On my current home, I made a change when construction started to a 10' first and 8' 4" second--the highest that could be done without redesigning the roof. Nine would have felt better. The worst difference I've seen was 11' first, 8' second.

well, originally we were going w/ 10' first floor w/ 9' on the second... but recently visited my cousin's new custom build and thought we'd do fine w/ 9 and 9 on both. we have 8' ceilings now and can't stand it. (we had 10 and 12' in our last house). the 8' ceilings feel like we're going to hit our heads sometimes. i'm 5'8 but dh is 6'3 so he's really noticing the difference. not to mention impossible to find a christmas tree that doesn't have to have part of the top sawed off!

Our house we are building has 10 feet downstairs and 8 feet up. I love it. I don't think it looks weird at all, but I guess it could possibly depend on the style of the house. Ours is not a full two story. The first floor is about 1,450, and the upstairs is only about 860. It's two-story across the front, plus a finished attic room under the roof of the one-story part. Don't know if that makes sense. Check out my blog for photos of it:

Here is a link that might be useful: Owl's progress blog

It depends on the height and positioning of your windows off the floor, on each level. And on your eave overhangs (which you can calculate from your roof slope and the distance of the overhang.) You really have to do an elevation drawing to see how it will look. There are too many variables to just go on someone else's house. It can certainly be worked out. Sometimes just adjusting the window placement--their height on the wall--will solve any aesthetic problems.

Thanks for the responses! I think the elevation I have in mind will be helpful in making the upper and lower look balanced. I am thinking of a style that I think might be variously called shingle style or Arts and Crafts (to include a sloping roofline in front). I see such diverse descriptions of house styles it's hard to categorize them. Anyway, the help is appreciated.

If you plan to sell this house someday, you might querry a few realtors.

When I was a girl I was considered 'tall' at 5'6". Todays kids are HUGE. OTOH, one of my favorite houses in RI was built as a coaching inn; it's ceilings are 6-foot.

An 8-foot ceiling may not feel adequate in a few more years.

Ours is 10' down, 8' up. Here's an exterior picture, which (fortunately!) looks pleasing to us:

Upstairs, for no additional cost, we were able to go to a vaulted ceiling instead of a flat ceiling  to us, that makes a world of difference! Good luck with your decisions.

Looks great, kate! Enjoy that pretty house.

Kate, LOVE the color. Gorgeous house.

Beware, we have 9 ft on the lower floor and 8 ft on the upper. (American Foursquare/ full 2-story style) I like it fine inside, but I'd wanted a frieze between the upper windows and the enclosed overhang, but because of the ceiling ht, we only had room for a narrower one than I'd wanted. So, make sure you have room for the exterior details you want.

Thanks, beware & rhome; we spent lots and lots of Rodda Paint personel's time having them mix 'less dark, and not so much blue' and 'more yellow, and a little darker'. I think we hit it, though! Our neighbors are slightly in shock, but, since we're not visable from the road, if they don't like the color they can visit after dark.

Many posters have excellent points about proportion and scale. We like ours, and don't quite know how we got lucky; maybe lucky only in that we like the way it looks! That's good enough for us, for sure.