Kitchens have had soffits for many decades. Personally I never notice them. It seems that some TV shows have made them the enemy! We have two homes, one kitchen has soffits and the other has none. I MUCH prefer the soffits.

I don't mind soffits either. I like how yours have lighting. If you reduce the size, you could make them slightly larger than the cabinets so that new crown molding would reach for them perfectly.

I, being not at all fashionable, would decorate those soffits. :)

do you know if your HVAC or plumbing runs through there?

If it's merely decorative, and you remove it, here are some options.

BTW, you could reface the uppers, and get taller doors,

or, just add on boxes on top and take those to the ceiling

these next 3 show before, during and after. she had the boxes added on before they painted.

I believe on this one they got taller uppers, and possibly raised them a few inches.

something else you could do,,,ceiling treatment.

Hi Caroline-

I don't see the point of spending $$ just to make the soffits flush with the upper cabinets.

If you are going to mess with the soffits, it should be for a purpose as Beth H suggests, to give you more storage up there in the way of closed cabinetry.

I actually like your dark counters with the color wood you have, but of course I can't tell what condition your wood is in.

The lighting in your kitchen seems very yellowish, you might want to replace the bulbs.

Also the paint in the room seems yellowish to my eye as well, but then my laptop is often incorrect.

Unless you want a yellow kitchen, maybe you might prefer a more white shade of paint on the walls?

But, you haven't told us how you would like to change the cabinets and counters exactly.

For me, function is key in a kitchen and that means lots of work surface, storage, and access and ease of use of them, as well as to all the implements of destruction, now and as time goes by and we are less limber.

You never really think you are going to get old.

You run into a friend or a colleague you haven't seen in ages and you think, My goodness, has she aged! And it never occurs to you that you look like Ms Methuselah too.

There is a point to this apparent maundering.

Have you thought about modifying your cabinets to make it easier to get things in and out?

You don't need to replace them to make them drawers, but perhaps you can can get inserts for them that slide in and out, so you don't need to bend down so much, or kneel on the floor.

Rev-a shelf makes scores of different things for the kitchen.

https://rev-a-shelf.com/

There are other companies too, that are less expensive.

Sparing my joints counts for way more than an au courant countertop or cabinet color, and maybe you are young and frisky and will always be that way, but I just thought I would mention it.

This is all a huge help! Thank you!! The soffit doesn’t has anything under it so we can remove it.
The cabinets are in pretty good shape for being 30 years old. The wood does have a lot of grain in it.
My hope was to paint the cabinets a white. And haven’t decided on countertops yet.
Their is a big ugly fluorescent light on the ceiling so planning to remove that and do lots of canned lights.