The Much Maligned Kitchen Soffit

Kitchen soffits get a bad rap.  Those seemingly wasteful boxes above your kitchen cabinets.  Yeah, the ones with the flowery/paisley wallpaper on it.  Now you know what I'm talking about.  Why in the world did people put those crazy things in homes back in the old days?

Good question.  Basically back in the day, people built homes with 8' ceilings.  The cabinets usually topped off at about 7', leaving an awkward space above them that was thought to collect dust and create a place for husbands to hide things.  They tend to make the room feel smaller and the ceilings shorter.  Tradesman would also use these soffits to make their jobs just a little bit easier as well.  We've found plumbing lines, electrical wires, a deck of playing cards, unused nails and even beer bottles.  In general, people today just hate soffits.  In fact, one time when we found plumbing lines in the soffits, the homeowner looked at plumbing running through her otherwise unobstructed ceiling, collapsed onto the kitchen island, and began to sob because she thought she wasn't going to be able to get rid of them.  Seriously, she didn't think she was going to have the strength to go on another minute with them there.  After a brief counseling session, we calmed her down and told here that we could redirect the plumbing so she didn't have to live with those pesky eyesores anymore. Are they that bad?  No, obviously not.....of course, if they are wallpapered with a vintage flower print from 1970....... then well, yes. 

So lets bring them back...retooled a bit of course!  Nowadays we generally build 9' ceilings so bringing a soffit down 12" isn't going to affect the height too much.  Use 42" cabinets and bring them up to the bottom of your soffit.  Secondly, never build them to stand out on their own (i.e. outside corners).  Always enclose them between two walls so they don't jut out and create boxy corners.  Put lighting in them or under them.  Rather than painting them the wall color, choose and accent color or even a different material like wood to amplify the cabinetry. Either that or completely mute the soffit and let the cabinets do all the talking.

So just like those bell bottom jeans, soffits are coming back!  Let's just hope the peg leg tight rolled jeans are gone forever!

JJ