Open Up Your Kitchen With Soffit Cabinets
Do you ever wish you had more storage space in your kitchen or a better way to conceal unsightly pipes and wires? Installing soffit cabinets above your existing kitchen cabinets can be a clever and affordable way to gain extra storage while also enhancing the look of your kitchen.
With their clean, integrated design, soffit cabinets seamlessly blend in with your existing cabinetry and ceiling. Not only do they maximize vertical storage space, but soffit cabinets can also help streamline the overall aesthetic of your kitchen. Read on to learn all about the benefits of soffit cabinets and how to choose the right style for your home.
Benefits of Soffit Cabinets
Increase Storage Space
One of the best perks of installing soffit cabinets is the added storage space. By building out the typically unused area above your wall cabinets, you can gain room for storing overflow dishes, small appliances, and other kitchen items without taking up valuable counter or floor space.
Soffit cabinets are especially helpful in small kitchens where every inch counts. Opt for cabinets with shelves, racks, or pull-out drawers customized to hold everything from mixing bowls to trays to coffee mugs.
Improve Functionality
Does your kitchen have high ceilings? Even if your wall cabinets don't reach all the way to the ceiling, soffit cabinets can help bridge this gap, allowing you to store those awkwardly tall items. Think stock pots, stand mixers, broom handles, and bulky containers.
You can also opt for soffits with specialty storage solutions like spice racks, cutlery dividers, or pull-out garbage/recycling bin compartments to upgrade your kitchen's overall utility.
Enhance Visual Appeal
Strategically designed soffit cabinets don't just maximize unused space, they add an element of polished sophistication to your culinary space. Especially when painted or stained to coordinate with your existing cabinetry, soffits can blend in seamlessly to create a cohesive aesthetic.
Beyond coordinating with cabinet finishes, some soffit designs incorporate architectural details like crown moldings, recessed panels, display shelving and even ambient lighting. This enables soffits to elevate the overall visual interest of your kitchen design.
Conceal Unsightly Elements
Have ductwork running across your kitchen ceiling? Love the open concept design but not the view of the plumbing and wires? One appealing aspect of soffit cabinets is their ability to conceal infrastructure elements like pipes, wiring, and cables.
Strategically placed soffits create a clean-lined enclosed space to tuck away any unsightly wires, awkward conduit or structural elements that would otherwise clutter your field of vision.
Types of Soffit Cabinets
When it comes to soffit cabinet designs, you've got options ranging from purely utilitarian to dazzlingly dramatic. Consider how you hope your soffits will function within your available space and overall vision.
Standard Soffits
The most common and budget-friendly choice, standard soffits simply seal off open space between your wall cabinets and ceiling. Typically made of painted drywall or stained wood, standard soffit boxes lend themselves well to no-fuss storage solutions.
Opt for adjustable shelves and sliding racks to conveniently stash overflow dishes, small appliances, or cleaning supplies. You can also customize standard soffits to conceal infrastructure elements.
Lighted Soffits
Why choose form over function or vice versa when lighted soffits give you both? Not only do these soffits build out unused vertical space, they also incorporate lighting elements like pendant fixtures, track lights or ambient strips.
Properly placed lighting casts a gorgeous glow onto surfaces below while illuminating soffit contents. Lighted soffits add style while also enabling you to clearly see what's stored overhead.
Decorative Soffits
Truly transformative, decorative soffits allow you to infuse your personal style into the often neglected space above your kitchen cabinets. Accented with crown moldings, light fixtures, glass door fronts and other bespoke details, decorative soffits elevate your kitchen decor.
Display collectables in glass-fronted cabinets or fill open shelves with cherished serving ware to showcase your treasured pieces with pride. For contemporary executions, incorporate clean lines, floating shelves and minimal ornamentation.
Choosing the Right Soffit
Ready to unlock your kitchen's potential with the power of soffits? As you evaluate options, home in on the soffit style aligned with both your desired aesthetic and functional priorities.
Complement Your Style
Do your gleaming marble countertops and crystal chandeliers signal old-world refinement? Or is your Smeg fridge surrounded by Sawstop table saws more indicative of modern utilitarian chic? Consider your prevailing decor when selecting soffits.
While standard soffits suit contemporary spaces, home chefs favoring French-country style may gravitate toward barnwood design accents. Take style cues from your existing kitchen cabinets and finishes when choosing soffits.
Meet Functional Needs
Consider your soffit cabinets an opportunity to tackle kitchen organizer needs or ongoing frustrations. Do seasonal closet rotations constantly force you to squirrel mixers and food processors away under your sink? Are you eagerly awaiting the day you can finally hide those exposed pipes?
Take note of your most wanted extra storage solutions or problematic sights begging to be concealed when planning soffits. Meeting these tangible needs represents functional value that enhances your everyday quality of life.
Installation Process
Once you've selected the ideal soffit style for your kitchen, it's time to tackle the installation process. While carpentry skills come in handy, you can also hire a contractor to handle the entire installation. Either way, proper planning prevents problems down the line.
Prepare the Area
Start by removing any existing non-load-bearing soffits or unnecessary crown molding trim to clear the way for your new soffit foundations. Next create a sturdy attachment surface by securely installing backing boards across your ceiling area's perimeter.
Be sure to examine the electrical, plumbing and ventilation situation above the cabinets. Install any necessary new wiring, re-route ductwork, and make plumbing upgrades before constructing your soffits.
Add Cabinet Boxes
With open access and adequate backing secured, start constructing soffit boxes complete with interior shelving, racks, or specialized storage elements you've selected. Using dimensional planning blueprints will streamline this process.
Customized interior fittings coupled with a frame anchored securely to backing boards results in sturdy soffit cabinet boxes sized and configured to your exact specifications.
Include Lighting and Moldings
Now is the time to add any integrated lighting, making sure to properly wire pendant fixtures or LED strips prior to enclosing them. You can also attach crown molding clips or decorative trim pieces across the ceiling line before sealing up soffits.
Paying attention to such accents during the framework stage spares you hassles compared to retrofitting trims and lighting down the line.
Blend Soffit with Kitchen
With all structural and functional elements in place, enclose the open face of your soffit cabinet frames with panels or facing to match surrounding cabinets. Apply painters tape for clean seams where soffits meet wall paint or ceiling, then plaster, mud and sand for seamless unity.
Stain, glaze or paint your soffits the same finish as your kitchen cabinets so they assimilate into the integrated whole of your kitchen design.
Style Ideas and Inspiration
Convinced of the merits of soffit cabinets yet still searching for that "Eureka!" spark of inspiration? The style possibilities for soffit implementations truly abound, so look to images of soffit cabinet innovations featured in noteworthy kitchen designs.
Note elements you wish to emulate like color schemes, built-ins, materials and scale. Collectively consider what soffit treatments complement your personal style preferences, support your family's functional needs and work within your budget parameters.
Cleverly designed and professionally installed soffit cabinets unlock storage potential while maximizing unused vertical space above kitchen cabinetry. Standard soffits lend themselves to affordable storage upgrades while lighted and decorative options incorporate alluring style statements.
From small urban galley kitchens to expansive suburban entertainer's cookspaces, soffits introduce architectural interest while expanding storage and concealment opportunities. Evaluate your style priorities, functional needs and budget to discover the ideal soffit solution for your kitchen.