Need ideas for Kitchen Remodel

[BriarfoxinWA]

I'm toying with the idea of a complete remodel of my kitchen. Our house is a 12 year old triple wide manufactured home that we added about 1,600 sq. ft too a couple of years ago. The kitchen has two walls with the rest open to the dinning area and family room. I'd like to gut the kitchen and replace all of the cabinets and the counter top. It also has a large island that separates it from the dinning area and family room with cabinets underneath that I'd like to restructure. I'd like to replace the old vinyl floor covering with tile and the counter top with something nicer and tile the stove's backsplash.

My problem is that the kitchen has an extremely high cathedral ceiling. Above the existing cabinets there is a header/shelf constructed of drywall thats about 8" high then open space for about 3 feet to the ceiling. This shelf is nothing but a 2 foot wide dust catcher. When we bought the house it was really cool looking but the reality is that is just collects lots of dust. I know that we could remove the header/shelf but then what can I do above the cabinets? Any ideas? This header/shelf also continues around the kitchen and over the island area. It's "hanging" over the island with two support beams to the ceiling. It has 3 small flourescent lights in it which really don't provide much light. If I remove the header over the cabinets I'd have to remove this too.

Any thoughts?