I'll try to post my photos now.

Click here to view my yukky soffits

It looks like a cold air return is in that bulkhead, so I don't see much that can be done on the cheap short of some sort of decoration or design put on it.

I would die to have a island in the middle of the kitchen, that's great.

Depending on the money you are planning on spending, if it were me, I would keep saving until I got enough together to do what I wanted with it.

And sadly, I am in the middle of a complete renovation and am 20% over budget on things I forgot about, or underestimated the price on.

What about stripping the cabinets and restaining? Or paint?

Simply using knobs and pulls on the cabinets can have a huge impact also.

Getting rid of the 4" back splash and using tile would also pick it up.

I really like your kitchen though, the bulkhead would not bother me, I would probably use broken joint tile on the floor if I were doing a full renovation.

You could take off the doors above the frig and leave open shelving or put baskets. Also, maybe stagger the existing cabinet height and add some moulding. I'd leave the soffits for now, otherwise your going to get into electrical and other issues.

GailoTX,
I have soffits and I'm in TX too. Mine are for HVAC duct, so short of rebuilding the entire 1st floor ceiling, they had to stay. One thing that may help is to take your cabinets all the way to the ceiling. You can keep your existing ones, just have them taken down and reset higher. Then you can have someone, DH or carpenter make you an open shelf below. For the tall cabinets such as the oven and fridge, maybe have them add new sides to form an open shelf on top.

Are you considering painting? If so, maybe paint the uppers in a lighter color. That might help it feel less top heavy with all the soffits.

Consider adding crown molding to the higher part of the ceiling to make it feel more complete. Like this:

Or a beadboard and beam ceiling to draw the eye up to a feature:

Check out Anne Turner's kitchen. She took her short cabinets to the ceiling and added a useful shelf below. She didn't have soffits, but the idea is similar. See the link below

momto4boys here on GW did a facelift to her builder grade oak. She added an extension to the top and added crown. It's not quite to the ceiling, but still a great idea. She added glass to some of here cabinets which also helps to draw the the eye to the pretty stuff.

By the way, how do you like your Baltic Brown granite? I've bought a former kitchen display that came with this color granite. I haven't seen anyone on this board with this color.

Kathe

Here is a link that might be useful: A Kitchen Intervention

I think your kitchen is not bad at all. I'd definitely want hardware on the cabs.
You have a ceiling feature that is interesting in the middle. I'd get a light fixture I loved to highlight that.
Once you get a nice color paint (needs to be more interesting) and maybe a bs, you will be good to go....

For fun, adding some glass to a few doors would work.