"If most of the year your trees aren’t in full leaf, why would you consider sacrificing storage for say, 4 months of a shaded kitchen?"

There is a quiet beauty in the winter months -- it may not be a green view, but that doesn't mean it's not a lovely view. Storage may be able to be addressed in other ways, especially if it one is storing stuff in the kitchen that isn't used on a daily or weekly basis. Purging of "stuff" goes a long way, too. I'd absolutely take a big window with oodles of natural light over two cabinets any day.

We have a downward ventilation in the stove - it's not an induction stove, I don't think. It was the same in the original stove top, and without major "surgery" could not be changed, so no plans for a ceiling mounted ventilation. The downward one works pretty well, we find. We're in North Indiana - so it's dark in here from May through most of October. It's the one thing I love about Indiana winter! I get light, especially with snow on the ground. Still....not enough for me! I would really like to not have to put lights on over the summer. We could take some trees down, and we have done that, but even the few trees out there still block a lot of light.

I'll agree with mxk3 " I'd take out those uppers and make that whole wall from the ovens to the cabinets into a giant window ". You will not regret it at all.

You could expand the window and change the backs of the existing cabinets to glass. Natural light would go through the cabinets and you would keep the storage. You could all run glass shelves in front of an expanded window to preserve storage.

If I decide not to remove cabinets, I WOULD put in a bay window or even a garden window (as long as it didn't look like a garden window, but had nice wood trim between each panel - not sure if that exists anywhere) , so more light is in my future - But it's interesting to see how many people value the light over the storage, as I lean that way myself. One hard thing about the decision is that i just build the cabinet doors for those two cabinets. sigh. I just had decided not to remove them, and to make the doors, and now, as you can see, I am rethinking.

Joseph - that's interesting - I've never seen that done.... sounds very contemporary.

See attached

hmm! that's interesting! It even looks a little traditional. Not sure how I feel about it, but thank you for thinking out of the box and for sharing it!

Once they are filled with items, especially not clear, the light effect diminishes.

I don’t think that garden windows bring light into the kitchen, the light seems to sit there in the box.

You can always find storage somewhere else in the house, natural light not so much. Perhaps there is a nearby wall where you can repurpose those cabinets?

good thought. Maybe I could put them in a different room, but no where in the kitchen. That's interesting about the garden window. I've never heard that. I guess I've never talked to anyone about garden windows....

I'm not a fan of anything over about 3000k...too institutional feeling for me- like i live in a Walmart. At night, I want warm light. During the day, I want sunlight. Not sure why I am so picky - but I am.

Depending on the direction your windows face, you may not get that much more light on the counters you are using.

Experiment with mirrors on the sides of the cabinet windows. You may be able to bounce light into the room.

Bigger window and prune the trees again. It looks like you can get about twice as much glass area to let in light.

I'm a natural light diva. It just really impacts my mood. I'd remove those cabinets in a heartbeat. A good purge and rearranging of all your cabinets and you can find a way to make it work. Put your least used spices in the pantry and your most used in a top drawer near your cooking space.

I don't think bumping out in to a garden window or bay is going to do much to bring more light in to the room. It will just bring more light into the bumped out area. Also realize that you are significantly limiting light by having the soffit. Without the soffit light will be able to reflect off of your entire kitchen ceiling. I wouldn't invest in a new window unless you removed the soffit in the window area. I'd keep it above the cabinets. I hate a cabinet gap to the ceiling almost as much as I hate a dark room!

Kendrah - you would remove the soffit over the sink and leave it over the cabinets? I've thought of that, but I'm afraid it would look weird. I do think you are right that it definitely limits the light that comes in.

Sorry but better lighting is the answer and IMO LED 4000K is the close mimic to bright daylight which is what you are after .3000K is yellow and mimics old incandecsent lighting which was never great and changed colors at night . BTW while you are doing the reacoing you might want to check out some inserts for the base cabinets that allow for pullout shelving to make those more accessible a counter depth fridge would also help and not black. IMO many things are not ideal in that space but a full overhaul apparently is not in the plan so you have a way to add lighting without a garden window which bTW will not help much with natural light

I think the garden window is out.... so is more LED lighting in any color. I just hate white lights inside my house, especially at night. Not cozy at all. I do thinking bringing the glass in closer to the sink might help a lot, even if I don't enlarge the space - because of the the inverse square law of light (I'm a photographer). Right now, it's 18 inches back, and the light falls off logrithmically as the distance increases. If I brought it in, it would bounce against the top of the soffit more than it does. I do have pull out shelving in my island. The rest of the bottom cabinets are drawers, except the lazy susan and under my s ink. Thank you for the suggestions, Patricia!

I had not realized how deep your sill is. Yes, if you can eliminate that extra depth it would help a great deal with brining in light. I'd take down the cabinets and soffit on your window wall and make a wider, taller window with shallower sill.

Here are some pics of where a large crown and cabinet cut short of the window. Your situation feels a little different because your soffit extends beyond your cabinets, and the remaining portion of soffit on the left side of the window could end up slightly odd shaped because of the angle there.

In addition to not having a lot of natural light, I think your extra deep soffits contribute a bit to the cave like feeling.

I am with you on not loving LEDs. I have flush mounts on my kitchen ceiling and still use incandescents in them. Shhhh. Don't tell the bulb police! And while I get you really need to bring more natural light in, you have nothing illuminating the center area of your kitchen or throwing light up on to the ceiling. I think a good lighting design in addition to your window will go a long way. I also can't take an LEd above 3000 but have learned to appreciate them at times.

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Since you're painting your cabinets white, consider white appliances instead of stainless steel which will help bounce more light around as well as avoid the choppiness of SS rectangles on the perimeter.

We recently remodeled our kitchen because it was dark and disproportionately small for the size of the house. Even with adding much larger windows, lightening the finishes, enlarging an adjacent dining room doorway to a cased opening to borrow natural light from that space, trimming trees...the kitchen still requires light during the day so it was critical to come up with a lighting plan for both day and night.

Using layered lighting on different dimmer switches gives us options. The kitchen can be softly lit using only under counter lights and lights in upper cabinets with glass doors, wall sconces near the sink for a little boost, island pendants - or everything cranked up including ceiling lights when cooking at night or using the island countertop for a non-cooking project.

There are different colors and bulbs for LED lighting, you don't have to settle for an icy white. Changing out your island pendant lights to a different style on a dimmer may help warm up the lighting.

I have a friend who had almost the same issue. She took out the cabinets on the window wall, and put in a 10 foot long window (one larger fixed pane centered on the sink, and 2 casements on the sides). It was actually astonishing to see the difference in the room comparing before and after. I'd very strongly advise you to lose your two side cabinets and get that big window you're considering. One more thing she did that made almost as big a difference was bumping out the window opening about 6 or 8 inches all along the length and bringing the window right down to the counter level. It allowed the light to wash right onto the counters and bounce up to the ceilings. Again, a remarkable difference before and after. Bumping out the window opening wasn't a big deal, it took some supports on the outside, and a little shed-type roof over the outside top of the window. Since your house is 4000 sq. ft., it would be appropriate to give the kitchen such a deluxe look, and will also give you the natural light you crave.

Can't be sure from your photo, but it appears that the two window-wall cabinets you show may be different sizes. If so, I would also suggest you plan the larger window to remain centered on the sink, even if you have slightly different final wall widths on the left and right sides of the final window. Good luck with your project. It will be such a great result.

Thank you all so much for the good ideas and great input. I might drill a hole in the soffit and see what's in there. I know at least there is lighting stuff - because there are 5 flush can lights on the bottom of the soffits. I like those photos of the soffit that goes away in front of the window! Maybe I CAN do something like that without it being weird. I hadn't considered adding more can lights around the island. I kind of like my pendants, although maybe they are going out of style...I agree that it might be useful to have more artificial lights, It's just not worth it to me to tear up the kitchen to do it. I just painted the ceiling a couple months ago. If I tear out the soffit, maybe I will look into adding more lights in the center of the room. Yes, smiling, the right cabinet is smaller than the left and I will DEFINITELY center the window! That would make me crazy if it wasn't centered. JT7abcz - We used to have several dimmers and they were nice. We didn't use them a lot, but that is something to definitely keep in mind. I do like to have just the soffit lights on at night, when we're not in the kitchen, for a softer look. Not sure about white for appliances - I agree it would be lighter. I might have to look at some, right now, all I can picture is the textured white fridge we used to have in the 90s, which would be a no-go. Thank you all for the encouragement and ideas!

So, here's another question: assuming i take the cabinets out, would you leave the lazy susan in the corner on the left (wall cabinet susan, not base cabinets - which also have a L.susan)? I Like the LS on top - I'm 5'1" and I could never reach back into that corner if it was a normal rectangular wall cabinet.... Even as it is, I have to crawl onto the counter to get to the top shelves. If I change it, I'd have to crawl up for everything on the far side of that cabinet. BUT - some have said not to leave an angled cabinet there and I agree it's a bit weird for the last cabinet to be angled...

I’m with you on not liking LEDs cooler than 3000k, but there are adjustable ones that allow it to adjust throughout the day to match the color temperature coming in the windows. This really does trick the brain into thinking a window is lighting up the room, without it looking like a cafeteria at night.

I would, however, probably ditch the cabinets and add the additional windows if you don’t think it’s a storage issue. It will transform the space. As will getting rid of the soffit, which makes the whole space look smaller. Put modern 3” or 4” cans in the ceiling and add undercab lighting. The angle cab will look odd with nothing next to it, but a small “easy reach” corner cabinet might work for you.

easy reach corner cabinet? hmmm......

Such as this.

Many people find it easier to use than an angled corner.

ah. It looks nice, but I still wouldn't be able to reach into the back corner. With the lazy susan, I turn it and the corner comes to me, of course. Thank you! I'm sure it is easier than just a large angled corner shelf. I will keep it in mind!

I'm 5'4". I had easy-reach in my last kitchen. While you may not be able to reach into the corner, at least you could SEE what's there! And you can mount the second shelf low, keeping short things on the bottom shelf, so you have full access to at least the sides of the two lowest shelves.

hm. ok! I'll think about it.

You have a disconnect between the kitchen you really want and resources,

How long are you staying in the house?

Do you want a cosmetic, sort of better. or a real improvement?

Can you do a scaled drawing of all of the kitchen, every wall and window? With dimensions?

In the end, what you get in result sometimes will merit a pause, until you can have.......more and better.

If you use openable windows over the sink, make sure the locks are easily reachable. Some casement windows are designed with the lock at the top, not at the sides or bottoms. It's a pain to have to stand on a stool to reach window locks.

Good thought!

Jan - we don't actually have a resource problem, I just don't want to spend 50k on a kitchen bump out, seeing as our kids are mostly grown (last one is a senior in high school) and we don't really need a bigger kitchen anymore. Does the house deserve it? Yes, but there are more meaningful ways to spend that money (at least to us). So, I'm thinking - what can I be happy with? More light is pretty much the answer. We do plan to stay here until we're too old to take care of it, or until the Indiana winters drive us out.... and if we'd had the money when the kids were small, we might have done a complete renovation. But the Lord in his wisdom has given us what he has given us. I'll be content if I can get more light in there, I think.

Keep the angled corner cabinet. It isn't the most beautiful but it works for your height and reach and that is what matters the most. I'm 5'8 and had a hard time reaching into our corner cabinet in our old house. I can see how a lazy susan would help.

Kudos to you for prioritizing what is most important to you with your money while still making small changes to get a kitchen that will work better for you.

What if you just take out the upper cabinet on the right and have the window go over to the oven cabinet? Maybe add a third ceiling light?

I would also change the backsplash to a lighter tile.

Have you seen the white glass Samsung Bespoke fridge?I have it and love it so far! It would reflect the light from the window back into the room.

Not a great mockup, but hopefully you get the idea. Beautiful view!

I will look at the fridge! sounds interesting. I couldn't possibly live with an off center window (from the sink). My husband would probably be delighted but I'd pull my hair out. Definitely planning a backsplash change. I had settled on white subway tile in herringbone pattern, but now I'm back to thinking about it. Might settle on white herringbone again, though. Thanks for your input!

@hnhouser for your corners, might you consider a pull-outs, drop- down type? https://www.cabinetparts.com/p/dropout-cabinet-fixtures-organizers-kitchen-organizers-DCF8003L-p59564

I personally love a diagonal cabinet front with a lazy-susan insert for both base and upper cabinets, but I hear you when you say at 5'1" those uppers are just not usable. A designer suggested these instead for me when I get to my kitchen and I wanted to share the idea with you in case it is appealing.

@hnhouser I like the idea of a bigger window to see your lovely Indiana woods. It looks like part of the view though will be the side of your house, so think about what you want to see there too. Maybe you like to feed birds and could have feeders there. And with the cabinets on that wall gone, you could even have the window extend higher into the soffit area to increase light. Even if you cannot eliminate the soffit, you might be able to make it smaller. And you could paint the ceiling of the soffit with a glossy version of your paint color to reflect more light in.
What you are currently storing in the two cabinets to be sacrificed... have you figured out where those items will go? It looks like the kinds of things you could store near where you eat. Do you eat at the island looking out the window (I don't see stools)? Have you considered an induction stove top for aging more safely? If so, your stove-top in the island is the perfect candidate for this lovely option: https://www.infinitysurfaces.it/invisible-induction-cooktop/

Also, it's a little thing, but next time you replace the rug near the sink, try one long enough to fill the area like a runner. It makes any kitchen look better, and you still have a cushion under your feet. Amazon has very inexpensive ones in traditional and contemporary styles, so you can try it without much financial risk. They also are low enough that a Roomba can clean them easily every day. I see you have a pet, so a clean floor will be important for you all, and your clean wood floors are lovely!

I don’t think we ever found out what’s in the soffits?

If the soffits aren’t necessary, that would open more possibilities. You could take some uppers to the ceiling to allow for more windows, you could have wide transom windows over the uppers, you could bring lighttubes down the side of the house into where the soffits are.

Depending how traditional you want to keep the house, you can also have low horizontal windows between upper and counter, in effect replacing backsplash with window.

I've had a heck of a time trying to respond to these comments because Houzz wasn't letting me log in. Anyway, I did find out that there is a short length of gas pipe and another short length of PVC pipe in the soffit. But currently it's my hope and plan to remove the soffit and bring the window in about a foot and raise it all the way up to the ceiling. I think that won't really help with the light in the summer because currently, when the Sun is high in the summer I don't get any direct sunlight through the window. But if the window is taller, I hope to be able to get direct sun rays. Right now I'm thinking I'm going to leave the cabinets as they are. The hard part is finding somebody who will take the smaller job. I've contacted a few contractors but no one has called me back yet.

Thank you for those great ideas, KL23 - that is very interesting, the shelf that drops down! I also like the lazy Susan that comes down to the countertop that's also on the page that you link to! I have thought about how much of the house I'm going to see out the window. It's not great but I think it will be worth it. What I've decided to do. (If I can find a contractor to take such a small job) is to remove the soffit (has a short length of gas pipeline and some PVC pipe from the bathroom above.) and bring the window in and up to the ceiling. I think that that will really make a big difference because in the summer when the Sun is higher in the sky, the sun will hopefully still shine directly in through the taller window. Thank you so much for your feedback and thank you to everyone else who helped me think this through. The hard part is finding someone to do the work. I've called a couple and they don't call me back.

Thank you for those great ideas, KL23 - that is very interesting, the shelf that drops down! I also like the lazy Susan that comes down to the countertop that's also on the page that you link to! I have thought about how much of the house I'm going to see out the window. It's not great but I think it will be worth it. What I've decided to do. (If I can find a contractor to take such a small job) is to remove the soffit (has a short length of gas pipeline and some PVC pipe from the bathroom above.) and bring the window in and up to the ceiling. I think that that will really make a big difference because in the summer when the Sun is higher in the sky, the sun will hopefully still shine directly in through the taller window. Thank you so much for your feedback and thank you to everyone else who helped me think this through. The hard part is finding someone to do the work. I've called a couple and they don't call me back.

Sorry I posted that twice... Trying to figure out how to use this app, since the sure want working for me.

Posted three times actually. Sigh. Sorry! I'll get the hang of it...

@hnhouser you can delete extra posts if you open Houzz from a computer instead of your phone. Voice of experience on that one. 🥴 Nothing to apologize for. Sometimes even a wall can be beautiful, with the tree shadows dancing around on it. Just wanted you to consider it so you wouldn't be surprised.

Is this the lazy Susan you meant? I thought you would just go straight back with wall cabinets to make more room for your window. No?

I would love to delete my posts but I can't get in on the laptop because houzz just keeps taking me in circles and won't let me log in. I've tried two different browsers. Anyway, Right now, I'm leaning toward just removing the soffit, bringing the window in and making it much taller and leaving the cabinets the way they are. I think it will make enough of a difference for me and I'll get to keep my cabinet space.

I do like that tall lazy Susan...