Kitchen renovations have entered a mystical — dare I say Seussian — territory. I was pretty pumped by the surfeit of AMAZING comments on my last post, and fueled by renodrenaline I tracked down link after glorious link. Man, some of you are pretty freaking talented. And all of you have fantastic taste. I loved so many of the cabinet combos and layout suggestions you offered, and I promise we shall discuss them ad nauseum very soon.
But first, we must deal with this:
Oh yes. It’s true. There are two 2×12 load bearing beams stapled together in that god forsaken soffit. Hell, let’s call it what it is: a tray ceiling. The entire thing save a wee punch out in the center is dropped down to seven feet. As far as we can tell, the beam is the only thing that stands between us and gloriously smooth eight foot ceilings that rival an angel baby’s bottom. But there it is, and it can’t be moved.
Ben and I are going round and round about this… I don’t want to address the cabinets and not bust out the soffit, because I want to raise the uppers and build the floor to ceiling cases up to the (hopefully) new eight foot ceiling. But he keeps pointing out the expense, the mess, and the MF BEAM, and contends it’s not worth removing the soffit.
The whole thing is stressing me out and making me wonder if Stage One should be the floors instead.
It’s come to Jesus time, people. Am I crazy? Should we leave the dropped ceiling in there? Is it worth a thousand dollars, a mess, and possibly more drama (pipes? other beams?) to raise the ceiling when the beam will still be there?
I keep bringing up our old house to make the point that our dining room would have been horrifying with seven foot ceilings. And that maybe we could turn the beam into some kind of architectural detail? (Aside: I am seriously missing our old house right now. Too bad it was in hobo town.)
We don’t have room on the sides next to the cabinets to build out anything too boxy, but I was thinking maybe some glossy trim that tied into the upper creamy cabinet color might work? Yes, I see that there is still some kind of soffit in that room… Ben would be perfectly happy to move the soffit back to the cabinet line.
But I really want the whole thing gone. Perhaps a minimal wood facade would tie into our future light oak floors?
Love this, don’t think we have the room.
Not the best picture, but it looks like this kitchen has a beam on top of drywall maybe?
Or maybe we should just do drywall, perhaps with some arch at the corner, and trim the ceiling with thin molding? Would that look weird on the dinette side of the room, where there’s no cabinets or crown molding?
Oh, and there’s a soffit on that side of the room that hides the roof edge. Awesome!
(ps: the pink is getting axed asap. pregnant women should never choose paint colors. also we are getting a new dining set.)
We could always straight up drywall the beam in and paint it ceiling white.
Or maybe we should build a box out on the dinette side of the room to house some electrical, then hang lights from it?
Ok, HELP. Please.
The beam is literally blocking the path to renovation.
Should we knock out the entire soffit, or do we keep a dropped ceiling that is ugly but perfectly drywalled and functional?
Or maybe we just push the soffit back to the cabinet line?
If we knock it all out, how do we finish the beam? The devil is in the details, y’all.
Thanks. I love you forever and I promise to come back to cabinet colors soon.
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I will think about this and answer in more detail later, but in short–keeping the soffit above the cabinets is not bad. In fact we often do it on purpose, even in a room where the main ceiling is taller. Cabinets just aren’t USEFUL above 7′… I mean, I know you can reach them with a step ladder, but ultimately the space is not very usable. And as long as your wall color and upper cabinet color are similar, your eye will barely even read the soffit at all. You wouldn’t mind it, I promise.
But at the same time, your idea of cladding the beam with wood to make it an architectural element is a great one. I feel your pain; low ceiling are such a downer. Keep us posted!
I agree with Bethany….move the soffit back to the cabinet line add some pretty molding and paint the top cabinets your wall color. Cost effective/divorce free.
Btw totally missing our old house but like your it was in the ghetto. Good luck!
Hey and whatever happened with your saarinen dining table??
Marble Saarinen #2 came cracked. We’re seeing about having it glued back together.
Soffits above the cabinets would be better than what I have, but I really wanted to raise the uppers and add shelves beneath.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Pushing the soffit back to the cabinet line would not be bad. You could make it look good that way. But if you are going to be there ten years, I would say go all the way and spend the extra $1000+ and the trouble to do it the way you want – get rid of the soffit and make an accent out of the beam or hide it in drywall. (Though it is scary to not know what ELSE might be hiding in the soffit that could ruin the plan once it was started – HVAC, pipes, etc.)
One does need a step stool to access cabinets above 7′, but I still valued the extra storage, not to mention the easy access and decorative feature of the open shelves I added below my cabinets when I raised them.
I think you should leave the soffits alone. They’re very likely filled with metal, not wood, support beams and electrical conduit (viz: recessed lights in ceiling) and would be a huge mess and disaster to deal with.
You could remove upper cabinets entirely and drywall over that one square opening in the middle. Then it wouldn’t look so weird, it would just be one complete ceiling surface.
We looked inside the can light holes and can see: wood support beams where I indicated, insulation, electrical for the can lights that needs re routing, flexible ductwork that needs modest rerouting.
There could very likely be other stuff, but I don’t *think* so…
get rid of the soffit- totally worth it. see what the bean looks like, but probably just covering it with dry wall to match the rest of the home’s interior shell will be the bet solution.
My kitchen has a support beam running rights across the room. It is pretty much directly above the island bench (we have a galley-style layout.) I thought it would look awful before we had our cabinetry installed. Now, it is not noticeable at all. The kitchen itself draws the focus… I’ve got some photos on my blog if you want a visual:
http://www.thislittlehouse.com.au
If you could raise the ceiling in the actual kitchen area, and just keep the bulkhead where it is absolutely necessary (support beams) I think you would have your feeling of space and height that you want in the kitchen. It will just create a subtle demarcation between the kitchen and dining spaces, which is not a bad thing.
Oh, and…. We started with the floors and have regretted it- they will need to be redone now that we have changed the layout of our kitchen- I believe it’s best to start from the top and work your way down!!!
Dude- I LOVE me some exposed beams! The more gnarly and rustic, the better! But that’s not everyone’s cup of tea. All those ideas you threw out seem fine. Don’t make a big deal outa it. With all the other lovely plans, it’ll be gorg either way.
Get rid of the soffit. Every single pic–dyrwalled, rustic, and inbetween–looked good. But the soffit doesn’t. Narrow down a few options, but wait until you see how the electrical and ductwork settles before you choose. Raising the ceiling will have a huge effect.
I ditto what Christian said. Spend the money, drywall the beam and enjoy those lower open shelves!!
PS- totally sucks about the Tulip table!
don’t be afraid of the mess or the money. those are temporary. that soffit is forever and so will be your misery.
Heheheh.
OK, I know it’s wrong to laugh. But that’s kind of funny.
OK…seriously…is there anything else in that soffit/tray/thing? If it’s JUST the headers, would it really be $1000 to remove the soffit thing and repair the ceiling? I’m assuming here that you leave the headers where they are. I think they could look really good clad in reclaimed wood or decorative molding, but it strikes me that you could make that decision after you get the rest of the ceiling and the cabinets done. Small bites…right?
I don’t speak soffit. But I, too, like what Christian suggested. This is the lamest suggestion in the history of suggestions, but could you sell a few big ticket castoffs on Craig’s…set up a lemonade stand…sell your body to the night to justify the expense?
OK, I missed earlier that you had addressed the “what else is in the soffit” question. And based on the location of the can lights, the wiring isn’t just running above the cabinets, but throughout that whole dropped area.
New idea: incorporate the giant load-bearing beams, and hollow runs for the wiring (and whatever), into a coffered ceiling. Yes, I know, more lumber, more millwork, more expense. But from what I have seen, a patient DIYer (with a nice nail gun) could build one of those. Of course, to align with the beams, the coffered parts would have to be a foot deep, which is moderately insane, but maybe you could offset the load-bearing part and make the rest of it 6″ or 8″ deep in a grid. That should hold your wiring and maybe ductwork, depending on how large it is.
I’m thinking this represents a savings in cost and labor over knocking the entire ceiling up a foot and rerouting everything that’s currently in there to somewhere else, but I don’t have any estimates in hand.
Also, the question that’s starting to intrigue me most: who made the decision to drop the kitchen ceiling a foot rather than going with pendant lights or finding a sensible place for ductwork?
One other post-script… there *might* be a fire code issue with exposing the beam. I have little more than a glancing familiarity with the nitty gritty of building code, let alone Texas building code, but I know in New York it’s actually not legal to expose certain columns/beams because the layer of sheet rock around them is fire protection. Not sure if you were planning to file your work, but if you were, there’s a small chance that could be a consideration.
ha! i also don’t speak soffit, so had no suggestions yesterday. i think Christian’s idea makes the most sense. living with 7 foot ceilings in the kitchen just doesn’t seem right!
Thanks, guys!
The fact that this was recently renovated and this was the solution to dealing with the beam makes me nervous that something else is hidden in there that we can’t see.
Right now I’m still lobbying to rip everything out and then either drywall in the beam or wrap it in a facade that will be painted to match the cabinets.
We’ll see…
I say, forge ahead into the unknown and rip that sucker out! It’s true that it might be a bigger headache than you think… but if you don’t do it, you’ll always wish you had. Always.
Where you go next depends on what you find underneath it, of course. There are clearly a lot of acceptable options (soffit over cabinets, drywall in the beam, wood fascia, etc), so you can decide what to do based on what exactly you find under there. The immediate question is not “what is the end goal?” but “could the end goal ever accept that much soffit?”
Case it out. Add casing ( trim) at opening between kitchn and dining. Cover up the Sheetrock. Add a bit of wall with casing on the left so there is vertical casing landing on the raised counter.
Case out the front face of the soffit in window niche and sides.
Can you do a white or clear pendant to blend with ceiling?
Definitey vote for gray cabinets.
Can you actually move the uppers? Our uppers had to ‘moved’ with a sledge hammer, they were weirdly built in and we could not move them in one piece. Darn. I now have a new Ikea kitchen. Poor me
Well… Hmmm. I hope we can move them. Ugh.
Go with your first instinct and ditch it. First instincts are always the best…not that I have any idea what an effing soffit is, but it sounds disgusting.
My experience tells me that most remodelling attempted for the sake of minor irritations (i.e. “complete fulfillment and happiness; closure”), is elusive at best and vanity at worst. I suggest at this point talking to an architect who has somewhat of a background in pschyotherapy…or a banker, as in getting a loan. After all, what is money?
I keep looking at these photos and I think the drywalled-in soffit in your house and in that final photo look better than the exposed beam. An exposed aged beam in a farmhouse makes sense, but I don’t get it in the other spaces. Is that cut out in the middle of the ceiling a skylight? That part is what seems most visually disruptive from my viewing point. The soffits don’t bug me at all.
The punch out isn’t a skylight — I wish. There are recessed lights in there. It feels like a dungeon with 7 foot ceilings. Barf.
I have been watching all the episodes of Merlin on Hulu while sick and slightly delirious — maybe you can watch and get some dungeon decorating ideas? Erin, you have great taste and a wonderfully supportive hubby, so whatever you do it will look great. And it really doesn’t look that bad now. Fear not, young warlock!
Man we just barely went through this. Bought an older home and one side of the kitchen had 7 ft ceilings. I was scared to do such extensive remodeling but it all worked out and it probably was the best thing we did with the home. Sure it cost more money than we wanted to spend but in the scheme of things I felt like it was money worth spending. Once we busted out the ceiling we found that there had to be air ducts moved and some extra electrical work but overall not bad. To achieve the 8 ft ceilings we did have to keep a soffit (i think 18 inches) and I actually like it. I am only doing open shelving for the uppers. I will send pics if you would like. I say go for it and feel good about it.
ah man i don’t know where my long comment went but basically I think you should move the soffit back. We just went through the very same issue with our older home. One side of the kitchen had 7 ft ceilings and I didn’t want to spend the money and was scared to do messy renovating. We had no idea what we were getting into but In the end it was the best thing we did with this whole process and worth every penny. We ended up having to move metal duct work and we had to do extra electrical crap but ovetall much more painless then i thought. I think the soffit is 18 inches all around the perimeter of the room to aqcuire the widest space of eigjt ft ceilings possible. I can send pics if you’d like. Go for it!!
Remove the entire dropped ceiling (no soffit) and case the 2×12 beams (in either drywall or painted wood). Worth the time and money in the long run. NOBODY ever says, “I wish I didn’t fix that problem that was driving me crazy.”
I suspect that you will find “issues” but spend the money to solve the electrical and hvac problems – hiding them in between the joists. There is a possibility that you could replace the 2×12 beams with gluelam or steel beams, which might reduce their depth and allow you to have a completely open space. Although a costly endeavor, it might be worth looking into. I might consult with an architect for a few hours and get their expert option. If all else fails – paint it white
Get rid of the soffit and the drop ceiling. It is well worth it. I did the same in my kitchen and raised the cabinets to ceiling with nice crown molding. Looks so much better.