I am in the process of having my shaker cabinets installed (I also have 9 ft. ceilings), and I have to say that the crown moulding really looks fantastic. Ours is very simple, but it gives the cabinets a neat and finsihed look that would certainly be lacking without them. If your budget can handle it, I would strongly recommend getting them.

Personally, I'm a little tired of crown molding. I think KD and cabinetmakers and GC's throw it up reflexively, for two reasons.

One, they make more money.

Two, it's a crowd pleaser. The number one reason I say this is HGTV. Nearly every house people walk into, no matter its style or station, people want crown molding. It's like it has become some sorter of class marker and everyone has to have it, no matter how it looks.

My KD had it all over my kitchen. I nixed it. We have low ceilings (8.5') and our house is, at its heart, a country farmhouse. Crown is too much. Unfortunately, I have one L-shaped run in my kitchen, the only area with uppers, and it has a crown. I am talking with my GC about yanking it.

I just put in new shaker cabinets (cherry, medium stain) with a simple crown and very simple light molding. I love the look, and I think the cabinets would look very unfinished without it. My recommendation is not to fudge on the details for the sake of the budget. I did in a couple of places and have some "mild" regrets.

There's crown and there's CROWN. I think it adds a finished look ... unless you have a totally modern vibe going on. We have a 1950s cottage with 8' ceilings and 5" crown throughout.

We did 4" flat moulding on ours so that it would have a finished look but match the rest of the house (where the original 1915 moulding is all flat and simple, just straight clean lines). It was incredibly inexpensive because it doesn't require much detail work---doesn't work so well if you don't have flat ceilings and need the moulding to hide imperfections (in the few places we have that are off, you can see it if you look closely since the moulding's been scribed to follow the ceiling---more ornate moulding would have disguised that better) but presumably in a new house you won't have that problem (I hope! :)

I put in a flat moulding as well. My GC had the kickboards that came with the cabinets cut down to size and scribed to the ceilings.

Look at this post, and specifically as Circuspeanut's pictures of her crown. I love how simple it is and how it adds the finishing touch to the cabinets. I would think this would be an affordable option to reporduce.

I think her ceilings are either 9 or 10 feet high.

Here is a link that might be useful: Circuspeanut's crown shown in this post

I would go with crown if you can work with the additional cost and I agree that it adds a finishing touch. We're doing it in this kitchen (9 foot ceilings), I had it in my previous home (8 ft ceilings) and I told the KD to add molding to the bottom of the (top) cabinets as well since I'm used to that look.
We're overbudget too! $3,000 higher at Saturday's meeting and we were over the budget before we walked into that meeting. Met the KD and builder at the house this morning as they were laying out the kitchen and bathrooms. Was so happy to see 8 trucks there and everyone installing windows, doors, and doing this and that. The rain put us really behind but it's moving along quickly now.

Thanks for everyone's responses!

KayceeeFL, thanks for the picture. It really was interesting to see the same cabinet both with and without crown molding.

mtnrdredux, I kind of agree with you. Our current house is very simple and has low (less than 8' ceilings!) so the crown was a total no-go here. It's the 9' ceilings in the new place that have me wondering.

Misstella and mcmjilly, we don't want to go to the ceiling. That's definitely too much for our style.

artemis78, yeah, I hope we don't have that problem. But again, I don't think we want to go all the way up to the ceiling.

I've asked the KD to let me know exactly what crown he was talking about and what the price is. It gets increased from "regular" pricing because we have that darn custom stain upcharge. I wish we didn't have it, but I hated every single color stain they had, and I wasn't willing to compromise on this. We're cutting back on flooring costs to cover the kitchen costs. We can always replace carpet in 5 or 6 years, but I'm not re-doing this darned kitchen!

We'll make a decision after we hear the price and see the crown sample in person.

Thanks everyone!

For what it's worth, real Shakers would not approve of frilly.