If the lower ceiling could be a distinctly separate part of the kitchen -- such as breakfast nook with corner cabinets that go from floor to ceiling -- that would make the difference look intentional.

For the higher ceiling, you could make all cabinets above the 9' mark "invisible" cabinets -- keep the standard style cabinets all the same height but in the higher ceiling, above the standard cabinets, use cabinet doors with a very plain flat door and a top hinge and paint those doors the same color as the wall -- alternately, paint them the same color as the ceiling.

A floor plan to scale would help.

Not able to upload photo of the plan