you may want to consider 9' ceilings and 7' interior doors

For masonite, a 6'8" hollow is about $70 and 8 ft is about $110. The difference with solid core is more like $110 vs $180. All of this depends on casing etc but that is the general ballpark.

Transoms don't save much money.

6'8" doors look a bit silly on 10 ft ceilings. I have a few in different places (basement, small bedroom). If you have a tray near the door, then 6'8" is fine, you can do a false transom depending on casing but that eats up about 1/2 the savings in labor.

Yes - the upcharge in cabinets can exceed the upcharge in doors. The big door issue is exterior doors. While you can have cheap 8 ft doors, when you start doing nice doors, the upcharge can be substantial.

Ex - Glass door, impact rated, fiberglass - $975 for 6'8" and $1230 for 8 ft. An 8 ft SDL glass interior door was $400 and the 6'8" was $200.

Agree that the smaller doors will look odd with the taller ceiling. Depending on door style/material, the difference isn't much. For example, a simple one panel shaker in 30" (from etodoors) is $179 for 80" and $189 for 96". The 3 panel shaker is the same price for both sizes. This may not apply to all door species/style.

M

PS - not affiliated with the door company.

Here is a link that might be useful: ETODOOR Price Example

David Cary, do you have a site or anymore info on glass interior doors? our designer is trying to get us to use them and I'm not sure. He says they will be less expensive because of absence of casing.

Thanks all! Very helpful comments. We are still in the design phase so easy to make changes now. We are most concerned with the cabinets in the kitchen If we use 10ft ceilings. We had wanted soffits and this may also be more of a problem in kitchen with 10ft ceilings as well?

Our plan currently has 10 ft ceilings throughout with 11 1/2ft ceiling with a a tray ceiling at 10ft in the great room.

Maybe we should go with 9 ft ceilings throughout except maybe a cathedral ceiling in breakfast nook and 11 ft ceilings in just the great room?

The glass interior doors that I was referring to have wood/mdf on the sides and use casing. Casing is cheap in the grand scheme of things - but it does depend on what you have as casing.

you will save quite a bit of money from changing from 10' plates to 9'. framing costs lower, drywall costs lower, less siding, etc. Not to mention save money on heating and cooling. PLus this thread mentions possible design issues with it and added costs associated with it. Our current design uses 9' plates in general, but the entry and dining bump up to 10' plates. we are using an 8' full glass front door. the living space is 9' plates with a 10' tray ceiling built into the trusses. kitchen is also 9' and we are using 42" high cabinets.
in the kitchen consider indirect uplighting/cove lighting as a main source of light. Ironically most people load kitchens with cans. Cans are one of the worst lighting sources for a kitchen since it cast shadows on the work surface since you are blocking the light. Undercabinet lighting set to the front edge of the upper and indirect uploading will provide overall better lighting of the space. not having soffits will allow lighting above your cabinets.

This is too late for the original poster, but I'll chime in for anyone new that comes along. I have 10' ceilings and all of the interior doors are 8'. My front door is also 8'. I have two doors ( from breakfast area and master bedroom) to the patio that are 6'8" but both have transom windows above. As for the kitchen, I chose 42" upper cabinets with a crown moulding. I have seen 10' ceilings with standard 36" cabinets and it looks silly. Here are some pictures of some of my doors and cabinets.

Lol. The bottom photo got stretched out for some reason.

6-8 may be a manufacturer's standard but historically the common architectural design standard for single leaf residential doors is 7-0 for the first floor and 6-8 for the second floor. 8-0 doors should be very carefully planned. I have never found a need for them.

JDS,

Interesting point about 7ft doors! I have always loved 7ft doors and never knew that was what it was. I have 6ft8" doors and I am getting them replaced with seven footers. The difference may seem small but the doorways looks wider and the rooms, although only 8ft tend to look better with 7ft doors. Just my opinion.

Masonite, the largest door manufacturer in the world, has standard interior door heights of 80", 84" and 96". When one of my sons--a foot taller than me and sporting Dante Deblasio hair--is around I notice how low the 80" doors seem!

We only doing 8.5' ceilings where we have them (the rest is open loft) but we'll go with 7' doors. Much more substantial than the 6' 8" - thanks for the explanation!

uh oh, i am worried now because our ceilings are also 8.5' but we are doing 8' interior doors on new construction. is that overkill? if money were no object, i would love to do fully flush doors from the floor and ceiling.....we are doing a very modern and minimal home. on the third floor (reverse floor plan) our deck doors with ocean views will be 7'10" with the header tucked into the roof.

JDS, i would love to hear your thoughts.

Our ceiling is 8'2" and we are going with 8' doors and 28" wide. Modern house and flush doors.