Oh well, can anyone post pictures of their kitchens? We just remodeled and I feel like our kitchen is so tiny because the ceilings are so low. Any tricks on making them look taller??

Yay - A topic I can help with! We are still in the process of remodeling...but, I will tell you a few things we have done that have changed the look of the kitchen.

Our cabinets go all the way to the ceiling. We also had our red oak floors refinished and stained clear. This seemed to draw the eyes up more. Our kitchen isn't big either, but I am surprised at how much bigger it feels with the cabs all the way to the ceiling. Good luck!

We have 8 feet ceilings in our 14x14 kitchen too. And we had cabinets go all the way to the ceiling. What made our kitchen look larger was pulling out the track lights and other pendant fixtures and replacing them with recessed lights. Our kitchen already had light maple cabinets and floors and we replaced the tiled countertop with a light colored concrete countertop. This really has opened up the kitchen for us.

Our ceiling is 8', and I think it helped a lot to have the cabinets go all the way to the ceiling.

my kitchen has 8' ceilings too. my space was completely opened up and made to feel bigger by doing a variety of things. One was by tearing out the peninsula and the cabinets over the peninsula that was chopping the room in half, going with whites and light colors, some of the cabs to the ceiling with some lower, and one of the most dramatic things was when we tore the header out above the window. it really made a huge difference.

We are in the middle of our renovation, but I am hoping the room will seem bigger....

We moved the location of our kitchen to the master bedroom so now the kitchen has two outside walls. On the longer wall we installed sliding glass doors (about 9 feet long) and this lets in a ton of light. We also added a window for over the sink. We made the entrance from the living room to the kitchen wider (about 5 feet).

We installed a see-through fireplace between the kitchen and the living room. The fireplace is about 48" off the floor so when you look toward the living room from the kitchen, the kitchen won't seem so closed off b/c you will be able to see into the living room through the fireplace. Then again, I only have sheet rock on the walls right now and the support for the island's raised counter. I hope once the cabinets go it it will still seem open and inviting. Or I am going to cry ;).

We did cabinets all the way up, large window over the sink, wide openings to other rooms, white backsplash and light perimeter counters. I was looking for a photo but none of my finished shots show all the way to the ceiling, LOL. Here's an old one.

lilliepie07 - I am not sure what tricks there are to making the room seem taller. Sounds like you are already done remodelling? All the decorating shows hype over and over about lighter colors making the room seem larger. Is there a specific area that makes you feel its closed in that can be changed with decorating tips? Maybe post a pic here? I just love how everyone on here responds when you post pics and something seems just not quite right and all these extra pairs of eyes point out the obvious things! Sometimes we are too involved up close and personal and GW is such a huge help!

Anyways, to make you feel better :) My kitchen is in week 2 of our remodel. We went from 7 foot drop ceilings with a huge flourescent light box to our new spacious 8 feet!! haha It sure seems big to us because of what we had for 26 yrs. We also took out as much wall as we could to the dining room so we went from a 36" opening to 94?? The light from the windows makes it appear large. I am just having a valance in the DR and a roman shade in the kitchen. We are using our old cabinets, so they do not go to the ceiling. Yes, I will put "stuff" up there. But just a few things to accent some colors in the design. We also are going to white painted cabinets, so that will open it up. I am relying on light colors and minimally adorned windows for our larger feel.

Good Luck!! We would love to see your space!

Our ceilings are about 7.5 feet. Here are some pictures of our kitchen. We don't get a lot of direct natural light (although the picture is rather bright) and we have dark cherry cabinets.

lillie: If you want to read more on this subject, I have a post running about staggered cabinets labeled "One more look..staggered heights" or something like that.
I also am remodeling an 8' ceiling...Most of the advice offered on my thread is that cabs all the way up make a room appear taller, however, I'm still going with staggers. Partly because the cabinet maker had started cutting (even tho' he said it could still be changed) and partly because he has staggered ones himself in an 8' kitchen and I liked the look. He said that when you put lighting up there it just lights up the whole look. Also my kitchen is wide open to the DR and LR with a wall of windows in the DR to south and skylights in the LR, so I have lots of light. I also read that pendants, which I wanted, could make a ceiling look lower, so I may go with recessed over the island.
GW is great for advice, I'm totally hooked just ask DH!!
You're still the one who's going to cook there, and it's your money, so make it the way you want it!
Good luck!

Gee, I sure wish I had a place to post some pics! I re-did my kitchen last autumn. Kept the same layout, but blasted everything out and replaced with new. The new cabs go all the way up to my 8 ft ceiling, even though the cab guys said it was impossible because there wasn't any room for crown molding. Guess what? Crown molding isn't a necessity - it's only a style feature. My kitchen looks great without it, and my new cabinets have so much more capacity than the old ones. I'm not aware of whether the room looks bigger or smaller - I guess I'm just used to it. Because the old layout worked, and I kept that, there isn't any striking changes that emphasize the limited height.

We were more limited in terms of what alterations we could make as the the building is slab concrete. I felt these things paid off for us:

matte white ceiling (flat and lighter in colour than the cabinetry)

shorter fixture (electrical is conduit run in the concrete so no chance for recessed lighting)

dark floor (really gounds the space and contrasts with the cabinetry)

didn't run the cabinetry around the fridge to the ceiling - I think it would have been very dominating and the opening at the top allows you to see back to the walls - this cabinetry was all new so we were worried about the space feeling closed in which didn't happen - this applies to tall cabinetry not cabinetry over counters

Room is 12' x 10'

I think it helps any kitchen appear larger if you can avoid large banks of same-sized upper cabinets marching in rows along the ceiling -- break them up any way you can.

Another idea is to add a picture rail anywhere from 1' to 2' below ceiling and paint the wall above the rail the same lighter color as the ceiling. I did this in my dining room and it's remarkable how much higher my 8 footers look in there.