"My general contractor offered me to hang a drywall on top of plaster but I dont see a value of this." Oh for the love of God - I wish if people didn't know how to do something or it was outside their range of expertise they would just say so and not propose these ridiculous things that do more harm than good. So he adds more thickness with a layer of drywall - what does he do with the trim then? Rip it out and install skinny cheap modern trim from Home Depot (some do exactly that - ugghhhh) Sorry OP I just had to vent there!! Ive been looking at old houses to buy and theres no end of goofy, futzy things that people have done to them. Im glad you saw the folly of that esp in such an old house. Like fine antiques, as time goes on people more appreciate the old things - esp if well maintained in original condition. You may want to go over to thehistoricdistrict.org, which has many old house lovers on the forum including professionals who can advise in great detail about how to do plaster repair. Especially with your age of house - you might want to confirm what type of plaster you have . There was an earlier type of lime plaster with different composition with materials you might have to hunt for (but certainly are obtainable at reasonable cost) The later type of gypsum based plaster used in early-mid 1900s - materials not available at big box - I think Ace had a type of patching plaster that can work but the plaster of paris that they (and home depot) sells is not good - sets up way too fast and hard. Otherwise any small-mid size city should have a building supply store where they carry the more specialized types of materials - while traditionally plater walls had a three coat system, for repairing cracks Ive just used plain patching or veneer plaster - if a bigger hole you can get a rough coat plaster for first layer and veneer plaster for the top layer. Use a bonding agent on the edges of the old plaster and the lath to help the new plaster adhere well to the old. There's various other techniques for bigger areas and different types of situations - and other people will have their favorite methods and materials (some use drywall compound but IMHO if you have extensive repairs its best (and considerably cheaper) to get the real stuff. Re very fine surface hairline cracks - ignoring those works the best! In a nutshell - plaster repair is exactly the kind of labor intensive but very doable thing that a typical home owner can learn to do, and do well.

I love the ideas mentioned about soffits. You can turn the soffit into a faux molding of doors. I adore Celineike's beautiful kitchen, what a creative way to deal with soffits. Here are a few more examples. Soffit into a stacked cab or even adding molding to the soffit in the pic with the yellow. All fun ideas to make the space even more beautiful. I would put some elegant drapes on the windows something like this...Not a Duncan P table but lovely nevertheless. Oriental rugs over your tile floors and rich woven drapes will make the coolness of the room flow with the duncan pyfe table you are invisioning. What about a built in fish tank? Fish tanks can take on a mood or feel of their own but built in ones remind us that they are part of the art and passion of the owner not an entitiy of their own. The built in fish tank becomes elegant art. Back to the kitchen... Here is a combo of gray and white with a gentle soffit above. That sort of blends into the wall. I thought of this when you mentioned gray. Painting soffitts above to match walls and cabs unify the space.

It's certainly something you can start to do on your own, with the help of the Kitchen forum -- many of us here have done that. But to do that, you need to read through the link I posted before, https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5500754/new-to-kitchens-read-me-first#23482868 to understand how it's done here in the forum. It's also worthwhile reading through the archives to see how others have done it. Then, once you've done that, post pictures with more detailed measurements. Let us know how many people live in the house, how many use (or will use, if you have small children) the kitchen, what sort of cooking you do (do you just reheat takeout or love to bake or cook three meals from scratch every day), what are your sort of storage needs, what have you found difficult/awkward since you started using the kitchen last summer, etc. Also, what do you envision for the breakfast room space? How do you use your dining room? Do you like the dining room and living room set-ups as they are currently in your house, and do they work with your needs? Do you need a mudroom? Would it be better to turn the breakfast room into a mudroom area, keeping the wall that separates the space from the kitchen, and perhaps instead remove the wall between the kitchen and dining room? But whatever you, do NOT buy appliances next week, or you will have to plan around the appliances, rather than your needs. And do NOT skimp on the planning phase. Consider the time it takes as a great investment in a great kitchen that works for you and looks beautiful.

SO- we want to take this soffit out (it is a ranch with no venting or electrical and attic space above), install can lights- What you have there is much more than a soffit. The entire ceiling has been dropped. There may or may not be drywall above the dropped ceiling; there may be insulation up there resting on the dropped portion. The walls above the ceiling may not have drywall on them. If you remove the light diffusers, you may be able to get a better idea of what is there & what isn't. This will be more costly than simply removing a soffit-over-cabinet situation. The good news is that you have attic space above which makes the electrical easier & a bit less costly. OTOH: we will be moving the kitchen and taking out walls- basically starting over. Doesn't make sense to do anything now because when the kitchen gets moved, the new lighting you install now will be all wrong; the ceiling will have to be patched/ replaced where the walls come down, electrical will have to be re-routed... For now, I would replace the cabinet pulls with pulls that have backplates--that will help cover up the peeled paint and minimize chipping--do a bit of touch up painting. Then live with it until you are ready to take on the larger project.