I was waiting for someone with better ideas than I to chime in so your thread stayed up top, but I'll give it a shot. Now I understand what you were saying about the windows being lower. Since you have a step down, I think it is fine that they're lower. It makes sense.

Now, about the columns. You could totally trim them out simpler to fit your house. Just use plain 1X material for the "crown" and base. The columns themselves could be simple flat boxes, with no step out at the base. But they would still be craftsman-ish if you framed a simple inset panel to match your cabs. If you're staining them, it will be trickier construction, but doable. (Mine wouldn't look nearly as good if it weren't for the wonders of wood putty!!)

I am very bad at visualizing things. I actually rebuilt my columns several times, trying to get the proportions right. They were turning out waaaay too big and I just had to keep modifying to get them within acceptable limits. So, what I'm trying to say is, do you have to decide this now? I mean, you know there will be posts in some spots to hold up the roof. You can decide how to treat them after the bones of the space are put together. Heck, you could even have them all drywalled, then decide which you want to "feature" as columns and cut the drywall off those columns. I think the only decision you need to make "early" is whether or not to build the pantry soffit. You could put that off until later too, but it would be simpler to take care of that with all the other framing.

Now, all that said, I think I would "columnize" the two in the opening, then drywall the island post. Think about what you want to feature and what you want to disappear. My gut is saying skip the extra soffit, but how do you want that space to feel? If you want the pantry/desk area to feel a bit more separate from the hearth area, add the soffit. Do you not want to think about the mess of boots in the mudroom when you're relaxing by the fire? Add the soffit. It will just be that bit of visual closure without really closing it off. If you do the soffit, then I would "columnize" that one to make it look more intentional.

I hope people with better visualization skills than I chime in. It's a good thing I didn't go to architecture school.

It looks like it's going to be a wonderful space! So excited for you!

Thanks smilingjudy! (I was really inspired by your kitchen. If this was my forever house, I would be doing something very similar.) Do you mind my asking what the dimensions of your columns ended up being? They are very pleasing, and it looks like your ceilings are somewhat like mine... maybe not quite as low....

So, if I read you right your vote is:
-columns flanking the step down, but drywalling the other one by the DW (like yours, sort of)
and
- drywalling the single soffit and post as drawn by the island **OR** making an "L" shaped soffit to sort of define the hall space, and in that case making the island post into a "real" column.

As it's planned, the opening from the kitchen to the mudroom IS already soffited, and in fact trimmed like a 4' wide door opening; my intention there was to define that space as seperate.

The pantry/desk zone does not have a soffit across it's opening.

So it's sort of a mish mash of different stuff going on there....

Thanks for helping me think this through! The carpenters are going to be here only for one week of framing, so if we don';t decide it now, we'll have to build/change it ourselves. We're capable of that, but with so much other DIY stuff (all electrical, plumbing, heating, installation and finish work!) I'd love to have it just DONE by these guys while they're here!

Unfortunately, the columns on the DR/LR wall don't have much wiggle room for proportions :( They're masonry block (existing) and will measure about 11.5" x 7.5" without any drywall. I'm thinking of widening the narrow dimension to about 10" just so they will be more square...

The photos I just posted are of the current rooms. We're framing a floor in the "sunroom" (which will be the new LR and DR) so it's just two steps down (14") from the oak floor, and drywalling over that fake brick masonry, removing the windows and doors so it's open. The kitchen counters will back up to built-in bookcases in the LR, providing about 6" of backsplash on the sink run... That corner where the china cabinet thing is will be the range corner of the new kitchen...

If it were me, I think I would put in the L shaped soffit (finish off the L) thus making the entry and desk area have a little definition. I think this would make the existing and necessary soffit seem deliberate and a feature. Then I would also trim out the support beam as a column like the ones going into the converted sunroom.

What about making the sunroom feel more like the outside of the house by using the shingle? You could then do the same with the columns between the sunroom and kitchen...
This might make it feel more open to the outside.
Can you post a pic of the outside of the house? Especially the front door, as that's the detail item you mentioned and it might give us some ideas for your columns.

I would try to keep the columns square and try to make the spacing the same on the back wall if possible. I'd also like all of them to match, rather than just drywalling the first one.

Sometimes, doing the elevations can be helpful - even in sketch mode - which this certainly is.

{{!gwi}}

This adds a simple narrow sofit at the bottom of the header - maybe three inches tall. You could use it for lighting and display. This elevation closes the opening you show between the rightmost column and the wall closest to it. The removed opening is the very pale silver box.

I think the opening may be problematic because its like 5 to 7 inches and it leads to a 14 to 16" drop in floor level. I'm not sure where you run afoul of code but I'm thinkin' its near here - where a small child can possibly get stuck.

bmorepanic has a good point. What if you built the "faux" column right up against the wall, so it looked like a portion of it was inside the wall? Know what I mean?

You understood my vote correctly. But now I'm thinking I'd vote yes for the extra soffit off the island. Just for the added symmetry. decisions, decisions....

My ceilings are actually lower than yours at 7'4.5". Yes, I count that extra half inch! :) The columns are about 8x7 on the top and 9-1/4x8-1/8 on the bottom. Like you, I thought they needed to be square at first. When I dropped that notion, I was able to make them a bit smaller overall. It sounds like your planned dimension will have about the same variance. I'm guessing you will have time between framing and drywall to do some mock-ups to make sure the overall size is okay.

Okay, another thought while looking at bmorepanic's sketch.....what if you kept the wall solid between the drywalled post and the first column. Then add some open shelving there to display pretty things. It seems like that might look a bit more cohesive? Or do you want to keep that open at all costs?

great thoughts, folks, thank you!!

rob, the "sunroom" space is now going to be the only LR and DR in the house, so I definitely want it to read as interior space. If it was still going to be a sunroom, and there was a formal DR and LR elsewhere, the in/out materials connection would be a good idea... but I think I want to be really "interior" space. I'll post some exterior pics in a sec, but remember we haven't started the exterior yet! That's the late summer/fall project ;)

bmorepanic- good point about code. Hmmmm. I just showed this to our code enforcement officer yesterday and he didn't raise an eyebrow. But maybe I should point it out to him and double check? Actually, I originally had that wall drawn as solid, like you have it, about 18" just to cover the end of a piece of furniture. But then my architect stepmom suggested this as a way to keep the open feeling.

smilingjudy- after I had it drawn as a solid wall (like bmorepanic's), I also drew it as a column morphing out of the wall, just as you describe. Stepmom architect still changed it. And I definitely don't want to fill in the area between the two columns, even though it makes more sense architecturally. The impetus for this whole thing was to make the house feel more OPEN and be able to see the view out that big bank of windows..... It's a small, low, closed-in house otherwise and that's a feature (the windows and big huge yard beyond) we definitely want to take advantage of. Right now, just the window and door mullions in that space constrict the view and open feeling, and we're REALLY trying to make it as open as possible. (The original renovation plan was to keep the kitchen in the corner where the mudroom is drawn, which would have left that entire wall open. Now, while I LOVE the kitchen in this space, it does close it up more with the counter and backsplash... so I don;t want to close it any more.)

here's what the house looks like now:

And some inspiration pics:
(we're doing the paler warm grey shingles, and a varnished wood door in craftsman style like the first pic. The "brick" -which isn't real brick but colored concrete block- will be painted the same color as the singles. You can't see it in the first photo, but there's a whole wing of the house that's white vinyl now, so the gables, that wing, and the "sunporch" area we're discussing will all be shingled. We're planning a wide board around the house under the eave and wider window trim, too.) The last photo is probably closest to what we hope it'll look like.

P.S. Thank you for taking the time to do that elevation! You are great to do that...

This is a very rough sketch of one of the options at the opening from kitchen to sunroom. Imagine two steps down into the dining area, and the table being right in front of you there. Normal kitchen cabinets, cherry shaker. The columns may not have to be quite that stocky, but nearly so.
OR similar to this, but with a small gap, possibly with a half wall for code, between the column and the far right wall.
OR nothing trimmed as columns, all simply drywalled.....

That's a nice cut and paste job. I love the great chunky baseboard!

If you're not having crown, why do you feel you need to put some on the columns? It doesn't add anything to the view and it looks a little odd that they aren't all the same.

Be aware that the room you're "painting" for the dining area is about 1.5 times as deep as the room you actually have. Seeing what you want it to look like leads me to ask if you want skylights out there? - Maybe eventually?

I'm not being funny - and I know its somewhat of an artifact, but I wonder if you could use some kind of back splash that could be illuminated? Maybe an led strip hidden in the shelves on the opposite side?

Hi bmorepanic-
Thanks for your comments. DH is leaning towards no "column" detail, too. I sort of like it (columns). It would be somewhat like smilingjudy's columns, above, which are next to another plain drywalled columnular (?) support. Anyway- still open to opinions and votes!

I totally know that room is deeper than ours. It was just an easy-to-modify pic I found on the web. Believe it or not, I am actually pretty good at visualizing and designing stuff (architect's daughter) but I've just come up against a blank on this one.

The problem is that I know EXACTLY what I really wanted to do: raise the LR/DR (ex-sunroom) ceiling and add transom windows and get rid of these stupid columns altogether!!!! But we are on an unbelievably tight budget, so I am having to try to make a better space with what's here without modifying it too much.

And your backsplash idea is intriguing. But, probably not in this house. I'm also having to make decisions with resale (prob 3 years) firmly in mind. So, rather than my sleek modern kitchen with recycled and edgy materials, I am doing a more universally appealing (we hope) simple shaker cherry and granite.

I have always liked those backsplashes in exterior walls that are glass block so the light shows through. Your idea sounds kinda like that...