Yeah, it's not the roof, it's the HVAC. You need some of the soffit, not all of it, and you definitely don't need the big fluorescent light fixture in your kitchen. I recommend opening up the ceiling from the light box out so you can determine what can go. What must stay could be disguised by faux beams or coffering. As for the 14" above the cabinets you can probably make it all 12" - you won't know until you look. If you can make it 12" you can mount cabinet doors to disguise it and give the look of stacked cabinets.

Good luck!

Is that an HVAC vent in the 7' kitchen ceiling?

Oh, just to clarify, that is not a flourescent fixture. That is a coffered ceiling, with a large skylight surrounded by four can lights. The skylights are an important source of light in this house because it is a row house, so there are no windows in the living area.

Here is a better view of the skylight area (before we removed the track lights and added the cans):

Benjesbride, that is an HVAC vent in the 7' ceiling, and it needs to stay. The a/c is essential here. I live in the desert.

I'm not much help, but I do want to tell you that I think this place looks very cool!

My only thought was to move the refrigerator to the wall I think you're considering for a hutch and build it in over there along with cabinetry/storage and then either just extend the counter and cabs to the left of the range or put a peninsular counter out from where the fridge is currently to gain more work space and storage.

Your soffits don't bother me as much as most do because they look sort cool and architectural. Plus, they echo the kids on the cabinets. Could you create a similar shape in the other half of the room? Kind of like a very specific shape of tray ceiling?

I feel like I need more angles of the room. I can't properly picture it. Is there any way to get your fridge further from your range? That can't be convenient.

Wow. Ok. Skylight. But does the ceiling around the HVAC register have to be that low? Maybe not. I wonder why they coffered around the skylight limiting the light penetration? I'm sure you can do better but you won't know what your options are until you cut into the drywall. So cut into the drywall and get back to us.

The main problem I have is that there are two separate ceilings in the one room, and I want to box in the refrigerator, but it juts out past the soffits, unlike the rest of the wall cabinets.

Here are a few other photos of the ceiling from different angles.

The coffered portion of the ceiling:

Transition between the coffered area and the 8' ceiling area (please excuse the mess):

Transition area showing the window side (you can see both HVAC vents); the hanging light fixture will need to be replaced with pot lights. The soffit over the window is 17" deep. All of the soffits are 13" high. We want to make that window smaller; it is currently 5'X5' with only 3" from the adjoining wall and 12" from the floor. That exterior wall is board-and-batten, so we can change that window without needing to repair the adobe.

View showing how far the refrigerator sticks out from under the soffits. The soffits on this side of the room are 14" from the wall (wall cabinets are 12" deep, and there is a 2" gap inset from the soffit).

That refrigerator is about the same depth/width of the counter depth french door refrigerator that we plan to replace it with, so it's a good gauge of size.

Here is a link that might be useful: Counter Depth Refrigerator

Unfortunately, the HVAC does have to be that low. Our roof is a flat roof on an adobe house in the desert. This house doesn't have attic space. When we bought this house, the roof had several leaks that caused us to poke holes in the ceilings to check for mold and replace drywall in various places in the ceilings throughout the house, so we already know what is in the soffits.

We can't get rid of the soffits, which is why I'm looking for ideas so that we can give the refrigerator a better box and dress up the pig, so to speak.

Boxing in the fridge can be done regardless of the ceiling heights. You literally build a box around it and pull out the over fridge cabs so they line up with the front of the box. You can add a cab to go to the ceiling or just box off the top.

Be sure you have enough room for your new fridge. Anything other than a built-in will need at least 1/2" of air flow on each side and on top.

I have low ceilings too with soffits. When I look at the pictures, the dark cabinets seem to be accenting the soffits. I think a counter depth fridge ( we have one) would be a bigger improvement and painting the cabinets would make a huge difference. If you went with a lighter color on the cabinets, I would consider staying with white appliances. You have a lot of different textures going on in your kitchen.

I'm not an HVAC technician, but I'd guess you could easily demo that seven foot ceiling, raise up the ceiling and just continue the soffit all the way around. SO. The vent that is now next to the skylight and parallel to the floor would be moved into the perimeter soffit like the one in your small eat-in area, perpendicular to the floor.

We moved two floor vents in our old house and I'm pretty sure it cost $100 for a tech to do it. Well, in our case they extended the ductwork. If you guys are handy I wonder if you could even DIY it.

It's only the drywall that intimidates me. What a great project! If the ceiling gets opened up you could add more cans if you wanted. I imagine the light flooding in from that skylight with a raised ceiling would be awesome.

Ok, two questions.

First, I understand that you need soffits around the perimeter of the room. But is there any reason you need them anywhere else? Is there a reason for that dropped ceiling and fake beam? Or can that one register simply be moved to the perimeter soffit? If so, just take down the drop ceiling and the extraneous soffits.

Second, are those cabinets boxes or built in place continuous face frame? If the latter, you can't just pull them apart and rearrange them. You would have to partially rebuild them.

Hi Marcolo,
We believe the beam is a support beam. It runs across the whole house. There is only one other support beam that runs across the house in that direction. The duct work runs through the work zone to make it possible to have an HVAC vent in the dining/great room. There are only two cents in that room, the one in the dining room, and one inthe center of the main room (coming from the hallway). The back office area has a vaulted ceiling and no vents. We keep ceiling fans running 24/7 in that room to keep the air moving through there. We can't get a vent to that room without dropped the ceiling in the master bedroom to 7'.

The cabinets are a hybrid. The base cabinets are continuous face frame, but some of the wall cabinets are boxes. The cabinet above the refrigerator is separate from the neighboring cabinets, and the cabinets on the sink wall are three separate units, and are not connected to the wall cabinets on the adjoining range wall. We are hoping to remove the cabinets from the sink wall and build out the refrigerator box. The opening for the refrigerator will fit a counter-depth non-built in, and we can use the boxes that we remove to build up that box.

Can you post a floor plan that shows the kitchen, adjoining spaces, and where you think the beams and HVAC vents run?

Atmoscat, I will try to draw a floor plan tonight.
Practigal, The house was given a modest update in 1989, when the previous owners replaced the original appliances and put in a then-new sink and formica counters. We're planning to paint the cabinets, replace the counters, sink, the cream-colored appliances, replace the hardware (which is very 1979) and add a tile backsplash (currently, it's just drywall). The "island" we have now is a vintage 1950s metal porcelain table. We want to build a better island. They photograph much nicer than they look in person. The wood is in very good shape, but the finish is shot.

About the refrigerator jutting out past the soffit -- are you recommending building the soffit out further to cover the refrigerator? The refrigerator that is there now is old, and it is the same depth as the cabinet-depth refrigerators available now (I've compared the specs).

No. I would not extend the soffit. Sorry for the misunderstanding. I would change the refrigerator or change the location of the refrigerator. I do not think that I would mess with the structural element of the ceiling as I think that the costs to do so will far exceed the visual payoff.

If I am understanding correctly, the soffit above the refrigerator is 14 inches deep. No refrigerator is going to be that shallow.

Sorry I don't have any great ideas. Honestly, I would probably not try to box in the refrigerator because I think the visual conflict with the soffit will outweigh the visual benefits of the box.