I don't think a lowered ceiling will give you the WOW you are wanting. It was very popular here to lower the kitchen ceiling to around 7' in 1995. Now, all of those kitchens look extremely dated. I purchased one and immediately got the ceiling back up to 8'.

Why not just have the ceiling skim coated (or sanded) to get rid of the stippling designs?

Gloria

DW wants the whole upstairs to have the texture free ceiling. I told her its ALOT of work. She is starting to understand.
One of the main reasons for lowering the ceiling, is, that we are gonna go with a cabinet that runs right up to the ceiling, and I have a slight feeling that it will look odd, I feel it will will look the cabinet look "too long". Maybe not? Our kitchen is not that big, and I want to do it right.
Thanks quiltglo. I like what you have to say!!

If you have high ceilings in the dining/living rooms and a lower one in the kitchen, it will make walking into the kitchen feel like walking into a small cave. One of the builders tricks to make a space seem larger is to raise the ceilings.

You can install soffits above the cabinets for that floor to ceiling look and leave the ceiling at it's present height. Or make the top of the caninets a display space for accessories---many high end kitchens have that feature.

Scraping and smoothing the existing ceiling surface will be less work than dropping the ceiling.

I agree that lowering the ceiling is going against the trend. I don't mind slightly lower ceilings in areas that are supposed to feel intimate and cozy, though. Some variation of height is nice: makes the tall places seem taller, makes the whole house feel more custom.

A soffit to fill the space between the cabs and real ceiling wouldn't be bad, and would make the can lights easier to install. You could still have the full height everywhere except over the cabs. With a wall mount cab, though, you can place it any height you like, and use the top as a shelf display or enclose it with doors... Upper cabs don't have to touch the ceiling if you'd rather they didn't.

But there are simpler ways to get smooth ceilings and can light than droping the whole area.

Thank you.

Just one thing, depending on the time the house was built, there may be asbestos in the stippling(popcorn), so a mask is necessary when scraping it off. There are tutorials on how to safely remove popcorn containing asbestos.

If you're already making the mess involved in knocking out walls, why not just tear down the original drywall/plaster ceiling and put up new? This might be easier than un-texturing the existing ceiling, plus it would give you easy access to joist cavities for wiring the new lighting.

I agree that dropping the ceiling that much will be a mistake. Dropping the ceiling will only make the room feel smaller, and people tend to like higher ceilings.

I think it depends on your floor plan. We have an open floor plan, and I like that the dropped ceiling (it's about 4 inches lower) defines the kitchen. No soffits, and our cabinets go up to the ceiling. We also have a huge skylight in the middle of the kitchen (that may too big, honestly), but it's not a cave because of it.

Don't drop the ceiling. You'll be sorry, for all the reasons everyone lists.

Cover the textured ceiling with 3/8" drywall and cut in recessed lights.