You could drop all the cabinets in 10 minutes, shim and mud the bulkhead to level, prime, paint, and rehang the cabinets. Not all that.

I think you should add a molding regardless.

Or you can do a coffered ceiling. But your ceilings might be low for that. What height?

Sorry - better pics of the coffered ceiling idea

Moulding is probably your cheapest and more expedient solution. IMO it wouldn't look bad to apply moulding - perhaps even a crown moulding. You could attempt to shim, mud and paint the gap. Otherwise, having the bulkhead torn out and rebuilt might be your only other option. Good luck!

Moulding will be the fastest, cheapest and easiest fix. I’d go with that. Everything else becomes an expense and a headache.

There’s not room for any decorative molding. I would think about using foam backer and caulk then paint to match cabs and no one will ever know. I had a gap like that with a fireplace mantle in older home I purchased and that worked great.

Agree....no room for decorative molding like crown, if you keep the soffits. Scribe molding would probably fit OK.

One other alternative would be to take down all the uppers. Add a sheet of drywall to the front of the soffits (You say that's wavy on the front too, right?) Then reinstall the uppers but drop them down a bit and use a small molding at the top.

But I like Susan's idea best so far. It's the easiest. But if the wavy depth of the soffits is really bad (doesn't look too bad in photo), then redoing soffits or removing them are your options...or adding drywall like I mentioned above. If you remove the soffits...then you can get a nice crown molding to top it off. But that option is the most $.

I agree with Susan the is the cheapest choice and there is no place for molding that I can see that would fix the issue . Nosure who designed the kitchen but taht should have been fixed before install.

If the soffit is painted to match the upper cabinetry, you can caulk the gap and paint it to match. You may be able to lightly sand the wavy parts of the bulkhead just enough to minimize the wavy appearance….then prime and paint. Molding may work if the cabinets are perfectly, evenly hung.

Thanks all for the responses.

@HU-187528210

The ceilings are 104". I think we're going to be way out of budget to do the coffered ceiling.

@The Kitchen Place GC is suggesting adding molding to the top of the cabinet like this:

(They would extend 2" or so out past the wall of the bulkhead)

What do you all think of this look? Is it just funky? Or will it look ok since the ceilings are high?

what millworkman said. call in an expert drywall/mudding guy. I had this issue w/my ceiling in one corner. like 2" ! he was able to patch and mud and level it in a few hours. no big deal.

by the time you get the molding, cut it, install it, and paint it, the price difference from the mud guy isn't going to be much different. level the bulkhead

I like the clean look to the cabinets. No to molding as a patch job. Agree with leveling the bulkhead.