I did so much research on the 9" crown molding on houzz before putting together this design but then visited a friends house and her crown looked good with 9'-6" ceilings- and it was only 6" tall. So I was really worried that a 9" crown would be way too substantial. I love all these looks- which seem to be different treatments of tall ceilings in kitchens. Which do you like? The first one look so much like a room, the second has the great ceiling treatments, or the last photo, with the stacked cabinets?

Well, now don't count my opinion for much, ok? I'm not an expert by any means, and I haven't designed a kitchen. But I like 2 and 3 a bit better, because I really like those fancy ceilings. I'm a wee bit over the planked look, though it really looks good in that picture, and so I guess I'm picking the coffered ceiling look. But as a non-expert, I'd keep in mind that the fancy ceiling has to go with the look in the adjoining rooms, that with the tops of cabinets exposed like that, means they'll collect dust, and most folks recommend you not put anything decorative up there (like baskets and faux greenery that collects dust). Also, in that #2 picture, it is a huge kitchen, with plenty of storage. If your kitchen is smaller than that, I'd say storage and function is more important than style.

And a last thought: I'd do anything to avoid having a soffit. Most people want to get rid of theirs or have a hard time dealing with them decorating-wise.

I'll be paying attention to what others say, since I'm very interested!

Our kitchen is 18' by a little under 11' 6" so probably not as large as the middle one. I like the middle one as well- good choice! I like all of them so it is very helpful to have your feedback. thank you again!

I'll have to draw one sketch-up option that shows a kitchen with a ceiling treatment (maybe just rustic beams) and see how much room is left for stacked cabinets. I added a photo that shows a similar situation. There might be enough with a 10' ceiling and the upper cabinet ending around 8'-6". It's great to hear that you use your upper cabinets- is there a particular height that you prefer for the start of the uppers?

I love #2 and #3. The interesting ceilings get my vote.

I love #2. But then again, I have height envy. My ceilings are barely 7.5 feet so I can only dream of doing those gorgeous architectural details.

Thank you all for your opinions! Anyone else? It sounds like the ceiling treatments make a room very special. I am sure the coffered ceiling is probably less expensive than adding upper cabinets. I'll have to mock-up the ceiling beams etc. since the windows and doors in this room and the attached breakfast room are 8'-10" high (the highest in the house- the rest on this floor are 8'-2"). That's another post issue that I am debating. Anyway - we only have 14" between the ceiling and the tops of windows (and I need space for window casement etc.

Our kitchen/breakfast room layout is a modest version of photo number 2. We don't have that gigantic kitchen size (only one smaller island instead of two!) but we do have a breakfast room (sunroom) opposite the island with windows on three sides.

We have no uppers at all in our kitchen with 9' 6" ceilings, and with 32 drawers, don't miss them at all. We have a huge window over the sink, plus windows flanking the range on the adjacent wall, so we only have one wall left that could have uppers. It makes our very average 12' 6" X 14' 6" kitchen seem so much bigger and brighter. Plus, there are no uppers to steal the show from our tin ceiling.

Hi Leslie - congratulations on your soon to be new home ! Please don't think of ten foot high ceilings in your kitchen as a bad thing - think of it as an opportunity to create something out of the ordinary.

When I was with Clive Christian of England, we rarely took cabinetry all of the way up to the ceiling. Showing a small expanse of wall between the top of your cabinets and your ceiling crown can be very elegant. I'll draw up a few elevations for you in the next few days illustrating cabinet height options with ten foot ceilings.

Here are a few Clive Christian photos showing various cabinetry heights and their relation to the walls / ceiling crown.

Yes! I love having a kitchen that feels like a room and your windows look really nice. We have three very similar windows over our sink- our dimensions are 7' 10" width by 5' 8" (they have three transoms on top); they go all the way up to the ceiling (minus space for crown). They also drop down to countertop level, similar to yours.

Mushcreek- what happens at the base of your windows near the sink? I
was thinking of adding one more thickness of countertop (just in this
niche area) to create a low barrier to keep water out. Our window bank
is pushed back an additional 6 inches. One issue we have is that we
need outlets in this space and the windows are too wide to allow wall space for this. I was thinking of those popup outlets that recess into the countertop- installing them in this 6" rear space. Did you have this issue?

I wish I could see a photo of a kitchen with one wall of stacked cabinets and then an adjacent wall with no uppers. I can't visualize how this transition would work smoothly - with crown molding, soffits?, and ceiling treatment. It might be a nice hybrid to remove the uppers on the main window wall but then keep uppers on the perpendicular walls (one with range and one with fridge).

Has anyone seen photos of a kitchen with this design?

This is so wonderful to have folks to talk to about our kitchen- thank you all again in advance!!!

Wow- thank you Columbus Design - great photos! I'd greatly appreciate your feedback on the cabinet heights and also the height of the crown on the uppers. I don't know the particulars of the space needed per the building of the cabinet but I assume the best balance would be a generic 1/3 for the top upper and 2/3 for the bottom. Thanks again and I am really looking forward to your advice if you have the time!

The subject title of this thread used the word "farmhouse". Only two out of the photos and suggestions in this thread are remotely like a farmhouse theme. Certainly not anything by Clive Christian, which while beautiful, are always very grand. Here is a link to my favorite Gardenweb farmhouse kitchen of all time, Brickmanhouse's. I don't know how tall her ceilings are, but they look to be at least 9'. Perhaps the OP can find inspiration for design ideas there.

[https://www.houzz.com/discussions/finished-kitchen-circa-1840-working-farmhouse-ikea-budget-reno-dsvw-vd~2678448[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/finished-kitchen-circa-1840-working-farmhouse-ikea-budget-reno-dsvw-vd~2678448)

Hi Friedajune - the Clive Christian photos I had attached illustrate different wall cabinet heights and their relationship to the walls of the kitchen and the crown molding details - as described in my response.

The title of this thread uses the words "farmhouse and traditional" and Leslie's post primarily if not entirely asks for help with how to configure her cabinetry in relation to her ten foot high ceilings not how to design a farmhouse kitchen.

Not all Clive Christian kitchens are extremely grand - having designed and sold several hundred of them, they can range from very opulent and grand to very small and simple. Many of his original designs in the very beginning were actually farmhouse kitchens.

When I was with Clive Christian of England, we rarely took cabinetry all of the way up to the ceiling. Showing a small expanse of wall between the top of your cabinets and your ceiling crown can be very elegant. I'll draw up a few elevations for you in the next few days illustrating cabinet height options with ten foot ceilings.

That's all fine and good as long as you don't mind climbing up there to clean off the dust, dirt and grease that accumulates on top of the cabinets. Sorry but I've cleaned one too many cabinets on top in my day and I vote for anyway to not do so.

Most people who put in Clive Christian cabinets don't actually cook or if they do, they have hired help to clean up. Especially since a basic Clive Christian kitchen starts at 6 figures and goes up from there.

I wish I could see a photo of a kitchen with one wall of stacked cabinets and then an adjacent wall with no uppers. I can't visualize how this transition would work smoothly - with crown molding, soffits?, and ceiling treatment. It might be a nice hybrid to remove the uppers on the main window wall but then keep uppers on the perpendicular walls (one with range and one with fridge)

Unfortunately I was supposed to have my kitchen finished by now, but it turns our the flooring guys didn't level the floor so my kitchen waits. I have 10' ceilings and did 42" uppers with 18" uppers stacked on top. I then have 6" crown on top of that.

And I have the cabinets dying into the side wall.

The ceilings are 10' tall. I do like a rustic and/or traditional farmhouse look and I think Columbus was just showing examples of cabinetry with tall ceilings. I'm good at visualizing my style of design with the different cabinetry layouts so thank you- all photos very helpful! I am a real cook and have lots of dinnerware. I also process/preserve fruits and vegetable from gardens/trees. I have to balance the expense of upper cabinets, going all the way to the ceiling versus not, ceiling treatments like the coffered look or rustic beams and how these die into the wall/molding. I want something nice but not super elegant- it has to feel comfortable and human scale even with the tall ceiling. And functional!

cpartist- they haven't even started framing our house so I'll wait for your photos! I'd really love to see them. Our lot is just a big muddy footprint and today they were test drilling some piers with the geotech engineer. However- because I am trying to finalize the window purchase before a price change and I have the flexibility to still change things- I am scouring the design details. I am in CA and with the fires just north of us- I am very eager to stay ahead of the construction momentum that will be required up there.

Farmhouses would have chickens roosting up there if the didn’t do cabinets to the ceiling. Of course, a farm house would never have a 10’ ceiling anyway. It wouldn’t ever make sense to try to heat that much space. Especially in an older farm house that only had the central fireplace. You didn’t heat bedrooms at all. That featherbed wand quilt was for functional reasons.

Now, modern Disney Farmhouse “design” that wants to give lip service to calling it a farmhouse, but has absolutely nothing to do with agriculture of any kind, well, that pretty much is a no hold barred type of kitchen sink mishmash.

Rustic beams of a PNW post and beam? Throw it in. Coffers from a 1908 Edwardian? Sure. A Victorian carved and adorned fireplace mantel hood over a fire beast that never gets used? Even better if you can see all from the same open concept! A much more efficient clash!

Instead of confining theme parks to behind the closed doors of Polynesian Bath #1, or Condo Loft Bedroom #3, you just throw everything there is into one big room. And fall back on calling it Eclectic.

What it is is usually NeoEclectic. That’s the polite term. And that was a polite diatribe. That the point is, get some design help on the front end so that you end up with some consistency and not a jarring theme park. That means hiring a real designer. In person. And not crowd sourced internet designing. Make it happen. Or you’re gonna end up with Pirate Land and Star Wars Planet thrown in the mix too.

Sophie, you do have a wonderful way with words!

Leslie - here are two quick SketchUp drawings showing wall cabinet and crown height combinations. Let me know what you think. The stacked cabinets do show a 30 inch and a 16 inch wall cabinet - you'd need to use a custom or a better semi-custom cabinetry company to get 16 inch high wall cabinets. A good custom cabinetry company could also build one wall cabinet with two door openings.

wow- Sophie. Thank you for that information. I will try to avoid using the term 'farmhouse' if it offends folks but I think you could make a similar argument for almost every post on houzz so it seems to me a bit irrelevant for this type of public forum. I have designers- several of them- with great reputations in their respective fields. Unfortunately, since everyone is so busy, if you want attention to details, I have found it is essential to review all drawings myself (civil, structural, architect, and even the geotech and survey) and look for issues. I have found an overabundance of them- some very serious- that I have personally corrected probably saving about $65,000 at this point with no change in the house design. For this particular design issue (ceiling height), I was not presented with the option of exploring different ceiling heights or given a preference for whether or not I like large crown molding etc. The 10' ceiling was plunked down by an architect on the drawings and now it is near impossible to change as we have our permits and in our city- changes are not only expensive but would mean a return to the planning department and public review. My research and questions and legwork are definitely making my project much better than leaving everything up to designers - nobody cares about 'your' project as much as you do.

And, by the way, I do have chickens and they will probably be making their way into the kitchen since the coop is directly outside with the vegetable beds.

Lol! I get it! I have ducks, and if I let them out free they do not go out into the 9 acres we have. They sit around my front porch. They totally would come in the kitchen. I cannot let them out because they crap all over the front of my house. Ugh!

There are old farm houses around here (SC) with 10' or more ceilings. In the deep south, ceilings were higher to try to keep the house cooler.

Our windows stop about 2" above the counters. I'm currently installing a subway tile backsplash (it's about time!), and just continued the tile under the windowsills, cut to fit. Pictures coming soon...

Mushcreek- did you have issues with your electrical outlet placement near the sink/windows? Our window span is too large and doesn't comply with the outlet spacing requirements.

columbus- thank you for your sketch and dimensioning out two great options! I'm going to go back to the drawing board, houzz photos, and my measuring tape.

I had to find a work-around for the outlets. Due to the thick walls, my windows have angled returns to eliminate the tunnel effect. I placed the outlets in this flared area. That said, they were still too far from the edge of a standard 33" sink. I shopped around and found a 43" sink, which just made it for outlet spacing. Other options would have been to raise the window slightly and put them under it sideways, use surface-mount pop-up outlets, or mount them under the counters.

Leslie - you're welcome ! I hope they were helpful - please let me know if you'd like me to draw up any other variations - they were pretty quick and easy.

I'd love to see your kitchen layout and give you some feedback - just let me know if this would be of interest to you.