I am sorry for this post, I am so tired that I am about to pass out. I hope everyone catches on to what I was saying....and I might have repeated myself a time or two. I am sorry for that, but I do make a point for not taking the soffit out. One thing my Wife and I did was collect copper molds that come in different shapes and hung them from the front of it and it adds some interest to the area. Are the soffits there are support for the cabinets hanging. Were your cabinets built into the kitchen while the house was being built. In other words, If you wanted to take them our would you have to rip the cabs out which would most likely ruin them? Only reason I ask is because I have soffits and the cabinets were custom built and built into the house, It woudl be near impossible for me to get them out in one piece. I am going somewhere with this. Looking at how my cabinets are built make me wonder if they are not only hanging from the wall but built into the soffit above, Using the 2x4 framework (which is very solid) would be a great way to add more support for solid custom made cabinets. The cabinets today are built different and have a lot of internal support where as my cabinets have very little internal support and because of that and the way they are built and attached I am wondering if they are indeed using the soffit for structural support.

I prefer simpler, cleaner lines, so mostly like the 2nd styles in each drawing. I especially like the area next to the pantry to have more counter and not have the long doors down to the counter. Also, in the first picture, that area next to the oven and pantry looks like it's trying to be a furniture piece, but everything on that wall looks like separate things all shoved together. I'm not sure how to explain that better, and less offensively! I just think there is a lot going on and, like I said, all lined up, shoulder-to-shoulder, doesn't work for me. How do you do soffits with the cabinets changing height at the top? Or would you do away with that? If you drop the ceiling in the butler's pantry, might you want to do cabinets to 9 ft and have the ceiling where the cabinets end? Or do you want to store serveware or have lighting above?

I am not sure an island will fit comfortably in your kitchen. Mine is the same width as yours with similar u-shape cabinet/countertop configuration--if I am reading your plan correctly. While I could squeeze in an island, it would be very crowded (visually and functionally) so I decided against having even a moveable piece that I could push out of the way if needed. Before going to the expense of installing the island, consider getting a really cheap table from Craigslist or local thrift store to use for a test run. My "sample island" was cardboard on top of a tiny table I brought up from the basement. It took one day for me to nix that idea!

That’s not a simple question. We do need images. It matters how your “large” soffit was built, whether you have crown molding and how it was applied. You will have different solutions if: 1. your soffit is made of sheet rocked corners and overhangs your cabinet, 2. is continuous or has breaks, or 3. is cut out of/contiguous with the wall. In the last image below, you can see how wall color is not always the best choice.