Well, it is always easy to spend other people's money, but I would suggest the cathedral ceiling. I don't like the way skylights look with a long tunnel, and 8' ceilings are boring (of course, mine are only 7'10"). We are renovating and raised the ceilings in the family room and living room. Not sure why your architect thinks that the kitchen is the most important. Generally, I think that the biggest rooms look the worst with low ceilings. Small low-ceilinged rooms can look cosy. I also don't think a cathedral ceiling has to look contemporary. Maybe some other people can post pictures of their traditional-looking kitchens with cathedral ceilings.

I went through my inspiration file and found these photos of cathedral ceilings in traditional kitchens/rooms. I think it can work. However, I actually think the kitchen is one of the least important rooms to have a high ceiling in, particularly a traditional kitchen that is warm and cozy. I'd personally rather have the high ceilings in the living room. But the skylight issue...Skylights look better in vaulted ceilings. Are you going to have skylights in the other areas of the house?
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These pictures are far better than anything I have found. Thank you.

We have a cathedral ceiling in our living room now. The problem is that we have 8' ceilings in our kitchen, dining room and family room which form a big "L" shape. We have no other skylights in the house except for what will go into the kitchen.

-I am thinking tray ceiling in the family room. It is smaller than the kitchen. It will have a beam as we are removing a load bearing wall to open it up to the dining room.
-I was thinking of keeping the 8' ceiling in the dining room as it a smaller space and it would be cozy there. (We also will have a beam between the kitchen & the dining room as we are removing another load bearing wall.)
-The kitchen it some what large (14.5'w x 20.5'L) (14.5'x33' if you include the dining room). We only have one small window over the sink on the far end of kitchen. The dining room at the opposite end has floor to ceiling windows on two sides. I would love to get away with no skylights, but my architect said it would help the kitchen a lot.

I guess from the opinions thus far, I should go with cathedral and junk the tray. If budget becomes an issue stick with just 8'?

Let me know if anyone else has any ideas. This is really helpful!

For my money I'd do tray in the dining room, cathedral in the family room, and leave the kitchen 8' (I totally agree with the person above who said kitchen height is less important than other rooms). Plus, if you want to do something similar to the pic you included, the ceilings there are probably only 8' or 8'3".

We have a great room which contains living room, dining room & kitchen. The LR & DR are vaulted and though I really like high ceilings, I wanted to change up the kitchen. I'm going with an 8'ceiling with the tray angling to 9'. I'm hoping it'll seem more cozy plus I think it'll be easier to work with lighting when ceiling is lower rather than vaulted. It is not built yet, but you can see how it looks on paper.

Tray ceilings with skylights just don't work(look good). If you go with a cathedral, keep in mind how the space above, and crown molding on the upper cabinets will look.. Would you use this space for catching dust, or knicknacks?

I am personally not a fan of tray ceilings so can't opt for that.

you might also consider coffered ceilings. I saw them in a kitchen magazine at one point (or maybe an HGTV kitchen renovation) and they looked fantastic and would go very nicely with the style of kitchen in the inspiration photo you posted.

as for cathedral, I am a fan of that idea and wanted to share one of my favorite blogspots where the author is also a fan and has MANY inspiration photos of kitchens and other rooms with cathedral ceilings.

Here is a link that might be useful: Milk and Honey Blogspot

I really appreciate the advice. I was sold on the cathedral until my husband went up to our attic last night and informed me that we have trusses. This will put this option WAY out of our budget so it is off the table. :-( (Orginally, he told me that we have no trusses so I am a little frusterated, but anyway. . .)

So it looks like we will have 2 skylights with long tunnels no matter what we do. To make things worse, I HATE skylights, but what do you do?

So now we will install a tray in the dining room & family room to dress them up. I am thinking to leave the kitchen at 8' even though it is the largest of the 3 rooms. With a tray, I think it will have too much going on if you include the skylights and the pendant lighting. I will discuss with my architect and decorator. Sigh...

The good news is that all your pictures that you shared will be ideal for helping us update the cathedral ceiling in our living room. It has really cheap wood with a 1960's look.

Thank you all for your help.

i had the same dilemna as you...don't like tray and thought cathedral was too modern or extreme. we did vaulted on two sides with about a 6 foot flat section in the middle of the room. our ceilings are also 8ft and the highest section goes up to 11 ft. this was the picture i used to get an idea but you could vault it steeper or make the flat section smaller and design it to your liking. i'd send you a pic of ours but it is only framed in with no drywall yet. i will say, that it is the most exciting part of our renovation yet!!! good luck....

Here is a link that might be useful: vaulted ceiling with flat mid section