Crazy designs from the 80's and 90's!

If you ever do a gut/remodel, you will get your ROI by taking out that ledge.

Keeping it a shelf is an option, but closing it with louver doors will provide storage.

I had a similar type of ledge in my primary bathroom in the house I built in 1996. The ceilings were vaulted and the ledge was recessed over part of my daughter's walk-in closet (there wasn't a soffit built out - the wall was flat behind my vanity in the alcove).

I remember when we went to go look at the house when it was close to being finished, I noticed that the wall had been built flush instead of recessed to create the ledge. The wallpaper had already been installed - however, I notified by builder - and they changed it. The funny thing is that I NEVER put anything up there!

Your bathroom will feel larger if you removed the soffit/ledge. If there isn't anything that runs through the soffit, it wouldn't be that expensive to remove.

We wound up closing the side on the bathroom + opening the side inside my daughter's walk in closet. The ledge provided quite a bit of extra storage for my daughter (she used it to display all of her purses + a few closed totes - she used a long reach clothing pole in order to take items up and down). The bathroom looked better without the recessed shelf along the vanity alcove wall.