Well, now that I'm thining about it I don't know if I'll be of much help: ours is a v. traditional kitchen (with 9' ceilings) and the crown is stacked atop the cabs, so it's not truly cabs all the way to the ceiling ....

But anyway:

{{!gwi}}

In our pantry (also cabs all the way up to the 9' ceiling) we have the glass display cabs (the only photo I can find has the pantry units pulled open):

{{!gwi}}

Off to pick up children, will think more about it.

Ours will have 5 or 6" of trim between cabs and ceiling, too. We put an extra rail to make it look similar to stacked cabs but without an ultra-high, extra door to open.

btt for you as I have 9' ceilings and just starting to design my kitchen in our new home. Hoping to get more ideas and more pictures.

I have 9' ceilings too. I don't have a lot of uppers and loved the look of stacked cabinets so decided to go for that. I figured either way it would be tough for me (at 5'4") to reach what was up there so I went for the look I wanted.

Okay, I thought about it some more and remembered seeing a KraftMaid kitchen, more country than modern but using a Shaker door / slab drawer with a slew of glass cabs up top, and it bothered me. The way mamdadapaige has her stacked cabs is so that there's not a huge row of them -- they're broken up by her display cabinet, the metal hood, etc. Similar to rhome's -- there's the cab over the fridge which isn't stacked (looking -- she's got her "false" rail) and the open shelving.

It's not my kitchen but I think, if I had a long bank of cabinets, I'd prefer if they weren't all stopped short with the glass-front tops. I'd prefer to see some with glass front and some either with one massive door, going all the way up, or with the "false" rail (as both rhome and I have) but wood (inner) faces. I think one long door (not broken by the rail) would read as more modern / sleek, however.

I also think all glass stacked can get busy, as well as be difficult with all different widths of cabinets, since it changes the shape and look of those top uppers, unless you are careful to have all of your cabinets at even multiples of the same width, or pretty close.

Mine are glass front (although the glass isn't in yet...) single, not stacked. I can easily reach stuff on the bottom two shelves, but anything else requires a stool. I went back and forth on stacked vs. single door. I love the look of both. In the end, I went with single door because that's what was in the original old kitchen which is now the breakfast room...you can see it in the background of the first photo.

{{!gwi}}
{{!gwi}}

Hope this isn't a hijack, just wanted to say what gorgeous kitchens you guys have!!

I used to hang out here quite a bit 3 or 4 years ago (discovered the site after most of our kitchen decisions had already been made - boo hoo, but it was still a huge help in finishing details) and to see 4 or 5 stunning kitchens posted in a row like that is great. Maybe I'm misremembering, but I seem to recall that a really exceptional kitchen came along once in a very long while. Now it seems you guys have really upped the ante and exceptional is the norm. Great kitchens. Love to see such beauty in design.

If you do a single tall cabinet, then you can decide where the shelves are' maybe in a place or two you'd like a different position of shelves. W/ stacked cabinets, you have a set position for that shelf between the cabinets.

Plus, a single cabinet is always cheaper than 2 of them. You pay for each joint.

Thank you everyone for your responses. The cabinets we went with (Homecrest) did not provide us with the possibility to use the proper-sized tall upper cabinets...so we are going with the 30" high uppers, a thin moulding strip, and the 15" uppers with flip up glass doors in 6 out of the 8 possible places. As these are going to be stained dark, the uppers will bring in some light (they will be lit inside). The glass portions - if you can imagine a more or less equal "L" shape when viewed from above, will have 3 glass-topped uppers, few solid uppers (panelled fridge, corner pantry), then 3 glass topped uppers again.

Yesterday when I met with the KD I discussed the different option with him and without going to a more expensive cabinet line (we're talking 20-30% more expensive) he wouldn't be able to do the tall uppers and make it look nice . With the existing cabinets, taller uppers than we have would require a very large flat panel to bring the cabinets to the ceiling, and he thought that would look very strange in our application. Plus, the kitchen is in the dark corner of the house facing the windows, but doesn't have any windows along any of the counters, make sense? With me "having" to have my dark espresso cabinets, we need light there.

I hope this works...as the order is going in this week!

I really wish I could include some photos! I am aiming for a sleek contemporary look, but I think we are limited. I just hope I don't regret this approach...as I'm having too many sleepless nights second-guessing myself as it is.

Does anyone think having an upper filler (top of cabinet to ceiling) that's somewhat big would look odd? That's what the KD thought....

For reference, we bumped up the counter height to 38" + 18" over that + 30" upper cabs + 1" filler strip + 15" uppers + 6" upper trim = 108" ceiling.

42" upper cabs would leave us with a need for a 10" trim
(I think they only make up to 8"..

Ack...I don't want the cabinets to look too broken up.

Arlosmom -- can I ask how tall your uppers are?

I keep going back and forth also (right now ceilings are drawn to be 9ft and I think I want to lower them to 8 1/2) But then I look at pictures of 9ft ceilings with cabinets all the way up and they look very harmonious so I am wondering if the architect chose cabinets that are too short and I just don't like the filler before the crown look.

tia

I did a little of both. My kitchen ceiling is 8'6" high, and my upper cabinets are 47" tall, including the crown molding. The cabinet doors are 42" tall. On my pantry wall, I decided that the upper doors were tall enough as it was, since they went down to meet the base cabs. A smaller cabinet on top to break it up made sense there. I only put glass in the middle section.

holligator I love the kitchen!

Thank you everyone for your responses. The issue of "stacked=busy/limiting" really ate away at me over the weekend. So I did some more research.....

Over the weekend I looked at more pictures and nearly googled myself to death looking for ideas. Finally I called the KD and asked him to re-design the uppers using 42" cabinets - the maximum for that manufacturer. This means now they will not be flush with the ceiling. My motivation is that I think 42" cabinets are more useful than 30s topped with 15s. As my mother says, if you don't see it often enough when you look in your cabinet, you'll forget it's there, and then what's the point in having it?

Anyway, after I got the drawings, I colored them in like I did with the originals, then passed them around looking for critiques (Mom, DH, and an independent KD). In a nutshell, the 42" cabinets won out. It's simpler, cleaner, and I think gives me more accessible space. It's also several $K less.

So what I will have is a to-ceiling corner pantry. Over the fridge and wall ovens (on either side of the pantry) will be "nooks" for putting some decorative things (vase, whatnot) which will reach to the ceiling. The trouble is that for the rest of the upper cabinet run, there will be 9" from the top of the cabinet to the ceiling. No matter what, I will be putting lighting up there (up-lighting). My choices for finishing that area are:
1. Leave it alone with a gap to the ceiling.
2. Build a Soffit down to the cab tops but have it recede (not flush with the front of the cabs - to leave room for the up-lights)This is definitely not my favorite choice since that would be a change order and the drywall is up.
3. Build a decorative wood trim piece in the same dark espresso stain as the cabinets, with geometric cut-outs to allow light to shine though - any handy wood-worker, or I/DH for that matter, should be able to come up with something to prop up there/snap in place so we still have access to the lights.

Any other ideas or thoughts on what I'm trying to do? I like my #3 idea because it's different, but not too busy. I'd love to hear other ideas or even "noooo don't do that because xyz!" if it keeps me out of trouble.

I don't know what your thoughts are on "stuff" on top of your cabinets, but no matter what your decorating style, you could use that space efficiently to store items that you don't use every day. Hide them behind some sort of removable molding if you like.

Or, you could decorate the area with pretty platters, dishware, etc. and use the uplights to accent the pieces.

I saw a kitchen recently where the homeowners had built a small box atop their cabints with the lights sitting inside the box. It was simply 2x4s painted to match the walls, which made them fade totally into the background unless one really looked. I looked, but only because I'm working on my kitchen redesign.

I love the look of things atop the cabinets. In my dream world, I'd have tins, teapots and other pretties atop the cabinets. In the real world, I keep those areas fairly empty because I hate cobwebs and trying to clean stuff on top of the cabinets.

I'm leaning toward either to the ceiling cabinets or glass doors like you considered, so I've been very interested in your reasoning for your choices.

Thanks for your insight lissa_z9b. I will say I am adamantly against having things up there to collect dust (exception: A vase or sculpture in a cabinet-colored nook). This is my primary reason to have the cabs to go the ceiling. With the original design, I wanted the 15" glass upper-uppers to fill the gap, add light, and give me a place to put "deco items" that I wouldn't have to dust. But in working with my existing kitchen (and after seeing the demo in the showroom - wow!) I realized the tall cabs are going to be more useful, which eliminated the glass cabs, (and also the need to find "stuff" to put in them). I'm a sleek-minimalist person stuck in a cluttered shell, trying desperately to get out!

I don't think 9" would be tall enough to fit dishes for display anyway, and I'm with you on the clutter and greasy dust collection thing! I'm liking your idea #3...Unique as well as useful. I didn't want a classic crown, nor will we have lights, but I designed a simple, trimmed wood filler for our gap, too. It's just flat, but with 2 strips of plain, square molding, one larger than the other. It probably doesn't help you much, but just in case...

I actually saw a photo in a recent issue of a design mag which showed a solution just like your designer is suggesting with the high panel above. I wish I could remember which mag it was! I'll take a look. Anyway, I must admit, it caught my eye because it just looked odd. Not bad, just odd because you don't often see it. But it seemed to work in the space.

I hate the space above cabinets. It always gets greasy and yucky up there, and I don't like the busy look of things on top of the cabinets.

So we opted for the tall uppers, with an extra couple of inches above standard for the backsplash area. I really like the way it looks and functions. I have a small kitchen and only 3 18" upper cabinets, plus my over-fridge cabinet, but with the 42" uppers (plus my drawer banks), I have a ton of storage - still empty shelves!

We did get a few gaps where cabs meet ceiling because the ceiling in our old house is not even. Here are some in-progress photos from my kitchen.

So,

how do uplights work?

Do you have a separate switch for those, or will they be connected on the same switch as your undercabinet lights (if you have those too)?

My Mom went for the open space on top and had an outlet put up there so she could put lights up like Xmas lights or LEDs etc. String would be hidden by crown molding. Keep in mind that I think with taller cabinets, you probably don't have as much grease- or is that just wishful thinking?

Any of you have problems with taller doors warping? I have 39" tall shaker style doors and several have warped- they are being replaced, but DH thinks it's inevitable with the taller doors.

Here is a pic from my inspiration kitchen. Not sure if these are 9'ceilings but I think they are. They used a combination of glass doored lighted upper cabs plus solid door cabs above the standard uppers.

mlalm53 - I can certainly see why that would be an inspiration kitchen! Very rich and warm...

raehelen - uplights would be mounted facing up on a horizontal surface. If the tops of the cabinets are not all the way up to the ceiling, the lights would shine up..reflecting off the ceiling (similar to a wall-mounted sconce shaped like a half-bowl).

Anyway, we are underway with the design. KD is having kittens trying to figure out how to make a piece of trim that bridges the gap between the cabinet tops and the moulding. He doesn't think having cut-outs to show light from inside would be a good idea. Does anyone here have any input or experiences? anyone good a visualizing and telling me I'm crazy or, hopefully, that it would look good? I have no problem with something looking unique...but I'd hate for it to look stupid.

Then there was the issue of actually accessing the lights inside. Moulding is attached to trim is attached to top of cabinet. Therefore trim would not be removable for light access. My suggestion is either to have cut-outs big enough for my hand (but then the wall behind might be visible, even at 9'), or to cut holes in the tops of the cabinets for access. Ideas?