Agree with above. Plenty of people have the molding to the ceiling and it looks so much cleaner!

Yep! No one leaves that small space.

Thanks for your thoughts and I tend to agree. Nevertheless I have also seen on Pinterest that a number of what appears to be quality installs do leave a small space between the ceiling and the top trim, crown molding or otherwise. I am interested in comments from anyone who has selected to leave a small space as to why this was done and what are your thoughts after having lived with them for a while?

It is very common to go to the ceiling with a 2 step crown. No ceiling is ever perfectly level. If it is off by 1/4" or less those gaps can be filled with caulk. If it is mor ethan that they need to determine it PRIOR to installing the crown ( or even earlier ) and they can feather in the ceiling with compound to even out those areas.

I do have some folks who do leave that gap because they like the look of the shadow line it creates, or if they have radiant heat in the ceiling, or if the ceiling is really in an uneven situation.

It's pretty easy to take a swiffer every now and then and clean off the tops of the cabinets - its not that hard - think about all the people with high ceilings or a cathedral ceilings.

Best of luck!

Yeah but people with cathedral ceilings or whatever have a lot of clearance between the tops of the cabinets and the ceiling, which makes the cabinet tops easily accessible for cleaning.

I don't think a Swiffer can fit in a 1" gap. Even with specialized cleaning attachments, it's still be super annoying to clean. With that small of a gap, I'd just close it off with crown molding.

I would be curious to know who advised you to leave a gap...a professional?? Just sounds like strange advice. I would take them all the way up to the ceiling.

It was the design person from a custom cabinet shop we are working with. I don't know how strongly they feel about it but based on the comments here I will revisit this with her when we meet next. Thanks for all of your comments.

Actually I wonder if the cabinet maker recommend the gap with the assumption that crown molding would be installed, which makes sense. 1-2" is enough to account for unevenness in the ceiling, and easily covered up by crown molding.

No reason not to go right up to the ceiling. If it isn’t straight they can compensate. It finishes the space.

A gap looks unfinished. Using a 2 or 3 piece crown allow you to cheat out of level.

Actually, with such a narrow gap, if your ceiling is uneven, I would think the gap would make it look worse and much more noticeable than if you went all the way up and used crown to hide the discrepancy.

I think there is no real reason for either option - just personal preference. I have a house flipper who leaves the gap and no one complains - she does it to save money - her choice..

These are probably closer to 2 - 3"

Debbi....that looks like a good 5” to me and the ceilings look like they’re at a decent height as well which I think gives much more leeway when creating space above the cabs. OP was describing a small 1-2 inch gap between top of cabs and ceiling and made no mention of ceiling height so difficult to know where he can go with all of it.

That small gap is finished with trim and any good cabinet maker would do just that..What do you mean by custon cabinet shop.Custom eans they work with your space to custom fit your cabinets.

To the ceiling. No question about it. It looks neater, cleaner, calmer.

To the ceiling or in our case to the soffit, and that flat piece that is circled is a finish trim and it actually changes in height across the kitchen because the house and the walls/ceiling are not plumb. No one is going to notice that change in height, because it's micro....

(ugh photo is not uploading, thanks houzz)

@nidnay They are no more than 3 1/2" spaces( in the second pic - the first is about 2 1/2)- I measured these rooms..

We had to go with the small gap (about 2-3in), our ceilings are way out from one side to the other (new addition to old construction) and in order to get the height off the counter I wanted, plus fit a taller upper we could not do a stepped crown to compensate. I'm happy with the end result.

In a super modern cabinet design, a shadow line is often done. It's not unheard of, nor is it a sign of careless design. It is a deliberate design feature.

Question - If you do take cabinets to the ceiling, and you want to wrap them in the same crown that is currently on the walls in the room (since the crown will touch current crown molding), will it look odd to have the crown painted with a water based paint when the cabinets are pre-painted by the cabinet maker (usually with their special cabinet lacquer finish)?

We are getting out cabinets ordered custom with the same BM white to match our trim but the trim is painted with a water based paint where as the cabinets come already painted by the cabinet maker. Just not sure if looks ok to wrap the cabinets in the crown that has a different paint method even though its technically the same color.

Not sure what they did in the pic above posted by Karen Rose, but that would be our same situation...

As long as the sheen in right color isn't a problem, nor the product( oil vs water based)