Choosing 42" high cabinets means forgoing crown. On all of the cabinets. Not just crown on some and not on others. You won't have room for it, and putting the pantry shorter and putting crown on it and not the cabinets would be an inconsistant and strange look.Cabinets are standard heights and work as a system for a reason. The top alignment height for 42" cabinets is 96". That works with the pantry heights, as well as the over the fridge and over the stove heights. Some makers offer 39" high cabinets meant to have a top alignment height of 93", but for most, the next step down is 36" high cabinets, meant for 90" high top alignment. If you want crown molding, you don't use 42" high cabinets. You go either 39" or 36" cabinets and the corresponding pantries. If you want staggared height, you'll also need staggared depth. It all works as a system, and changing one single thing affects the whole kitchen. For instance, your ceiiing is too high for 96" alignment but that's the cabinet size you've chosen. That means that your cabinet over your fridge will be shorter and you won't have as much clearance for your fridge. A half inch may not sound like much, but that reduces your under cabinet space to 17 1/2" and then if you have light rail, to 15 1/2 inches, which means you can't fit most small appliances under your cabinets.

Texasgal47, thanks! Yes, although our reno took waaay longer than I had anticipated, it did allow us to really research and (I think) make smarter choices. For example, we had originally wanted to do high-end appliances, but then the housing market dropped and because we were taking so long to renovate, we had the opportunity to wait and re-think that decision. I am glad now we opted to less expensive appliances since housing values during the 6 years dropped so dramatically. Also, it gave us time to research (and read the Kitchen forum more!) before making purchases and design decisions. Hi, Lynn2006! Yes, the previous cabinets were full overlay, but trust me if you saw them in person you would realize that they were poorly made and even more poorly installed. Crooked, exposed in places it shouldn't be, very very thin wood, if it really even was wood, etc. Obviously, in many of my neighbors homes they have gotten around this with beautiful accessories. IowaCommute, hello! Yes, we had the wood floors but they were very blonde. So we sanded them down and stained them a chestnutty kind of color and gave them a satin finish instead of a gloss. GloriaT! The cabinets were first painted BM White Dove, but we then went back over them with a pure white from SW, not sure of the color name, sorry. wi-sailorgirl, thank you for all your nice compliments! Well, I'll get the guest room ready for ya! Ha! Shhh...but I've been tempted to love on the stair rail a bit, too! I pipdog, thank you! graceman, hello! I get it. Really. I know it is not everyone's taste, I think in my next home I might even opt for a natural wood kitchen for variety. I do thank you for appreciating the quality of my husband's work, I like to think he is pretty darn talented! Just for you, I'm posting here some pics of some natural wood cabinetry my husband did in a someone else's home. I love these cabinets, too - I hope you enjoy them!

We have 8' ceilings and used the same 5 or 6 inch crown above the painted cabinets as the rest of the ceiling. My hutch doesn't go all the way to the ceiling like the other cabinets and I think the molding there is 3 inches. FWIW here are a couple pics.

Hi malhgold, my ceilings are 8 ft also. The top part at the ceiling is 30" widening to 50" with frame. From ceiling to bottom of frame (without decorative molding yet) is about 31. I used the 46" ventahood insert. My guy made it look very easy, he just framed, boarded and finished it pretty quickly. My pics show a little of what it looked like framed only and the inside. I am deciding on the finishing details now. I thought it would be difficult or a lot of work, but my guy said it was easy. My space is smaller than yours, but I wanted to limit the stainless steel. The 48 range and the ss refrig. I felt were enough. Hope this helps, vic Here is a link that might be useful: vic's progress