Hello! There is no easy way to handle this. The soffit looks the best in my opinion!

You can always disguise the soffit with cabinet doors and moldings. The installation can look like full height cabinets but either you install a row of doors that don’t open, or you open doors that have half height storage.

This would mean the recessed cabinets on either end of your bar area might need to be pulled forward.

You might ask if it is possible to either

Make a solid wall with a straight bottom above the refrigerator -- leaving a space over the refrigerator for venting if necessary, and add cabinet doors to create a faux cabinet above the refrigerator to match the other soffit cabinets that don't open -- making it appear that there is a standard cabinet over the refrigerator; or

Keep the necessary angled/sloped wall but add solid cabinet doors over both the angled /sloped wall and the open space to make it appear there is a standard cabinet above the refrigerator.

I didn’t even notice until you pointed it out.

It does look like there’s an architectural frame (with narrow pilasters?) surrounding the cabinets below the landing. I would be all for that, too...embracing the problem and making it look like it was intentional By emphasizing that it’s different from the other cabinets.

@eam44 would it be odd to pull them forward? We would lose the ability to “work” at the counter space there if the cabinets are directly above each other, correct?

I honestly think since it is a seperate wall I would leave it moving the uppers forward would not work either and I think if you keep fussing about it it will get worse this way you will be the only person who knows the issue.

One last thought, you have no other constraints here, no windows shown or doorways. You could kind of furr out the entire fridge wall, just bring it forward as many inches as your cabinet maker needs to disguise the soffit and give you a look you like. It will move your range wall over a bit, but you have a huge opening there.

Add a soffit to the rest of the walls too. The current cabinet proportions shown are too tall to work well. The fridge wall actually looks the most proportionate.

I agree with Mackdolan. Add soffit to the other walls.

How tall are those walls? And why are the doors over the beverage area configured differently than the ones adjacent to the stove? How tall are those doors next to the hood? The taller a cabinet door is, the more likely it is to warp...

@Patricia Colwell Consulting why would it not work to move the uppers forward? and have faux doors above?

@eam44 if we did faux cabinets above.. we would have to pull that whole second to counter depth right? The two thinner cabinets with the glass ones in the middle?(Above the counter portion in that wall) If we were doing something faux above- wouldn’t it not work to keep the glass portion recessed back at all? or are you saying we would then cut the soffit there so the ceiling wasn’t straight across there anymore since there doesn’t need to be a soffit at that place? Sorry for all the clarifying and THANK YOU for the help!

J, don’t ask her, ask your cabinet maker. He’s the one you need onboard. Good luck. Come back and tell us what you learn, or what you’ve decided to do. BTW, those little square cabinet doors from the beverage center area - that’s the kind of faux door you want. Repeat the motif.

Would those glass cabs have faux storage above them as well?

Sadly our builder is using his wife as the required designer and the cabinet marker seems rather elementary. They have been so difficilt to get any creative options.. and they are trying to charge us for this architectural oversight of theirs!

No to the glass. That’s a bummer about the cabinet maker, but there are so many clever people here, someone will come up with a solution you love.

"... and they are trying to charge us for this architectural oversight of theirs!"

If you approved the rough framing drawings, it's an architectural oversight of yours.