A little back story. My house was build in the early 40's. The point at which builders threw away the idea of trying to build something that is architecturally significant and see how far they could push builder grade. As a result, among other things, I have low ceilings. 7.5'. Roughly 50 years later, the previous owner decided to throw money at the place and as best as I can tell cut corners in every way.
Fast forward to now. I've lived here for nearly three years and bought the place with the intention of fixing many of the problems. I have already done quite a lot but now I plan on moving next year so I'm limiting projects that will have a return. We are doing a very small kitchen upgrade. Painting the cabinets (wife's idea, still not convinced) and retailing the back splash.
Here is the question. Not that I am looking to expand the scope but when the kitchen was redone in the 90's they did something architecturally stupid. They put in an 8" soffit above the 30" cabinets resulting in very small cabinets which are also too low. What is even worse is that they were apparently so concerned with saving a few bucks by going with smaller cabinets that they cut off the top 8 inches of the kitchen window. It looks really stupid. I want to rip it out. Maybe not the whole soffit because I'm not in the market to replace all of the cabinets, but the area over the sink where the window is. So I guess my question is, has anyone ever seen this done to cover something up or is there some justifiable reason why what they did was a good idea? I really hate it, but it seems like such a bad idea, that I cant imagine doing it unless I was covering something up.
Best Answer
It was popular in the 1980s and 90s to have soffits above the kitchen cabinets. So to directly answer your question Yes there is some justifiable reason to have remodeled to then-current trends, such as if one was trying to maximize resale value at the time, or were just beginning to modernize the entire house. Of course that is based on personal preferences, how the remodel matches the rest of the house, neighborhood, etc. Clearly you do not like the choices the previous owners had made in the 1990's to follow then-current design trends, although one could guess they probably shared your loathing for the original 1940's styles (or lack thereof) and were similarly trying to do something about it on a reasonable budget, and that is a common thing that people do.
Its funny to think that if you do modernize your interior to today's design trends, then thirty years from now the future owner will think the dated look is also stupid!
Oftentimes in practice soffits only cover up empty space above the cabinets, which, at the time they were installed was a design trend in new construction and remodels. The only reason they were installed was to cover up the 'unsightly' void which was considered unpopular at the time. I have removed soffits from an old house that were installed in the 1990s and found nothing behind them, but that doesn't means yours are that way!
Here is a website that talks about this design trend, and with several pictures of how to make them look nicer.