Kitchen w/ 10ft ceiling?

17 years ago

We have 10 ft ceilings downstairs per floorplan (new construction). Should cabinets be usual height, extra tall, or all the way up? I like the glass stacked cabs on top but may be too expensive. Solid wood seems like it would be too top-heavy compared to bottom half of the room.

Maybe a dropped ceiling around the edges of the room (soffit-like) and then put tall cabs all the way up to it?

Would standard height with lots of space in between cabinets and ceiling look odd? I've thought about the dusting issue but not too worried about it.

Thanks for your ideas!

Featured Answer

User

17 years ago

We have 10ft ceilings as well. In the kitchen we have a tray ceiling which dropped the perimeter down to 9ft and then we had the taller cabinets with a fill in between the cabinets and the crown moulding which goes to the ceiling. With the cabinetry going to the ceiling it really emphasizes the tray ceiling. We put canned lighting in the four corners and then pendants in the middle over the island as well as one under the sink under the window. I have had many compliments on the kitchen.

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Comments (6)

chihuahua6
17 years ago
Yes standard hihgt would look odd. I have 42" cabinets with a square trip piece plus 6" crown molding. It looks great. It does not look top heavy at all.

I personally don't like the dropped soffit look. It seems a bit dated to me.
chihuahua6
17 years ago
If you direct me on how to post a picture I can show you.
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melanie1422
17 years ago
If I had 10ft ceilings, I'd do a stack of glass cabinets on top of the regular cabinets. I would have loved to do that in my kitchen, but there just wasn't enough space. I know it costs more, but I think its worth it in a room with that much space to the ceiling.
cotehele
17 years ago
The cabinets in our kitchen will reach 102'' with a 120'' ceiling. Since the cabinets have a medium stain, it may have been too cave-like to reach the ceiling. The space is 26'x13.5' and opens on to an 8' porch (functionally is 34' x 13.5'). For that reason and cost, we opted to match the cabinet height with the top of the window trim.
lascatx
17 years ago
My 10 ft ceilings had 42" uppers with about 6" of crown in the original kitchen. When we redid it, we used 42" uppers and glass above (they are 15 or 18"?) and then a crown to the ceiling on the perimeter. My storage wall has 84" pantries and the fridge with 27" cabinets above that to the same crown. Those and the one above the ovens are solid doors in painted finishes. My room opens to a breakfast and family room that has the ceiling vaulted from 10 feet to about 14-1/2 feet, so we might have been good even with a wood finish.

I have seen wood finished cabinets done all the way to tall ceilings and look great -- they have generally been in older homes, so to 12 or 14 feet in larger kitchens. Some folks have done large boxes with 2 doors or a single door that looks like 2 doors. My cabinet person said the taller door could be too tall or heavy to hold up well over time. I think the door looking like 2 doors gives more cross support and structural integrity if you want to go that route.

A neighbor apparently wanted the look of cabinets to the ceiling and not the expense (or wasn't replacing cabinets and couldn't quite match) so they put open shelves above on one side of the kitchen painted to match the cabinets they attached to below. They have display in the top and some cookbooks underneath. It works.

I would not go with less than 42" uppers with the tall ceilings and nothing above. You can accent the open space with some lighting -- an inexpensive rope lighting or even a string of Christmas tree lights give a nice glow and won't need to be dusted to look good.