My 1915 smallish kitchen had 10' ceilings. In the end, we had to take the ceiling down completely, for various reason and to put in recessed lighting so we wound up losing the height anyway. I am now back to about 8'-6", and it still looks rather high to me, being very short. I can't even imagine ever climbing up to store things that high, or putting things up there as decoration and having to dust them periodically (lazy here). So in the end, I'm not unhappy with how it turned out.

I did stacked in my small kitchen and used just under 36" cabs with 18" stacked on top. When I measured things that would be stored up there 15" wasn't big enough plus I liked the looks of 18" better.

We are also stacking with a 9-foot ceiling---18" on top of 32" with 4" of flat moulding at the top. I think you could easily bump the lower cabinet up to 42", and maybe put the extra into space between the uppers and counter (or into the moulding, or even just into a 44" versus 42" lower). Ours are sized to align with some other appliance-related dimensions so we didn't have a lot of options. Can post a pic when they're done, though! In a small kitchen (and house) it was most important for me to have storage space, however remote.

Be realistic about your own physical abilities to put and retrieve things from that height. You must take your age, agility etc into consideration....

If not used for 'storage', they can look lovely with glass fronts to display your bowls, baskets and such. If you are collectors, you can even create display niches without cabinets by putting in nice uplights. If you want to use it for diplay, then you need to put in "good" lighting to really showcase your stuff.

Thanks to everyone who replied. jterrilynn would love to see a picture of your 36 inche uppers with 18 inch stacked cabinets if you can post or email to lblue 3738 @yahoo.com
Thanks so much,
Lisa

I too love the look of stacked cabinets. I am not sure
what would look good. It depends on how much space
you have in the width too. I am sure whatever you do will
be amazing.

Here are some galley style kitchens that might give you
inspiration on how to do your own stacked or not stacked
cabs.

~boxerpups

Modlinde.com

Perch New Orleans

Decor Dreams

Charles and Hudson Designs

Benjamin Moore Cloud White paint image

Space Saving Kitchens

Edd6990

Kitchen Decorating Ideas

Thanks for the pictures Boxerpups! Shows how a little creativity can go a long way in small kitchen. Thanks for sharing.
-Lisa

I had a teeny old kitchen (about 6-9) with 9.5 foot ceiling and I and went to the top with the cabinets on one wall, with a small crown molding to take up the irregularities.

The cabinets were (trendy ahead of their time) not the same depth because I needed to allow for a door, so there was a shallow bank breaking up the wall.

It did NOT look like a tunnel or the bottom of a pit, and being able to stash seldom used items in the top of the cabinets was marvelous.

It was also cheaper than having a soffit built, and prevented the dust-catcher that cabinet tops create.