Staggered cabinet heights are a popular look today. You'll have some decorating space over the shorter cabinets.

I have that already. Take a peek. The center wine rack is to the ceiling. The cabinets on the side are 87 inches from the floor. It is a different setup but you will get an idea of how the staggered heights look. Excuse the ceiling. This is an old photo.
{{gwi:1975999}}

Thanks for the pic Cleo. Your cabs are beautiful btw. :)

I guess my concern is not that in and of themselves they will look odd being staggered, but that it will be odd that only one piece is actually going up to the ceiling (the wood hood) and nothing else. I think maybe I'll go look at the finished kitchens and see if there is anything similar. Where all the cabs stop short of the ceiling except the wood hood, which extends all the way up. I've seen it with stainless hoods and plaster hoods but not wood hoods....

I've seen many beautiful kitchens with the hood only up to the ceiling. Our new kitchen will be this way too. I wish I had soem pictures to share with you!

It would look weird if the hood didn't go up to the ceiling--the brain says the hood is a chimney. It must go up!

Don't worry. It's good!

I agree that chimneys should go through the ceiling just because one expects them too, although I have seen vents that stop in the middle of the wall topped by a shelf that do look amazingly good (a great illustration the value of professional designers). In any case, I'm guessing you need to be looking more at balance and proportion than just height--is the the visual weight of the cabinets and everything else on one one side of your field of vision balanced by the weight on the other sides? It can actually be desirable for something to be taller if its greater height is used to visually balance out a shorter but more massive item elsewhere. To that end, if it happened that you needed more mass on the other side to balance the taller chimney, this'd clue you in and you could then decide how you prefer to accomplish it. A thicker or darker counter? A darker color on the backsplash? Stone something instead of glass? A thicker molding for something or other? You might want to draw a picture or do a cardboard mockup so you can get a better handle on what looks good to you.

I think it will look fine... especially if you plan to fill the over cabinet space a bit with accessories. I have a soffit too and HATE it. Your new kitchen will look much more updated.

Nah, I think you've just fallen prey to some of the last minute o-my-god-what-was-I-thinking angst most of us have. Your hood reaching to the ceiling will look just fine next to the cabs at a lower height. I love the choices you've made. Just hold steady.

Oofasis - you are so right. I am starting to freak out. They are almost done mudding/sanding/drywalling and on Monday will start painting. By Wednesday the cabs should be going in (yikes)!

Okay, this might get a little long, so I understand if y'all are not up for it!!! LOL! Long story long, in anticipation I spent Sunday evening (after putting the kids to bed) measuring and cutting up paper to create a "mock island" to see how it would look and get my husband's opinion (we are adjusting/tweaking things in the field, as it appears things are not quite what they seem on paper). He flipped. In a calm way, but his comments totally pushed me over the edge into total self-doubt and fear over what this is going to look like in the end.

We have hired a prof KD and company, and so far all has been stellar. There have been a few hiccups (Shaw arriving cracked, sink base not the right size/shape, deciding to get rid of the soffits) but the guys have been fantastic and it really has not been a problem so far (knock on wood).

Then DH came in and said he thought it looked like we were putting too much "furniture" into the kitchen and that things were going to be too "tight." This from the guy who NEVER wanted to be involved. I've basically had to FORCE him to look at the plans and give me opinions. He and I decided on the layout together, and NOW he's saying it doesn't look right? And then he says, "I've lost you for 9 months to "that website" and all this kitchen stuff, and it seems we're going to end up with a kitchen crammed with furniture like my Mom's house when I was growing up." Could there be a worse insult??? I can laugh about it now, but at the time I was...not mad, just FREAKED. What if he's right?

Of course I talked to my construction guy and he is totally calm - "Don't worry, we make changes on the fly all the time, we'll lay it out for you with actual cabs and you can decide what you think," yada yada yada. He made me feel better.

To fully explain: we have a very long and narrow kitchen. The sink used to be on the window wall and the main walkway through the house bisected the kitchen right behind the person at the sink. If you were doing dishes and had the dishwasher open noone could pass because the dishwasher came within an inch or so of a peninsula coming out of the opposite wall. The fridge was literally on the OTHER side of the penisula, totally outside the work triangle. It was crazy and annoying. More than once one of my kids came barreling through the kitchen right when I was making my way across the kitchen with scalding boiling water. Not good.

So we have pulled the sink off the window and put it in an island. I will have about 42-45 inches of aisle on the work-triangle side of the island to do my thing. The plan was to make the island about 32" wide and fairly long - angled in toward the work triangle aisle at the ends and with seating at one end. That would mean the outside aisle on the other side of the sink (strictly for walking through the house - no cabs or anything over there) would be 36" wide. 2 different kd's told me this was plenty of space, as most hallways are 36" wide (as are ours). But for whatever reason, when my DH finally could SEE it on our floor, the narrowness of the 36" freaked him out. The odd thing is, our hallways don't seem narrow, and the island is open on top - it's an island for goodness sakes - so it's not going to feel closed in...Don't get me wrong, I would LOVE to have a wider kitchen, but it is what it is and we are not up for bumping out the whole house - we need our yard and outdoor space as much as we need a new kitchen! :)

Anyway, now I'm trying to decide if I want to cut down on the island overhang to provide more walking space on that side. If I do cut it down, though, will this gigantic 3618 Shaw sink (b/c I couldn't get a replacement 3018 in time - plus my kd had mistakenly ordered a 39" base cab for the sink so the 30"er would have looked weird anyway) look out of proportion? I am undermounting it, so hopefully that will help. UGH. I can't wait to just get it all in and see what is what.

In any event, my GC said do not worry, we can play with things when we put the cabs in. They will show me all my options and it will look fabulous. And in his mind, 36" is just fine. But as he was saying this he said, "don't mention it to 'kd' because she gets nervous when things are changed - she was really nervous about taking the soffits out because she would have ordered taller cabinets." So that got me thinking about the cabinets...the hood...hence this thread.

Whew. Long story - SORRY!

I can understand your concern...I would be freaking out too w/all the changes. But, as others have said, I've seen kitchens w/only the hood to the ceiling and they look fine. I think Gibby3000 and/or Moogies may have that look.

I'm suggesting the Finished Kitchens Blog but be aware that a high percentage of kitchens are no longer available for viewing. W/Yahoo Photos shutdown and many of the older kitchens removed from other sites the upshot is that I've been running into 50% of the kitchens unviewable in the various categories (some categories better/some worse)....just a warning!

Although 36`` is a bit tight for an aisle - it is certainly doable. If it means that the rest of your kitchen can function the way you want - then I would not worry about it.
Sure - a person may not be able to pass you as you, for instance, take a turkey out the oven(just an example - I don't know your layout) - but so what -how often does that happen?

The fact is that many of use have to use what we`ve got - we cannot all have 42 - 46`` aisles with no traffic through our work triangle.

If you haven`t done so yet - I would suggest cutting out your island and cabs - or marking them in tape and try to live with them for a few days. You will get a better sense of your space.

also - My cabs do not all go the ceiling - the only thing that does is our hood - pics on `my page

Good Luck - and relax, if you can.

Holly, I feel your doubt. I, too, have a husband who wasn't at all hands-on in our remodel design and didn't understand "that website" nor the time I was spending learning how to create the best kitchen for us. But I sure do get his credit for my efforts now that it's mostly done.

I, too, had a last-minute oops in measuring, too late to do anything as the cabinets were already here. Entering the kitchen from one side of the island, the passageway after the marble was installed left only 33". On the perimeter cabinets opposite that end of the island are our dish drawers and trash pull-out. They open with PLENTY of room, of course - but there's no way anyone could pass when they're open. WHO CARES??? (a)If you're in a big hurry to get by, then use the other side of the island to come into the kitchen! or (b)Wait til I close one of the open doors before passing through! I wouldn't fret about it, nor would I cut back on the overhang. Think about this: You'll be sitting/using the space by the overhang way more times than passing through the sink area when there's activity going on in that exact space. 36" is plenty of room, we're all telling you that.

You're kitchen is going to be beautiful, practical and a delight. And I hope someone else is hosting your family for Thanksgiving!

Okay, thank you all for talking me down. I REALLY needed it! :) I feel so much better now. LOL.

Actually I think there is a wee bit of confusion (not that it really matters): the side with the sink and all of the cabs has plenty of room (42 to 46"), it's the side that is simply an aisle and nothing else - the way I WANT and HOPE people will walk through the kitchen - that is only 36" wide.

The sitting area is at the end of the island, so doesn't REALLY affect the 36" walkway. I emphasize that word only because the impact the seating area will have is more pathway through the room. The bigger I make it (and the more it sticks out into the room - and the more round the shape) the greater it changes the arc someone must walk if they are going to take my preferred path through the kitchen (from mud-room to front of the house where all the kid's bedrooms are located). Here is a picture I scanned in a long time ago. Sorry I don't have the overhead layout scanned in. As you can see, this was pre-take out the soffit. A few things are changing with respect to the seating area as well, because clearance with the fridge was turning out to be a problem...Also, I am trying to straighten out the curve a bit to prohibit the seating area from blocking off the aisle. All of this is giving my KD apoplexy of course, and it necessitated ordering 2 legs for the island. Honestly, though, with a funky shaped kitchen it really is hard to know exactly what will work until you are IN there.

FYI the doorway to the mudroom is over to the left of the pantry/fridge but not on that wall - on the wall perpendicular, and the doorway to the dining room/kid's rooms/front of the house is in the upper right corner of the photo - so you see how the path through the kitchen cuts diagonally.

That really looks very functional and sensible, and attractive at the same time. Maybe keeping a flyswatter handy to shoo the stray crosstrafficker back out of the work side would be of use initially, but otherwise it's really all there and looks great. Have you had an empty space there that you're husband's gotten used to?

Pickles - what a great space - love the red island and tin roof, and your hood/cab heights reassure me! Thanks!

Rosie - thank you so much for the encouragement. I am excited and just hope that in reality it looks as attractive/functions as well as it does on paper!

As for the room, before the sink was where the new aisle will be (under the window) and there were cabs along the wall where the hood is, as well as cabs along the wall where the double oven will be (the former ovens were corner units). A peninsula stuck out from the long wall and came very, very close to the sink cabs, so that you had to walk through somewhat of a narrow gap to go through the house. It created traffic jams if I was at the sink. And going around the peninsula to access the fridge was incredibly annoying.

I actually think I will really like this set up, but it's been empty now since about October 26th, so yes, he might be getting used to a huge, empty room. That is a GREAT point. Thanks! :)

Here's a current picture. You can see where the sink plumbing is coming up through the floor. It will be at the very back of the 24" deep cab. There will be beadboard on the back facing the window - this is where the walkway will be. We were planning on having a 6" overhang from there, and I have simple corbels that were going to support/look pretty along that side. This is where I am thinking of reducing the overhand to just far enough to look good over the beadboard (and eliminating the corbels). It would just be a standard overhang. The GC says he will lay it all out and put boards on it to show me what the different overhangs will look like so I can decide which will work. This picture is taken from the DR doorway, so you can see the doorway in the back of the picture that goes to the mudroom/office/upstairs/etc.

I really appreciate all of your input. Honestly, it has been so great to have this forum to help me figure out my vision (and allay any - and many - fears). THANK YOU!