this kitchen had a very low ceiling, and was cramped and dark. I removed the ceiling and painted the exposed rafters, painted a design on the walls, added an additional window, removed all the upper cabinets and added shelving-that alone really had a lot of impact. Also changed out the darker granite for a lighter color, painted the maple finish cabinets white, changed out hardware, added the beech countertop and created the bkft bar. In lieu of a backsplash, I used a mirror I had to bounce more light. The wall lights reminded me of Jonathan Adler, they have little holes in the them so they spread the light and are so pretty at night.