I couldn't tell this from your pictures: If you have crown molding that juts out from the cabinet face frame, remember to adjust the depths of your cabinets so that the crown molding on the lower ones don't hit the doors of the higher ones when you open the lower cabinets. My cabinets are staggered height but all the same depth, so I went with a vertical crown molding that is on the same plane as the cabinet doors.

Your cabinets and trim look lovely!

Not sure if this helps, but here is my crown molding with staggered cabinets:

The 48" cabs to the right of the sink and the angled cab (also 48" tall) in the corner are 15" deep. The glass front cabs are 12" deep. The cab above the microwave is 15" deep, but ones to the immediate left/right of the microwave are 12" deep.

Above the breakfast bar, the middle section is 15" deep, the outside cabs are 12" deep.

So, given these depths I don't think I'll have a problem with the crown hitting the door. Let me know if I'm not thinking through that properly.

Thanks so much for looking at this!!! I'm at the point of analyzing the tiny details. I hope I'm not overlooking anything.

Not quite the same as what you are doing, but we have two different size crown on our different hights cabinets. On our 42" high we went with larger crown with rope molding. On our 36" high cabinets, we went with a medium crown

Here is a link that might be useful: here are some pics showing this

Wow berry berry! Beautiful all around. I love the look - never would have thought of going with two 'different' moldings. I really like the detail of the rope molding. There goes the budget again!

Just curious - it looks like you have 9 foot ceilings. Did you every consider going with 42" and 48" cabinets, taking the 48 to the ceiling? If you did, wondering what kept you from doing that. I hope my cabs won't look too mammoth by taking them to the ceiling. I'm hesitant, but feel I need the storage.

Also, do you have a picture of your sink base you can share with me? It looks like you may be bumping it out in the same fashion as what I'm trying to accomplish. Do you have feet or an arch under the cab? How did you finish off the bottom? That's one of the details I'm trying to make a decision on, and I love everything you've done - may just do what you did if you don't mind.

Thanks so much - your pics are going in my inspiration folder.!

Annettacm - Thanks for sharing your pictures. I NEED pictures - I have a tough time making decisions without seeing something first. I noticed your pics in another thread yesterday, but didn't take note of your crown. I was too busy looking at your cool island with the inset sink. Thanks for refocusing me back to the crown. Is there any particular reason why you didn't take your taller cabs to the ceiling? Just trying to be more confident in my decision to do that.

Thanks!

Here's a picture of our crown molding with staggered height cabinets

We do have a filler piece as part of the shorter cabinet's molding.

Here is the design pic:

BTW...that flat piece is a filler piece and while it does add to the overall look it also has a purpose. No house has a completely flat/level ceiling, walls, etc. The filler piece of the crown molding is adjusted to accommodate for the ceiling's different heights along the wall (the height of the filler piece is adjusted).

Whether you have the filler piece on your shorter cabinets is probably a matter of preference more than anything. I don't see why you couldn't have it over the sink valance.

The only reason we didn't take the cabs to the ceiling was that when I suggested it, my GC and cabinet guy said no, it would look too tall, and I said okay. No discussion, no thinking about it, but in retrospect, I could have done that and it would have been just fine. A lot less dust to accumulate, that's for sure. But honestly, I hadn't really thought much about it, and I just kind of went along with what they were saying. I think it will look just fine for you to take them to the ceiling.

I did have to put one of the little clear plastic drawer stopper stickers on the outside of my 15" deep cabinets to keep my 13" cabinet door from dinging it when we opened it. Just more food for thought. You can't even see it, so it works fine.

Thanks annettacm, for your response. Yes, it would keep the dust from accumulating. I came across your before and after pictures last night, and your floor plan looks very similar to mine. I love how you opened up the dining room and incorporate all the space. Hmmmm (I can't go there - I told my DH I would not move any walls!)

Back to my crown molding questions. I want to be sure that the different heights look in proportion, so I think I just need to be careful that the trim extension/filler on the 48" doesn't get too big/tall (the KD is telling me 2-3"). Does anyone think the heights look out of proportion if 48" cabs have that 2-3" filler trim piece and the 42" cabs don't? It adds expense and I'd rather save some dollars there if it would look fine and in proporation without.

Thanks everyone!

I have a similar setup to what you're considering, except where you have a flat piece of molding, mine has some detail.

Here's an overall shot. You can see the effect is very subtle, if you look carefully the crown on the higher cabs looks slightly taller.

Here's a closer shot of the molding details.

chiefneil - I really like the added detail on the flat piece. The difference becomes very subtle. Is the top crown piece different? It could just be the camera angle in your closer up shot. And are those 48 and 42 inch cabs with a 9 foot ceiling by any chance? Thanks so much for sharing. I will be taking your picture with me to my KD!!

The crown molding is the exact same on both cabinets. The higher cabinet just has an added flat molding below the crown. It's a bit hard to tell with all the detail, but if you look from the top down, you can see what I'm talking about.

Now one thing to be aware of, which someone else mentioned, is that since you're going to the ceiling your installer may have to scribe the molding. Ceilings aren't flat, so either the installer will scribe the molding or adjust the overlap of the crown and flat molding to compensate. That's easier to do and more transparent with a flat molding.

The ceilings are actually 12', and sorry I have no idea how tall the cabinets are! All I know is that they're tall enough!

I have staggered cabinets with crown, but my crown is not that tall. The cabinets are 42 and 48 inches high, and even though I'm nearly 5'10", I cannot reach the top shelves in the taller cabinets. I had to go buy a ladder; even a stool doesn't work!

I sort of wish we'd asked that the crown reach the ceiling, because I'm going to have a heck of a time cleaning up there in that narrow space.

{{!gwi}}

PennyLaney

chiefneil - I like how that added detail on the flat piece breaks if up - doesn't seem so tall. I thought the taller cabs went to the ceiling, but looking at the picture again it was just a shadow I was seeing. I'm taking your molding picture with me tomorrow to my cabinet appt:-)

penneylaney - Thanks for the picture and comments. Sounds like there is no reason not to take it to the ceiling. And you've even added a good reason TO do that - no dust accumulation! I'm feeling more comfortable with that decision. Now I just need to fine tune the molding piece.

Thank you to ALL of you who have contributed pictures and comments. If anyone else has a picture to share on this topic, I'd love to see it for more inspiration/ideas.

chiefneil -- what is that finish on your gorgeous cabinets? I am getting cherry with an ebony stain on half my kitchen -- is that similar to what you have? And are there pictures somewhere of your granite counters? Would love to see what you picked with that dark stain.

Suzatwork - glad I could help. Good luck with your meeting tomorrow!

Starfish, the wood is maple, with a stain called "merlot". It's a fairly dark reddish-brown. I've duplicated it with some DIY furniture by using 3 parts minwax sedona red with one part minwax ebony, if that helps at all.

I've linked to the kitchen section of my photobucket album below. The counters are Bianco Romano on the perimeter and Azul Bahia on the island.

Here is a link that might be useful: kitchen album

suzatwork - just read your question and answered it on the other thread you posted it on. Good luck

Here is a link that might be useful: your answer to the question above is here