Thanks, Laskatx! Do you have pics of your cabinets? Glad to know you like them to the ceiling with your 10 ft height. I love glass fronts, so that is definitely something I would do.

Pretty Kitty's kitchen has doors 10' tall. Her kitchen cabinets go to the ceiling.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pretty Kitty's kitchen

You're talking about 6 1/2 feet of cabinetry and molding overhead. It would be very tricky to make this not seem so overwhelmingly mountainous feeling, and you'd have to use a lot of glass. That's going to translate into mucho mucho spendy. (Glass cabinets are quadruple (or more) the price of "standard" all wood door cabinets.) If you use 42"s stacked with 30"s, you still have room for 6" of molding. One foot of molding would be overpowering, even with that much cabinetry, so using 24" above the 42"s wouldn't work. If you use custom, you could have 27"s above, but using that tall of a cabinet on top is still going to seem top heavy, even with glass. "Best practices" are 2/3 and 1/3 for stacking proportions. Using glass helps to "cheat" those proportions, but you're still talking way more height than is usually successfully done.

I would think about bringing the height of the ceiling down, either through some form of soffit or coffered ceiling. This will make the stacked cabinets appear to be more proportional, and won't make them seem so top heavy.

Here's a link to a Sunset Idea House kitchen with stacked cabs and the ceilings are 10'.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sunset Idea House

Thanks for the pics of Pretty Kitty and Sunset Idea kitchens. I love the way they look.

This is the floor plan. As I said, our plan calls for 11 ft ceilings in the greatroom, kitchen, dining and 9 foot ceilings in the bedroom areas on each side.

I'm wondering if we could do a vaulted ceiling or something in the kitchen, where the back wall in 9 foot where some of the cabinets would be but then it would vault to 11 ft height in the great room? That maybe sounds stupid, but I really don't know how vaulted ceilings work. Or do you think I should do a lower ceiling in the kitchen part and 11 ft everywhere else?

I don't have a good finished picture, but mine are more like the Sunset ones and reverse of Pretty Kitty's gorgeous kitchen (wood doors below and glass above on the perimeter except over the ovens -- made that deep storage rather than display), but we have a strip of trim between the cabinets that is similar to our light rail so there is no seam or need for an additional panel on the sides. On our tall wall (pantry and fridge), we have solid doors all the way up. My crown appears to be a little taller than the Sunset house. I have 2 straigh walls for the perimeter and the tall wall in a different finish -- I think that helps break it up. My "fourth wall" is completely open and there is a door or opening at every corner. The kitchen also opens ito a breakfast and family room with 14 foot vaulted ceilings. The kitchen is short by comparison, so that may help it not feel overwhelming.

I think the 11 and 12 foot kitchens I saw tended to have the solid doors above and more glass below. That way, they kind of fade into the wall overhead. That would be more like Pretty Kitty's kitchen.

My kitchen dimensions are approximately 14x 18, but it is open to the greatroom and dining room. I'm just wondering if cabinets all the way to the ceiling will overpower the room. It's so hard to know. And as some have mentioned, even if I decided I liked them that way, they may be WAY out of my budget.

I think it is a matter of scale. When you look at prettykitty's kitchen, the reason it works is that everything is large in scale: from the door heights, to the large range/hood, to the cabinets. Having tall cabinets with a 30" range would not carry the same effect. I also think it depends on the cabinet finish. I like the look of the white cabinets/glass combo--not so sure if I'd like it so well if they were stained.

I think Valinsv is absolutely correct - it's all a matter of scale - and how well the kitchen matches the house as a whole. I have 11' ceilings in a Greek Revival house (kitchen is part of a 14'x36' great room): everything is proportionately larger than expected & cabinets to the ceiling aren't overpowering in the least. Regular height cabs would stick out like a sore thumb.

Our ceilings are almost 11 feet and this is what we did. I love cabinets all the way to the ceiling, but for a variety of reasons, we decided to bring the ceiling down to the cabinets a bit by putting in a coffered ceiling. We have a pretty narrow kitchen, so it could seem overwhelming, but it actually doesn't feel that way in the kitchen, at least not to me!

Valinsv -- I hadn't thought about it that way. We are pretty sure our cabinets will be a dark stain (like espresso) and shaker style. Since all the center rooms will have 11 ft ceilings, all the doors will be 8 foot.

But maybe such a dark cabinet finish will really be too dark and overpowering, even with glass fronts on the stacked cabinets? We will do white trim and lighter paint colors as well as lighter counters, but still wondering about that.

Jeannie ktichen -- I love your coffered ceiling as well. We thought about doing that and still may.. just not sure how to make the transition to the dining area and great room. Thanks for the photos of your beautiful kitchen!

Shelly K,

I think you could do stacked cabinets, they don't all have
to have glass. Someone asked a similar question a few
days ago. Check out the link below.

Joann23456 did Ikea or maybe it was Kraftmaid... I can not
remember but she had a wonderful idea. They are not glass
upper but they look beautiful and maybe you can use this
idea for your kitchen. Ways to save and still have a dream
kitchen.
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0420554823771.html

This kitchen has a sofit. {{!gwi}}

Tizzano

Petrahomes

These uppers are without glass. I know you were not
thinking of white but maybe this will give you an idea.

{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}

Here is a link that might be useful: How to make cabinets up to the ceiling look good - 10 ft ceiling