Nap,

We just renovated our kitchen and went all the way up to the ceiling. Smart move, the dust and grime above the old cabinets was disgusting and we had cleaned periodically. Also, we really like the extra cabinet space of the taller cabinet. If your using a crown moulding, that should take care of any "square" issues with the ceiling.

We've got 8' ceilings. The original cabinets went to the ceiling, and we're reusing them (fresh paint/hardware).

I've got an issue with the gap between the cabs and the ceiling in spaces with lower ceilings... It just seems like a place for dust to gather. I'd rather have the storage - even if I need a stepstool to get to it. Just my personal taste - but I don't like the soffits or gaps that are so common... unless you have sloped ceilings, super high ceilings, etc.

So my vote is to go up to the ceiling.

In our first house, with a post WWII galley kitchen in a lath and plaster house, we had new cabinets installed all the way to the ceiling. They didn't fit quite right because of the ceiling issues your designers talked about.

As far as the way they looked, the kitchen was so small we couldn't get a far away enough perspective to see how they fit.

In our current 1978 era house, we have a larger space. We're taking the designer's advice to not go to the top with the cabinets. And we're having rope lighting installed along the top which will be on most evenings, saving us the trouble of flipping the lights on and off.

Cabinets arrive next week, we're getting very excited.

I hope this helps a little bit.

I too have a small kitchen with 100" ceilings. We are going to the ceiling, using the last 4 inches for a two piece simple crown moulding. The two piece aspect is important as it consists of a vertical and an angled part, the vertical attaching to the cabinet, the angled to the ceiling. Any discrepancy from cabinet to ceiling is adjusted for by the moulding. Simple, effective, inexpensive and allows for max space usage.
tc

My ceilings are taller, but I think I would still go to the ceiling at almost any height. I've never really liked that useless space above cabinets and their are lighting options for every situation. The uneven ceiling is something you can deal with unless they are really bad -- and most aren't. My crown is actually attached to a vertical piece running across the top of the cabinets so that the gap just above the cabinet doors where you don't really see it is uneven and the crown lies against the ceiling.

Those extra couple of inches over 8' make it possible for you to get 42" cabinets and still have room for molding. I think the higher cabinets make the room look taller than the short cabinets do.

My first house had 7'6" ceilings with 30" uppers and a soffit. The room looked much "taller" when we replaced them with 36" cabinets to the ceiling.

To the ceiling.

Taller cabs are better. No need to collect dust or waste space, esp in a smaller footprint...

Well...I am not going to the ceiling. It was a hard decision because I love the look of ceiling height cabinets. My ceiling is 111". My cabinets are going to be light blue. I didn't want an unbroken wall of blue - thought it might be overwhelming, so I decided to go with 42" uppers and a nice sized crown. I love the look of all white cabinets to the ceiling. I was worried about doing it with a color.

I'll be the lone dissenter here and admit that I'm not always a fan of cabinets to the ceiling. It varies from kitchen to kitchen, but it can strike me as claustrophobic in some (shorter ceilings) or as beyond human scale in others (tall ceilings, where I wonder how they reach). I'd also be bugged by gaps between trim and ceiling, if you have an old or unlevel house, and while caulk can do a lot, it's not a miracle worker.

However, I understand the dust & grime aversion (though it doesn't personally bother me much since no one can see it). If you really need the space, have room to store a step-stool, and love the look, I'm sure you can find a way to make it work.

After having 77 showings in the old :*( house and one bit of feedback that we heard loud and clear was, "we wish the cabinets went to the ceiling". Needless to say that my stubborn kitchen designer on the new house is NOT my kitchen designer on the new house any more--he didn't want the cabinets to the ceiling. He couldn't understand what we were dealing with in the other kitchen.

Our cabinets will go almost all the way up and the moulding will finish it off and touch the ceiling. Thank you Dutchwood for "getting it".

Bee

Uniformly and without exception, cabinets that did not go to the ceiling during my (unbelievably long) house search were called cheap at open houses.

Our ceiling is 108" and not a very large kitchen. We are not going up to the ceiling. Cabinets will only be on one wall and there will be tile that continues up from backsplash beyond cabinets to the ceiling.

I do like cabinets all the way to the ceiling but I can also see how it might feel like crowding, especially in a small kitchen.

There is form and design to the line that you will see as you walk in to our kitchen and that is created by the jogging of the cabinets. It is very pleasing.

Good luck with your decision.

I am so happy that the soffits are gone and ceiling height cabinets (except for the 2 in the sunroom with a cathedral ceiling! It just makes the kitchen look so much better and no dust bunnies living above the cabinetry!

Thanks for the confirmation on my gut response.

The current cabinets (original to the house) go to the ceiling and I don't notice any unevenness in the trim at the top. but after the kitchen is gutted and they put in the new stuff who knows if that will still be true.

Go to the ceiling. I also have a small galley. Our cabinets have been in for two months and I am happy with them and think they make the kitchen look bigger. We got rid of the soffits to do it. Trim molding goes on top to cover any gaps between the cabinet and ceiling.

my stubborn kitchen designer on the new house is NOT my kitchen designer on the new house any more--he didn't want the cabinets to the ceiling.

Gosh, I wish had had this advice before I capitulated to my KD and DH. The KD said that cabinets to the ceiling just weren't "practical" (step stools, etc) and more money for the impracticality. My DH fell in love with the idea of having rope lights above the cabinets to throw a glow above when the rest of the lights were off.

Now, though I do think the rope lights and above-cabinet glow is nice, in hindsight I'd rather I traded it to have my cabinets to the ceiling. (I hate soffits, so it was either the above-light effect or to-the-ceiling cabinets).

And now here I am hoping that no one will think it "cheap" when I have the local GWers over to see my kitchen. :-)

We have the best of both worlds with no soffits, cabinets to the ceiling but we have some tape LED on a shelf between the kitchen and sun room and will put LED lights above the cabinets in the sun room with the cathedral ceiling.
A friend with a high end kitchen in an old house got rid of some soffits but kept others- so maybe that would be an option for you as a compromise.

Yup - it is a long hike to the top of our new cabinets but I am going to love every minute of looking at the gorgeous cabinets!

I'm in the small minority here. With a small, galley-style kitchen that is clearly segregated from the rest of the house, I purposely chose NOT to install cabinets which ran to the ceiling. Prior to the reno, this kitchen had a small bank of cabs that did go to the ceiling. Hated it! I never, ever used the stuff that was stored on the uppermost levels of those cabinets and in the end, they just became junk catchers.

With the reno, I did not even consider installing cabs to the ceiling. Again, having lived with cabs to the ceiling for more than 20 years, it was not a "new" design I had to have. In fact, my POV was just the opposite: I was more concerned with creating as open a space as possible in a small room (11' x 14') which had only one entrance/exit. That vision did not contemplate two towering walls of cabs separated by an aisle. Instead, I did follow my ID's advice and installed lights above the cabs, below the cabs and in the glassed-in interiors. I love it!

Don't get me wrong: I like the look of cabs to the ceiling in many applications I see here on GW. However, I must also say that I don't care for that look in many small galley kitchens that are ubiquitous here in NYC. IMHO, it just feels too closed in and "cave like." That said, it's also pretty clear that my opinion on this subject is not the popular one on this forum. :-)

la_koala, depending upon your heights, you can still compromise and stack a few. I stuck 12" cabs on top of my 30" cabs and got 42!

I have 8' ceilings.
Love them.

We just finished redoing our galley kitchen that is about the size of yours. We put 42-inch cabs to the ceiling, and everyone comments that the room looks much larger now. And our builder 30 years ago didn't know what a straight wall was, so we truly had issues; but the installer worked around it, and you can't tell anything is or was crooked. No gaps at the top, etc. Truly a miracle.

Our cabs stop about an inch before the ceiling once you add the crown molding and yes, at the open house when I die and they sell my home, they may say how cheap I was;) but honestly it looks a million times better than the cabs that I had before that extended to the ceiling. I may still be struggling with my backsplash but love my cabs. It really depend on the space:)

Part of it depends on the type of cabinets you are getting. It's entirely a matter of taste, of course, but my feeling is that a traditional inset cabinet with barrel hinges looks best going to the ceiling, a la the classic bungalow style. Not so much cabs with fussy crown molding that are overlay doors with hidden Euro hinges.

Check out Theresse's cabs here, for instance, in a space with dimensions similar to yours:

The flatness and continuity of the face frames makes the whole into a pleasing seamless unity that doesn't loom at all.