Soffit

Is there a preffered, or standard, way of building a soffit, such as that for kitchen cabinets? I've got a few questions.

Should I install the drywall first then build the soffit and drywall it, or should I frame it and drywall all at once?

Any reason why I can not use 2x2s or 2x3s for the soffit? With a 2x4 costing 2.65 these days, it'd be some savings.

I've got a beam that I'll need to frame around and then drywall. It's perpendicular to the cabinet soffit. Let's say the cabinet soffit is 12in deep and the beam is only 8in deep. Should I frame the bare minimum around the beam (8in) or match it up with the cabinet soffit all the way across the room? I really don't want to lose the head room, or divide the kitchen. Ceilings are 8ft 6in.

Thx
Jason

If it were me,

2x2s are fine, if you can keep them straight. There's no load being supported, so you don't need 2x4's or more.

I'd frame it when yr framing everything else. No reason to do dwall twice. Too messy.

Not sure I understand how yr beam runs. If it can be hidden by making a 12" soffit that runs flush to the cab faces, my vote is for that. I'd put a veneer and some molding on it to match the cabinet face. It'll actually make yr cabs look taller and built-in.

Howdy,
See the quick sketch. Soffit is at the top of the page in both PLAN and ELEVATION. Beam runs perpendicular to that. Puts pantry on other side of the beam, ie dividing the kitchen. :( 8" deep or 12"?

Thx
Jason

I get you.

I'd make the soffit as tight to the beam as possible. Wouldn't want to lose that headroom in the rest of the kitchen. I'd just leave the gap btn the cab tops and the beam. If you don't like that, can you install a crown molding on top of the cabinet to extend to the beam?

Have you thought of encasing the beam in faux wood? You could actually do a couple of these in parallel. Make yr kitchen look country!
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Well there is a 12" soffit above the cabinets as well, so I'm not sure what you mean by gap and extending the beam. So far my plan is to keep the bottom of beam as high as possible as to not lose the headroom.

I thought about encasing it in wood...maple...to match the cabinets, but I'm not sure I want to draw attention to it. Wanted it flush in the ceiling, but it wasn't worth the time, money and effort, so it's down low and maybe we can hide it..Heh

Thanks for your opinion.

Thx
Jason

I think I'd have to say drywall it tight to the beam as well. I might have designed the soffit to be the same depth as the beam originally, then it might just look like a continuation of the soffit.
I guess the only "advantage" to building the beam down to 12" would be that you could then run lighting, etc in the extra space if you wanted to dress it up somehow (I'm not really sure how, but extra lighting in a kitchen is always helpful).
I don't think I have any more ideas than these and those others have posted. Good luck.
oldhouse.

For them to be that same at 8" would have been optimal. Could of, but it's too bad since the cabinets are custom but already started! Oh well.

Originally, I didn't want the beam to be below, but instead flush w/ the ceiling. Just not worth the time, money and effort though.

Thanks
Jason

It looks like the pantry side is fairly narrow. How would it look if you stay as tight as possible to the beam and dropped the whole ceiling from the beam over to the pantry wall at the left of your picture?

You might put some lighting on the side of the beam toward the right in your plan view. You could also put some flush lighting in the dropped ceiling area over the pantry; anything to make it so it doesn't look like a beam.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bob NH

It looks like the pantry side is fairly narrow. How would it look if you stay as tight as possible to the beam and dropped the whole ceiling from the beam over to the pantry wall at the left of your picture?

You might put some lighting on the side of the beam toward the right in your plan view. You could also put some flush lighting in the dropped ceiling area over the pantry; anything to make it so it doesn't look like a beam.

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Well I didn't finish the plan, there is a closet there adjacent to the pantry. It continues all the way over about 7 feet from the edge of the beam.

This used to be a porch that we closed in to make a mud room and we're kind of stealing some space from it. If I find the time, I might fireup Solidworks and make a 3D model of what I had in mind to see if anyone had any suggestions on improving the situation.


Thx
Jason

http://www.ipixelspot.com/files/8/kit.JPG
(Anything not in blue I just kinda threw in there just now to convey the idea....mostly all to scale) That's a 120G saltwater aquarium at the bottom of the page. It's big enough to make it into the plan. Heh

The green are soffits, around the cabinet is about 12" and the one across the room will be around 8" deep. The gray diagonal is the steel beam which we got all in tonight! It is diagonal to miss the red 4" cast iron drain pipe (so like almost 6" diameter at the flanges). The pipe that will be buried in the cabinets.

The edge of the pipe is about 9" from the finished wall, so that gives me plenty of room (3") to put in a wide filler strip on the upper cabinets and continue it down to the counter. Counter will wrap in front of it until it hits the pantry. On the bottom I have about 15" for some small spice drawers. It's not a good location, but it'll use the space.

I got a good deal on the cabinets, material only (no time charge)! But, we had to start them months ago, though to have them done anytime soon. This was the best way to procede w/o having the pipe boxed in inside a cabinet. Besides, didn't have 100% of the details until demo happened.

I'd like to hide the beam as much as possible, but dunno if its possible. Extending the ceiling at that level all the way to the walls I would think make it seem clausterphobic. What do you think?
Jason

Many houses have ceilings less than 8 ft. If you drop only the ceiling of the area to the left of the beam to 7'-9" you will cover the beam. You could add lights or a large molding at the top of the beam to provide lighting to the kitchen.

I sorta like the idea of dropping the ceiling to the left of the beam, FWIW. It's not a huge area of low ceiling and certainly would hide the beam well.
If you didn't want to drop it all the way, you might consider this:
Find a crown moulding for the pantry area. install it such that the bottom of the moulding is flush with the bottom of the beam (8inches) drop the ceiling down to meet the top of this. Might gain you a few inches, and I don't think would look too bad at all.
Oldhouse

Hmm ... you like that idea too, huh? Well, I'll run it by the lady in charge and we'll see what she thinks.

Thanks
Jason