Will you have casing around your windows?

Also see if your windows can be lowered by a couple of inches to account for any offset. That was the solution with my family room French door/window debacle in my 10' Fam Rm. Thanks to some great suggestions by our members here (thanks again), the builder has lowered my window to match the door. However he could not go below a certain height per code. So now that the casing has been added to both the door and window and the window lowered....you cannot notice a difference.

In your situation, I'm not sure I'd upgrade to all 8' interior doors for 9' ceilings. I think that height is better paired with 10' ceilings, but it's a matter of choice and cost as they will cost you more. Good luck.

I agree that 8' doors/windows might be too tall for 9' ceilings. I'm most concerned about the patio door and the windows next to it because that alignment will be very visible from the outside. With casings and window treatments I don't think this will matter as much from the inside. How would it look to put a 10" transom over the standard 6'8" patio door to make the heights match?

It is normal for doors (especially interior doors) to have lower heads than windows (doors relate to the floor for access, windows relate to the sky for light) but French doors are part door and part window so they can present a challenge. An inch or two unavoidable misalignment can be helped by a larger head trim on the shorter opening.

The first thing to do is be more accurate in predicting the top of the openings. A door is sized by its frame opening height above the finish floor (AFF) so it is easy to predict where the head of the opening will be AFF. An exterior French door is sized by the height of the rough opening or the top of the frame above the sub-floor. To determine the head opening height above the finish floor you must print out the detail of the door head and carefully scale the dimension from the rough to the finish opening and then subtract that and the flooring thickness.

Also nominal door heights do not always relate to the actual door heights. For instance, a nominal 7-0 Marvin Ultimate French Door has an opening AFF of 7-0 but an nominal 8-0 door has an opening height AFF of 7-9 1/2. If such arbitrary framing dimensions seem strange it is because windows and glass doors have traditionally been sized by standard glass sizes from the days when only the glass was fabricated in a factory. Modern synthetic framed windows have dropped this convention.

You would need to do the same thing with the windows to find the difference between the rough opening size (or frame size) and the top of the sash. Unfortunately this can differ between double-hungs and casement/awning windows.

To get even more accurate I always determine the height of the bottom of the casing trim A.F.F. for all of the different openings. I keep this information noted in my window catalogs so it is easy to align facade elements.

I would not worry about a slight difference between a curved transom light and a nearby window or French door.

faulstr....there is nothing wrong with wanting your doors, windows, etc to be even inside or out. I don't think it matters if it's modern tract builder methods or what have you. It's your house...plain and simple and if you don't like them being unbalanced, then you have every right to adjust it how you wish. I can only suggest consulting with your Architect or builder. There should to be a way for them to demonstrate what it would look like with a transom before committing to it.

We have standard doors and 6 foot tall windows and here is what we did

WOW Tulips.....that's gorgeous! I love the way the molding ties it all together!

Thanks!
This way saved thousands of dollars over a french door b/c we would of had to order some kind of metal beam header to span the distance on top of the cost of the french door. This way the trim disguises all the supports and makes it look cohesive.
I really didn't care if I had two doors, but I really wanted all the light, so this was the solution for us.

we have 9 ft ceilings, standard exterior doors to wrap around porch with transom windows above the doors
the window are 6 ft windows and the trim on the windows are the exact height of the transom windows
if we didn't have the transom windows, the windows and door trim would be uneven
looks like we have about 6 inches between crown molding and window trim

What can I do in this situation? One is a door and the other is a window. I was thinking of coronets but don't want them too big.

Don't hijack an 8 year old thread; start a new one.