I AM AN ADVOCATE OF KITCHEN SOFFITS, or as some readers call them, bulkheads. The postwar era was all about the introduction and spread of “fitted” kitchens. Long runs of base and wall cabinets and countertops, with an integrated stove and sink and fridge. This “scientific” design was an outgrowth of the efficiency movement earlier in the century, married to the postwar industrial economy that needed to find consumer outlets for the built-up wartime production. To me, while they are an additional hassle and expense if you are renovating, soffits are a no-brainer for a 1940s, 1950s or 1960s kitchen.
Soffits aren’t only authentic retro, they: (1) keep the tops of your wall cabinets from getting filthy, (2) are the perfect spot for vintage wallpaper, and (3) can hold and hide wiring. One of the other great benefits of soffits is that you can use them to deal with a variety of design challenges.
In my kitchen, I made the refrigerator look “fitted” by bringing the soffit out 24” to meet its profile (whereas the adjacent wall cabinets are only 12-13” deep. I can also mention here that I specifically chose my wicked expensive Sub-Zero refrigerator because it is 24” deep (fitted) and 84” tall – the exact height of the wall cabinets. Yes, it cost a bundle. To pay for it, I chose to wait four years to get the new car that I needed, and ran my beloved Taurus right into the ground, yes indeedy. This is a great refrigerator for a retro renovation kitchen.
Back to soffits, you also want to continue running your soffit over windows and especially that one over the sink. That one: You can either keep the horizontal line or notch the soffit up. Like an arch, but keep it squared off. Put one-to-three can lights underneath.
Note, though, that I do NOT like those soffits that come out 24” over the sink or base cabinets. I had those in my last kitchen, I really thought they made the place feel smaller. I do understand how tucking can lights into the extended space can be beneficial. Even so, I am not a fan. (See below about ‘building in’ features like fridges with extended soffits, that’s okay.)
If you have soffits in your kitchen, you also can then use the same idea to fix other design issues. In this image, a 1961 Hotpoint kitchen, the wall framing the refrigerator is like a soffit and gives it that “built in feel” so important to this design.
Another example: To get my three pantry cabinets to fit just right, I had about 3 inches of vertical wall space remaining (far left of photo). So, we made a vertical “soffit,” which I also wallpapered. Interestingly, a lot of people say these three pantry cabinets and the way that they are built in are what really “make” the kitchen. Another a-symmetry thing, too: Three, much better than four.
Hope all this is clear. The point: Frame things in finished drywall – whether above in a soffit or to the side like a wall – and they look “fitted.”
61 Mamie Pink Kitchens: Day 3 with these midcentury marvels 
One of the last St. Charles steel kitchens? 
Youngstown Kitchens Monterey cabinets 
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So cool to see more pics of your kitchen, Pam! Look at all that cabinet space – I’m jealous! I just painted our bulkheads pink. I hung a 50′s aqua clock in one area, but can’t think of what else would look authentic (besides decals) to put on the rest of the soffit area. Wallpaper would be great, but our curtains are rather “loud”, so I don’t want to detract from them.
Pam, I love those three pantry cabinets! I wish I had space like that in my kitchen.
Glamorlux Nancy-I’m having the same problem trying to decide how to decorate my soffits. I don’t want to use wallpaper (nothing against wallpaper) and I thought about using a retro wallpaper stencil. I had also mulled over using the coppertone gelatin molds, but have scraped that idea. I ordered a set of 4 Smart-Tiles from Home Depot to see how they would look (surprisingly, they look like the real thing except you don’t have to use grout-they peel and stick), My kitchen is centered around stainless steel, coppertone, brass and wood, so I want to highlight those. Eventually, I’ll strip and refinish the cabinets to a blond finish. The blacksplash is the original beige ceramic tiles and those are staying put!
I feel fortunate that my kitchen cabinets go all the way up to the ceiling. The top shelf is hard to reach, but it’s great for those things that I don’t use very often. Anyway, what caught my eye were the chairs in that first picture. I have 3 of them, but mine were finished in black with white cushions when I bought them at a garage sale (3 chairs for $4.50). I took the back inserts out and had them chromed on 2 of the chairs (the 3rd one isn’t in very good shape) and repainted the frames in black. I used them with the chrome and gray Formica dinette table that I picked up at an auction until I purchased my vintage mahogany Duncan Phyfe dining table and chairs. Now the dinette and chairs are in storage…oh to have a house with an eat-in kitchen and a dining room…
Thank you Pam, for sharing a yellow kitchen inspiration…I need all the ideas I can get! I do so covet your pantry cabinets (I never see them pop-up when Geneva cabinets are being sold – do you?)
Retro as they are, and retro as I am, I detest the soffits in our authentically small (9X12) mid-century kitchen. But I’m stuck with them, and the lost storage space I would have from ceiling height cabinets, but at least it beats the even worse idea of the empty space above the cabinetry that is popular in more recently built homes. All that does is provide a quiet resting place for dead insects and dust bunnies.
Thank-you though for the post, having a little more respect for the soffit now and some new ideas on how to make them work in a kitchen desinmay have just saved me from sledge-hammering my way into a costly re-modeling mishap! I’m still gonna have to find someplace to stash all of the wife’s “occasional” stuff though.
Pam: I agree with you about the benefits of soffits — why would anyone think exposed cabinet tops are better? I have them and cringe to think of how filthy they probably are right now. Shudder. My next house will either have soffits or cabinets all the way up to the ceiling.
That yellow kitchen is so happy! I want to go in and sit down at the table. Thanks for sharing all of those great pix, Pam!!
While I love my 1947 Cape Cod home, I despise the soffets. My kitchen is the original size and saying it’s teeny is being generous. The soffets, which my husband insisted we keep and won… unfortunately, are so inconvenient to me because I could use all that space as storage or even put in bigger cabinets… for more storage. That being said, you have plenty of space for them and your kitchen is FAN.TASTIC. I could only dream of all that.
Thanks for the great post. Having just moved into my first house a few months ago, I’m finding my kitchen layout and storage barely adequate and am planning to remodel it in the near future but I don’t want to change the original look too much. So I will definitely plan to keep the soffits – who can reach cupboards that high without a step stool anyway? I hate how my refrigerator stands out from the cabinets now and would love to have a “built in feel.” Your blog is giving me lots of great ideas!
We have soffits and well, I can’t decide whether or not they are beneficial or not, other than the obviously hide ductwork and wiring. Our kitchen is the galley-type, it can’t be more than 6′ across wall to wall, so that excepts the cabinets, washer and dryer (yep, we have to have the w&d in there too!), countertops, sink, stove/oven and dishwasher and finally the behemoth fridge. We can’t extend anything over the fridge as there are MUCH NEEDED half-size cabinets there. The length of the kitchen space is probably close to 14′. I have to admit the soffits actually look better since we painted them and the wallspace in the kitchen and extended dinette area a Tiffany-ish blue which goes well with the original light blonde-red birch cabinets.
I would love to communicate with any RR readers who have successfully dealt with the space issue of the smaller ranch kitchen, especially galley ones!
Hi Kristin, I know you sent me an email asking about ideas for small galley kitchens. I have been noodling the question. I’ll do a post sometime, I’m just not sure when…Between my FT job, the blog, the family blah blah blah we all know the to-lists!!!, it’s taking me time to get to most reader questions. Seriously, though, I really have been thinking about this!
Hey Pam, no big deal! Not trying to thread-hijack, but I never realized how the soffits may add to the feeling of claustrophobia in a galley kitchen!
I love the soffits in our 1950′s home kitchen, couldn’t imagine a kitchen without them! Our kitchen is so so so teeny tiny too as far as storage, but it’s cute. I love that above the sink window between the cupboards we have that little scalloped piece too, I love those. I just need to get a cool vintage clock to put above that ( there is actually a plug there for one, obviously original, but we always put battery motors in our vintage clocks for safety )
I plan to put cup hooks and hang coffee mugs around mine.
I love the soffits in my kitchen. The wall color continues on the soffits (a bright lemon yellow) and makes the white cabinets pop right beneath them. I’m planning on hanging my collection of mid-century dessert plates along it.
I love your kitchen. It’s the same color and type of kitchen I grew up with. I can’t wait to check out the rest of your blog to see more of your renovation. I love mid-century homes and furnishings. Lots of great memories were made among such great things.
Oh and are your cabinets Youngstown by any chance? My Mom’s were.
Thanks for this! We were trying to decide what to do w/ our soffits-keep or get rid of them. This helped.
Soffits in a small galley kitchen – a HUGE waste of space! In a larger Mid-Century space they work, but in a small kitchen they do not.
I love this site! I am considering vintage metal cabinets for our new (addition) kitchen, because I love them and solid wood cabinets are way too much money. My current kitchen is the original 1946 galley, solid wood cabinets with plywood rounded doors. They are great, but totally do not accomodate modern life
I plan to re-use them elsewhere after we build the new kitchen, and may (because we are on a strict budget) use some of them in the new kitchen if I can get them to blend in. The problem with my cabinets is that they were custom-built into the space – no two are alike and there are no standard widths.
We have soffits and I must say that if I could not extend the kitchen I would do one of two things – either remove the soffits and replace the 12″ high space with glass-front cabinets and store decorative items there or use stained glass fronts (you can get Jadeite green stained glass or any other color) to hide messy stuff. The cheaper alternative that still fits the style is to remove the soffit and use the space above for display items (I collect Jadeite, so this is a big thing for me) and install a gallery rail. For this Period I would go with a simple ball gallery rail – very cute and retro (as opposed to the spindle style that is too Victorian / Country).
I have the scalloped valance over the window and a ball gallery rail would compliment it well.
In a small kitchen using every inch is key, and this is the best way to keep the period feel. You may even be able to add some storage space in the walls between the studs for spices – super cute! Just make sure there is no wiring there and beware that removing plaster (I have 1″ thick rock lath plaster) is a dusty nightmare! You need to use an angle grinder to remove this kind of plaster. Just cut the plaster on the inside of each stud and then trim the edges with wood and use quarter-round mounding to hold the shelves. Painting the back a different color really makes it pop.
natschultz, thank you for sharing your opinion. in my experience i see very few kitchens after about 1953 or so that have soffits. taking cabinets all the way to the ceiling is a pre-war look.
So happy to see this post, because I hated our soffits in our recently-inherited midcentury home. I want to modernize our kitchen, while keeping a little of the retro feel, so I’m going to let the soffits be! I’m too short to reach into ceiling-height cabinets anyway, and hate the idea of the open space collecting dust.
I just had soffits put in my kitchen remodel of my ancient house with too many doors, as I did not want to get on a ladder twice a year to clean the tops of cabinets. And I knew my dear husband would have stored paper towels and other things up there out of my reach and it would look very cluttered.
My friend did the work, and bumped out the half cabinet over my refrigerator so we can use it, so it looks built in.
He also bumped out around the one pantry like cabinet.
Looks so much like it has been there a long time.
We did a wall in the middle of the room so we could have a small pantry by the bathroom door, and a wee bit of privacy since most houses have a bathroom off the kitchen where it originally was a porch. The other half of porch will be for our small kitchen table. Not officially a nook but as close as we will get to one. The window is off center and is staying that way.