If you don't need the space, leave the soffit alone. It isn't excessive and why spend money when you don't have to.

^looks better is a matter of opinion.

Alternately, we could bag the idea of the 42" cabinets, stick with 36", and trim out the soffit to give it a more finished look.

This is what I would do.^

Normally, I'm all about getting rid of soffits but, in this case given the beam, IMO, keeping the soffit is the bettet solution. Best solution would be to make the beam disappear into the attic, if possible.

a soffitt, low ceiling, and shorter cabs rarely looks better than it's counterpart.

jennifer, Youre looking at a before shot with nothing redone.

shorter cabs and a soffit, changed over to taller cabs w/a nice crown, in place of the soffit. It looked squatty w/the soffit, and obviously less cabinet space.

So much nicer looking in the after shot....and I bet that opinion would be shared by an overwhelming majority.

go ahead, say these before pics look better. lol

Before/After

Soffit,,

No soffit.

Hmm,,,let me think about which one looks better.

oh wait, here's one where they left the soffitt and just painted the cabinets. yep. looks great compared to those others.

Of course, if someone has a very small budget, leaving the soffit may be the only option at the time. Painting and a refresh maybe all they can do.

What I don't like is leaving the same short cabs, and filling in the soffit space w/huge crown.

if one has the budget to do the kitchen completely, then do it.

If it's in the budget, remove the soffit and go with a smaller cabinet under the beam. You'll be amazed at how much larger your kitchen looks.

Moving the beam into the ceiling is of course the ideal, but cha ching! That gets pricey real fast. But if it's in the budget and doesn't negatively impact the other parts of the house we don't see in the pictures, then I'd do that too. I see the house has a radiator and also from the look of the HVAC vent in the ceiling, I'm guessing this is an older home. The beam was probably a wall at some time and it might even be under a second floor, so it may not be feasible to move the beam up. Also, are you sure the soffit isn't hiding vent work? Might be a moot point to discuss removing if there's lots of stuff in there.

All the best on your renovation!

I‘d rework the whole design to deemphasize that beam. is it a steel girder? It looks awfully large, but maybe it’s just the photo. I’m wondering if there is any dead soace around - if it might be possoble to re-encase and make it look smaller? because then you coild go woth tje suggestion to add a few more (fake) ones and make it more of a feature. what are the actualy dimensions?

It’s not that the beam is so awful— it isn’t. But a new kitchen is a pretty huge expense and you are leaving the gate with a major aesthetic issue.

Yep, @tozmo1 you are right, it's a 1938 home and the beam used to be a wall - half the kitchen was previously a porch. There is a bedroom above the kitchen. Recessing the beam isn't impossible, but wouldn't be easy. We've opened up the soffit and there is nothing in there.

For example - maybe have open shelves instead of upper cabinets just in that area?

@Beth H. : thanks for all of the examples. I agree the examples look better without the soffit. The tradeoff for our kitchen seems to be the lack of symmetry on either side of the range. We are somewhat limited in layout bc of the radiator, beam, and doors.

@janedoe2012 We cut a hole in the drywall to check, and it is is a large wood beam with very little dead space.

@Beth H. : this picture you shared actually looks like what we'd aim for if keeping the 36" cabinets. The crown is big not not crazy. Our soffit is 12"

I like that one, But I'd still do taller cabs for the other part

If doing 42" cabinets, we could do a small cabinet that is exactly the width of the beam (13.5 inches) or an open shelf similar to the below. We are doing shelving on the wall by the window as well.

While I definitely prefer the look of the 42" cabinets, the one nice thing about going 36" is that we can easily achieve symmetry with matching width cabinets on both sides of the range, similar to the below. Having a 13.5 inch shelf on one side of the range and an 18 inch cabinet on the other might trigger some OCD :)

Why not just go with all shelves there (except for above the range) and switch to cabinets near the window?

@janedoe2012 it's an option but I think i'm too messy to live with open shelving :)

Good call, Sean. i couldnt handle ooen shelves, either. unless i just designated them as metal dead space, never to be touched.

Are you going expose the wood beam or leave it enclosed? It would be tricky to expose it - could look really cool, but it would also complicate things.

we are probably going to leave it enclosed.

I saw one where they did a small pullout spice rack directly under the beam.

It was in that link I posted in my earlier comment

Kristen Petro designs.

I must admit that it's irritating to look at cherry-picked examples of bad soffits and listen to snide comments about one's taste. Beth, can we please take it as given that you and I have different tastes? I will not say yours is worse than mine. I'd appreciate the same courtesy.

Snide comments? these are both of yours.

"If you don't need the space, leave the soffit alone. It isn't excessive and why spend money when you don't have to."

All I said was, it looks better. That's it! All I said. But you had to keep on.

"^looks better is a matter of opinion."

So when someone responds in the same manner as you, it bothers you? lol.

Jennifer, I have no probs w/difference of opinions. "why spend money when you don't have to? "

The op came here looking for help, not judgement on how he wants to spend money.

Op asked for help that would make it better. You offer no help, only a rather judgy comment.

To me, that's irritating.

BTW, I didn't cherry pick anything. There are some decent soffit photos and cabinets, but nothing that resembles OP's kitchen. If you can find a picture that matches his kitchen with his cabinets that you think look great, post them!

Instead of saying leave it alone, what is your opinion on how to make this look better for the OP? If you like it, can you post something that will upgrade this look? give him more storage? (Sorry, but these small cabinets don't hold a lot, and the arches are dated)

this one i 'cherry picked' matches his kitchen almost to a tee. So do you like this? seriously?

You honestly don't think removing the soffit would open up the space and look better? with diff cabs?

Can you find a better pic that actually represents op kitchen and what he has to work with?

And if OP doesn't like this, now what?

Soffits exist to fill in unusable space above cabinets.(*foot) They are designed to make the cabinets look part of the room (ie built-in) instead of stuck on the wall. Granted, a lot of soffits are bare bones. But no one ever said you couldn't put crown molding where the soffit meets the ceiling. When you do that, especially if your cabinets are approximately the same colour as your wall, then the wall of cabinets starts to read more as a plain wall. That simplicity can be very pleasing.

Additionally, there's no rule that says a soffit must protrude out past the cabinetry. They can be built to be flush and will not look like some horrible, giant box waiting to fall on one's head.

Soffits are just one more valid tool to use when designing a kitchen. So when someone says, "I want to get rid of the soffit", it's entirely reasonable to suggest alternatives.

(*foot): they also used to provide a structure to hang built-in-place cabinets from, but those aren't done so much any more.

@Beth H. : @Jennifer K I appreciate the differing perspectives and the time you've each taken to respond!

Based on all of the wonderful suggestions our current thinking is to go with 42" cabinets wherever we can and keep the soffit only where it is necessary. That would mean taking cabinets to the ceiling to the left of the window, to the right of the range, and above/next to the fridge.

But, we don't love the asymmetry of the 12 inch cabinet below the beam (and especially that this would require filler on the top and left if using standard size cabinets). So instead we'd do two 18" x 36" cabinets that go to the height of the beam and either keep the soffit only for that 22.5" wide portion or create an open cubby for wine/booze.

The beam means we have to make a compromise somewhere and this seems like maybe not the worst of the possible options.

Example of what we are thinking for that little wine cubby area:

Here is a better photo of the one Beth posted. We included a pull-out spice cabinet under the beam.

I don't like a wine rack which is very difficult to access. We have one in our kitchen and the top half is empty. In our case, instead of reaching, it is just easier to go down the basement and use the easily accessible wine storage and opener. Now if you have a family of very tall people, access might not be an problem but I need a step stool for my 42 inch cabinets.

I like Kristen Petro's picture but I would put in a wine cubby rather than pullout spice rack.

@Lyndee Lee I'm tall! :)

Kristen Petro's picture is great, but the big difference with our layout is that the pullout spice rack (or wine cubby) would be directly next to the range. In her picture there is space for another cabinet to frame the range which I think looks much better.

Just keep in mind that my photo ended up on @pleasehatethesethings so YMMV. Lol.

In your case, I like the open bookcase cabinet. It can store items you need for cooking like oils and it works better aesthetically given the shorter size than the rest of the cabinets.

@Kristin Petro Interiors, Inc. oh noo. A spice rack hardly compares to the toilet in a stairwell vibe of that account!

@Kristin Petro Interiors, Inc. , I have the same issue with my kitchen renovation project. My beam comes down 18 inches from the ceiling. How tall is this one? Do you have other pictures of this kitchen. do you think it is worth paying additional 5k to riase the beam so that only 4 inches shows up?

The beam in my photo was 15.5" tall, 82.5" to bottom of beam. Without knowing your overall investment for the remodel, it would be hard to say if $5k is worth it. But I would try to raise it if I could. An 18" tall beam will be difficult to integrate into a thoughtful design.

So it looks like the beam will stick out by 16 inches and my ceilings are 9 ft. This is a 50k renovation project and to reduce the exposed beam height to 5-6 inches, contractor is asking for additional 5k. Having it completely flush to the ceiling is ~10k which is way out of our budget. Looks like we will have to go with the 16 inch beam going in the middle of the kitchen. I am ok with it but I just hope that when it is time to sell, it is not going to impact my house value. I have 15 inch top glass cabinets that almost align with the beam at the bottom, I am hoping this will help the look a bit. Thank you very much for your response @Kristin Petro Interiors, Inc.