually worry too much about the view through windows that are 8 feet (at least?) off the ground-- but they do often care about natural light.

Thanks for the added info darsaj. My opinion, if you are going to go ahead with your current plan; lose the small horizontal boxes. Have your cabinet maker make two new cabinets that match the others in height--so all bottom cabinets the same going across. Keep your glass doors in the 18" cabinets. I'm still thinking about the others. So far, I'm not a fan of the decorative trim because it looks like a PAIN to clean.

Sounds like you are figuring out just what will work best for you. Good luck with everything, and please post pictures for us when you are done :)

Really nice! I think it was good idea to close though windows, they wasn't adding light or nice elements to your kitchen. We had to do design around our windows as they provid only light in kitchen itself (family room next with tons of windows) and made our kitchen more unique.

For your trim and crown--I would play around with some different size pieces from your local store until you find what you like best--they are easily returned if you don't make cuts. The total 9" trim and crown you suggested may look heavy on top of the 18" stacked glass cabinets. There is no way you are going to fill that 20" space with moldings--so don't even try--just a pretty molding on top, maybe 4-5" total should look nice.

I'm excited to see it coming together for you, and hope you will post a few completed pix :)

Suggestion....use the top of your window as a guideline to how high the finished cabinets should be. Also, your top cabinets right next to your window should be angled instead of straight, to look better and not block light coming in from your window sides.

BTW, the suggestion of having horizontal windows is not that easy to do bc you would have to put in headers for these new windows, and that can be expensive to do.

Bridge would look good....maybe a bridge that accommodates lighting?

Seen it in someone else house....so instead of a 90 degree angle the side of the upper cabinet next to the window would be slanted away from the window. Plus make it 8” away from the window instead of butting tight against the window. This way light from window is not blocked.

Or have glass cabinets next to the window to lighten the look instead.

Btw 5 1/4 to 5 1/2” crown moulding should look good. Any extra space can be filler in to achieve the upper cabinet height you are after.

It seems to be coming together really well--So pretty :) Thanks for sharing updates!