We did the same thing and our KD suggested a very shallow beam-type arrangement as a "paint" transition. In our case it wasn't so much the ceiling as we took out both ceilings, but as a general paint transition for the walls. In the end we didn't need it b/c we had to extend a wall by 6" so it created the transition. However, if we had not had to do that, we would have gone w/her recommendation.

We left a faux header in, as if it were load-bearing. Our dining room has coved, textured ceilings and walls, and I wanted to keep the cove all the way around, as it just looks better. Our header ends just below the trim under the cove, which turned out to be about 12 inches. The tricky parts were attaching drywall to the bottom of the opening, since there is no support beam inside, and matching the textured walls in the dining room when he patched the opening.

We had the same issue, so DH ripped out the DR ceiling and we re-drywalled the whole shebang!

Probably not what you wanted to hear- neither did I. Though my massage therapist and chiropractor benefitted! :>)

We have the exact same situation as you, except the previous owners took out that wall. They left a full sized header there and had short uppers hanging from it. We removed the uppers and cut down the size of the header to about 3 inches. Our peninsula is under it, so I hung pendants. It's painted the wall color, contrasting with the 2 white ceilings. I really like it. It's a perfect little break between the textured and smooth ceilings and adds interest.

I put an open arch between the kitchen and the rest of the house to define the space a bit better. A header beam would also look great.

The existing kitchen ceiling isn't in very good cosmetic condition. Also the existing kitchen soffits are to be removed.

I spent a lot of time a number of years ago working on the DR and LR ceilings. The drywall in both ceilings must have gotten wet at some time and was wavy. I made the mistake of trying to level all the dips with drywall mud and then texturing. The results are marginally acceptable. A better solution would have been to rip out the old drywall ceilings and start over. Probably would have been much faster, too. Hate to think about how many boxes of mud I slapped up there.

Same situation here. We did the faux header, painted our trim color. We have a pennisula with a breakfast bar on one side where the old wall used to be, and we will have two pendants coming through the "header." You barely notice the header.

Like raehelen, we tore out the whole dining room ceiling and had the drywallers match the new ceiling with the existing kitchen ceiling. No one can see the transition between the two, and we love it.