I have seen many kitchens where the cabinets have crown and the rest of the walls don't. (For example, my kitchen!) In fact, it can make your pretty cabinets stand out more if the matching crown is only on the cabinets. Check the finished kitchens slideshow and I think you'll see many examples.

Once you have lived with the kitchen for awhile, you can always have additional crown molding added later if you feel you need it.

Here's a nice example from the slideshow (bikey's kitchen.) I like how the cabinet crown stands out against the pretty color of the walls, where there is no crown.

Here is a link that might be useful: Finished Kitchen Slide Show

Another vote for no crown in the kitchen besides the cabinets. I did it that way and have crown everywhere else in the entire house. Its just not needed if its a separate room. I think it would be busy to use it in the kitchen and detract from your cabinets possibly.

I think the kitchen will look fine with moulding just on the cabinets.

Conversely I have seen moulding finished like the cabinets go over the cabinets, and moulding consistent with the rest of the house used elsewhere in the kitchen -- in the context of the moulding over the cabinets belongs to the cabinets and the moulding between the wall and the ceiling belongs to the house itself.

We only have crown on the cabinets, not the rest of the kithcen and adjoining rooms.

We only have crown molding on our cabinets in the kitchen and ajoining family room also.

srg15, if you would like crown molding in the rest of your kitchen but don't want to pay the high cost charged by the cabinet company, here's an alternative. Check on the cost of having a local shop custom make a crown that will match your cabinet crown molding. For us, there was a setup charge of about $150 for the lumber company to cut a blade that matched our cabinet crown molding, then there was the cost of cutting the matching crown molding and the cost of the lumber. Ours was to be painted so we did a paint grade wood. It looks great, perfectly matches the cabinet crown molding and its total cost was 25% of the cost of crown molding supplied by our cabinet company.

nancyaustin...you read my mind. we are having a craftsman build us a planning desk & built ins in the adjoining room off the kitchen and he'd be copying the crown to try to match it. i'll ask him. thanks!

Good idea, srg215! Also try talking with local lumber companies, especially those that have fine lumber. They do custom millwork and that's what you're looking for. If your craftsman can't do it, I'm sure he'll know where you can have it made. Good luck!