"He wants"...NEXT! This doesn't sound like a good fit to me. This kitchen is for YOU, and if you have to start making cost cutting measures after a couple of initial designs, that's one thing. If you want--and can afford--stacked cabinets, then there is zero reason for him to be "guiding" you away from that look in the initial conversation unless you have an completely unrealistic budget. Start a conversation with another designer pronto.

Can you give the KD some pics of your vision? He seems not to get it.

I am very curious about this too. We also have nearly 9' ceilings (105") and I am wavering between stacked cabs (glass on top) or 36" or 42" cabs with molding. The 42" wide wood hood (above a 36" range) would go to the ceiling. I didn't think I liked staggered cabinet heights, but then I saw nini's gorgeous kitchen and it changed my mind (especially since there is about a 5k difference in cost for us).

As far as blind corners, I don't like the angled cabinets, or blind corners, and I feel like I have plenty of space in my uppers. I am nixing the corner cabinet all together. I will just have two cabinets that butt up to each other at 90 degrees, with 15" of empty space in the area behind them. Then there will be a fake bottom that covers that empty space you would see from underneath, same for the top. Not sure how to explain it any better (And I know that was the exact opposite of eloquent). In my lower cab corner I will have a lazy Susan.

When you say "smoking' hot kitchen" I immediately think you may want to contact someone in say, NYC or another major city. At the very least, I would probably find a few other designers to see if anyone is a better match to your taste.

Or, maybe you should skip the designer and this should just become a group GW project!

I wouldn't do the multiple height cabinetry. Also just a heads up 9 feet is just fine for cabinetry to the ceiling if you ask me, and would look amazing if you could make it happen. But if you need a gap I wouldn't make it too large. My old kitchen had multiple stack/differing distances between cab and ceiling. Never thought it worked out, too big of a gap at the top.

Get a second opinion and design. Unless you're absolutely sold on this person there is no reason to have loyalty if they aren't seeing your vision and making it a reality. Of course you've gotta take their advice on certain things but it is absolutely about what YOU want and feel comfortable with.

Good luck.

On the whole, I've never liked staggered cabinets, and I do consider them a fad that has passed. I also wouldn't like 36" cabinets with crown and wasted space above. I'd probably reject different crowns too. He can be glad I'm not his client.

I don't have any corner cabinets and have had very few over the years. All have been cavernous wastes, so I can't offer any words of wisdom there either. I do hope you either get something you can work with or find someone you can work with. You need that.

My mom has multiple height cabinetry...and it looks great, but I think it's definitely more of a country look. Probably not the latest in 'stylish TKO kitchens' that you would see on the forum.

Has your KD seen the OTK from GW? (LOL)

It's hard to tell from the pictures (link provided) but it looks like the cabinets go all the way up, to the ceiling. I know Sarah Richards always says that stacked cabinets look custom, even if they're not...so maybe that would be the way to go. Good luck with the new kitchen! :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Link to OTK on Hooked on Houses

You, of all people, need a really artistic KD that can come up with some super custom "pieces" in your kitchen, not take everything from a formulaic playbook.

There's a mesh with architecture that goes on with the best kitchens and you're building. Don't like this drift at all.

Has he seen a pic of your last kitchen? I'm not saying that you want to repeat it or want to direct him that way but perhaps as a way of showing him your sense of style - which you have in spades.

I'm not sure that transitional has different heights of cabinets AND different types of crown mouldings sort of all over the place.

Inspirations photos? By the way, I know it will be frowned upon but I have an 8' ceiling with stack cabinets (24" + 12") with clear glass in the top section. Not all of them are stacked just two of them for some style. I have quite a bit of glass and that is what is in there.I like it.

Big questions for you - do you like clean lines or lots of frou-frous. You're heading toward frou-frous.

I agree with GreenDesigns: NEXT!! This isn't about what he wants.

In Central PA you should be able to find good, well priced cabinetmakers who will do what you want. How far are you from Beaglesdoitbetter? She has great cabinetmakers. My cabinetmaker didn't have a different price for all the way to the ceiling vs. stopping short. He charges by the kitchen. It's hardly any labor difference, and, unless your kitchen is huge, not a really big materials difference either.

Re corner cabinets, I like my 90 degree upper. I keep the dishes in there and it works great. Someone--I forget who--has one that is open (no doors) and mostly display items. I think it's more "in" to have something rather than just starting and stopping the cabinets, but you don't actually lose too much with blind corner. The angled upper corner cabinet, OTOH, always looks creepy to me. I couldn't tell you why. It's not the current trend at all, nor is the angled lower corner cabinet. The angle gives you more storage, but it does so by stealing floor space and usable counter space, and give you a very small access door compared to hinged door. (See below for my full overlay.)

Re staggered heights, I agree with the others that the look is on its way out. There are always going to be situations where it makes the best sense to do it that way, but doing it just to do it, without any functional (or design functional) motivation, is kind of over. I certainly wouldn't have the corner cabinets dominating the runs!

These pictures were taken during construction, but you get the idea. :) The second one shows how they do the hinged door with Euro (Blum) hardware. The opening side part of the door butts into the hinge attached to box side one, so when it's closed, you never see the hinging.

Bee, we have 9' ceilings and 42" tall uppers with crown. When the style was to decorate the space above the cabs, I wasn't happy with their height because I wasn't able to put anything up there that didn't look out of scale with the kitchen's height. Once I realized that having stuff on top of the cabs meant that every now and then I needed to climb up, take it all down and dust up there, instead of just attacking it with the vacuum's long wand, I became very happy with my unadorned 42" tall cabs. When we remodel, I'll likely go with stacked cabs to the ceiling or 45" tall cabs and stacked molding to the ceiling (I hate dusting up there).

I would not go with 36" tall upper cabs. Ever. No matter what the KD told me. Define your own style. You do that so very well.

I have 9' ceilings. Check out the look of filling in the last 8-13", whatever it might be, with a vertical board finished with top and bottom detail. I don't feel cabinets to the ceiling usually look as good as ones with doors that go most of the way up, allowing room to fill in a "top-border" finish piece.

I also don't care for staggered-height cabs, but that's because they're so often done badly and/or installed in rooms they just don't work with. Most flat ceiling lines just don't call for them. For that reason, I suspect they're be history soon, but, hey, when they look good, they can really look good.

Good luck on the new design. Hopefully he'll turn out to be really talented. Don't accept anything you aren't really pleased with, though.

I like chris' idea of a group GW project! LOL
But I agree with the thought that the staggered-height cabinets have more of a country look, and not the transitional look you are going for.

BTW, I have 9' ceilings, and just enough crown to make it easy to open the top doors. The ceiling was feathered with drywall mud after installation to fill any gaps due to the existing ceiling being wavy. I chose to have the double cabinets, rather than single. I don't want to see the stuff stored at ladder height when I open a cabinet, and that way I have a straight line of cabinets that lines up with the ones over my hood. You can do it any way that makes you happy!

To me, Bee, this sounds like Designer Dude is trying to fit cabinets into a room, rather than actually designing a kitchen. I'd recommend avoiding beginning this way.

Start from your dream: what kind of cabinets do YOU envision? What height do they have, what finish, how everpresent are they in the workspace?

When you say "smokin' hot" kitchen, what exactly does that mean? You want the colors and products to be the most recent ones on the market? You want the overall cohesion to look architectural? ...people should gasp when they walk in?

What makes YOU gasp?

Just say NO to all of it. My biggest regret is not getting 42" cabs with built up spacer and crown to meat our 9' ceilings. I despair of that space up there with the 36" plus crown. It is a dust catcher and decorators want to load it up with stuff that you will dust every 10 years and why should cabinets have a toupee of ivy like mine do anyway? If I could get up there easily I would take it down, ugh...Also not a fan of the staggered heights. That was big in 1998 for a little while but it didn't seem to stay around that long. IMO, it is somewhat jarring. A more clean look in design and style is what I am seeing now. I bet this guy was really happy doing a kitchen like this but it doesn't sound like he is keeping up with what's in and what's been shown to not hold up design wise (though I am sure he is a nice person). : )

I'm on your side, don't be talked into things that you know you don't want. I let the designer tell me that 36" cabinets would "just look better" well they don't. I am now doing some updates in there and am considering putting a short top cabinet on top of the 36 cabs to build at least the buffet area up to the ceiling. But wait then I'll have staggered heights and I don't like that either so I am stuck with a kitchen that someone else designed and I don't really love but paid the big bucks for...

I think you need to restart the process. Figure out what you want, tell him what it is, and be pleasant in the unlikely event he has a better idea. : )

You are right, in central PA he probably does not see a lot of cutting edge design ( I can say this since I grew up in PA). Even working with very high end KD and GC that work in NYC, Westchester, CT and the Hamptons, my DH and I designed circles around them. I know that seems rude and I am sure we made mistakes, but i think a lot of professionals get stuck in ruts.

No one. even professionals, cares as much as we GW do. Also, your KD sees magazines and local clients. He probably does a lot of the same stuff over and over. Unless he is a GW devotee, you have seen more real world creativity then he has

Its' time for you to just start find your inspiration photos.

***sigh***

well, this is THE guy. He does have an excellent reputation. This is the custom cabinet maker that works for our builder. I could go somewhere else, but my allowance is the builder's cost, aka wholesale. So, I will get more bang for my buck. And I am totally allowed to do whatever I want. I think I will shoot him an email before he gets working on the drawings and prices and tell him I want him to price the cabinets at 42" or even 45" . I am going to tell him I don't want those corner uppers after all. I love pllog's doors.

Maybe doing the 2 cabinets that leave the empty space in the corner like westtoeast described would work ok. Possibly the cabinets are less expensive than the ones that have the blind corner in them since they are smaller.

Thanks for confirming my thoughts about the staggered heights.

I'll be back....

I grew up in North-Western-Central PA where I don't think anyone ever remodels a kitchen, and my sister lives in Centre County, so I can say this.

My sister rents a house in a development. I assumed the house was built prior to 1995 based on the fixtures and finishes, allowing for a few years of lag time. It was completed in 2004-2005 sometime. A Custom firm may not be quite so far behind trends found more toward the cities or coasts, but I don't think I am exaggerating by saying they could be, generally, almost a decade behind in trends with durable things like this in places like central PA.

Oh pal, this is why they look at me like I have a 3rd eye.....I'm a trailblazer, I guess. (Anybody wanna guess if there was a white cabinet display in the showroom?) lol

Trailblaze away! You know what you want. Find some inspiration pictures and show him what's what!

Bee - I'd describe your style as chic and not transitional at all. Your previous house even veered more modern than transitional. Do not let this guy muddy your vision. I agree with everyone who is saying to "just say no" to staggered cabs, corner cabs and built up crown. You want function and style, not the same kitchen they guy has done a thousand times before. This should be fun for him because I bet most people bore him kitchen-wise.

Can you work your kitchen to not need corner cabs? I did with ours and love that everything is in straight runs. I hated my corner sink and corner cabs in previous kitchens, so figured out how to do without them.

Oh, Bee, I misunderstood about your allowance, and didn't realize that the KD went with the cabinetmaker. In that case, yes, make it a GW job that you bring to the cabinetmaker to create for you. If you have your layout and design, I'm sure he can pull it off.

You've said "transitional". What does that word mean to you? What details does it evoke? Have you done a Sweeby Test? Are you going white again? Drama? Wood? Cozy? Glass cabinets? Open shelves? Interesting tile? What about the counters?

Bring on the dimensions of the space! Great GW minds (greater than mine) are drooling in anticipation. :)

I don't know if I can add much to what has already been said, but I am building a house in central Ohio and also using the KD my builder likes to work with. I finally gave up and gave him detailed plans I drew myself and had OK'd here. A few more comments:

My current house, built in about 2000, has 9-foot ceilings and varying-height cabinets like your KD proposed. It's the standard thing to do for tall ceilings around here and it doesn't show much imagination IMO.

That said, I don't think you need an amazing cutting-edge design. You need a kitchen designed to function well that looks amazing. If you think the 2-height cabinets look amazing, then that's what you should do. I don't think it will hurt to see what the KD comes up with because it could be a good starting point. If the cabinet height is the only issue, that's easy to tweak.

This proscess is going to be hard. I assume you have some flexibility on where doors and windows and perhaps even walls are going to be. It's hard to solve a problem with too many variables. Take your time and make sure you get it right. My final design turned out to be almost the same as the KD's first design except I swapped the door and the refrigerator. I also changed the cabinet height and window size dramatically.

I love the look of cabinets stacked to the ceiling, so that's what I'm doing. I love the look of an enormous window on the sink wall, so that's what I'm doing. Windows cost less than cabinets so I'm hoping the savings from eliminating cabinets on the one wall will offset the cost of the stacked cabinets on the other wall. It also allows me to end my cabinet run at the window wall so I don't have to deal with an upper corner cabinet.

You have to figure out how high you want the cabinets to go. I would google kitchens with 9-foot ceilings and if you don't find enough, start a new thread: "Show me your 9-foot ceilings." Then you'll be able to see quickly what you do and don't like.

One other point - coffered ceilings are amazing, and if you do anything like that you probably won't want to go to the ceiling after all. Then you need a "Show me your 9-foot coffered ceilings!" thread.

Two books that were helpful to me in my house design process were "The Not So Big House" and "Home by Design" by Sarah Susanka. I got them at my library. I didn't read them word-for-word but I spent a few hours flipping through them and took away a some ideas I used. She's very good at making a home design feel homey, and the pictures do a great job of demonstrating the points. It's not kitchen-specific, but it may help you.

Good luck! It's going to be beautiful. You and katieob should start a support group for people who have to build an amazing kitchen after leaving a GW legend!

I would NOT do 36" tall cabinets. Even if you never reach up to the stuff you store on the top shelf of the 42" cabinets, it is so nice to have that shelf. I don't love the look of staggered cabinets, though Nini's kitchen was gorgeous. In our kitchen, we have 42" uppers that fall about 9 inches from our 9 ft tall ceilings. The wood hood extends to the ceiling and is the only cabinet to do so.

i don't like the sound of any of this. design your own kitchen, bee! before i decided to draw my own kitchen i went to see five KDs. each of them had done "award winning" kitchens -that looked exactly like all the others i'd seen. big deal. NOT. if anyone can do it, you can. and if you need any help, i know a place that doles out free advice, CHEAP!

Develop and hold to your vision, and THEN get this guy involved. Your last kitchen was one of my favorites ever-- you are a kitchen design star. You can design a fabulous solution (with GW resources of course) and then enlist this guy as an assistant.

Here's the way my cabinet guy did my blind corner upper. I wanted the clean 90 degree turn. He used different hinges so that the doors opened up wider than usual. My dishcloths and towels told me they wanted the cabinet for their home, right next to the sink..:) Works out great.
No pull on the left, so that the right door always gets opened first.

Nancy

If your instincts are telling you to like him, he may be a diamond in the rough. I didn't mesh with my cabinet maker at first either. He had been doing mostly AmeriTuscan and Ameroccoco kitchens in the suburban Boston area, and that's what he seemed to be guiding me to at first. I stuck with him because his work quality, work ethic and attention to detail was wonderful (I had visited kitchens he had recently done in my neighborhood and everyone raved about him). We finally clicked when I showed him my extensive inspiration ideabook on HOUZZ. He saw what I was after in terms of style (I remember his "Oooooooooh, I get it now!" comment as he is very visual) and from then on, he had great suggestions for me and we became good partners. Could it be you just need to spend some time with him going over your inspiration file--including pictures of your previous kitchen and home? At least you would get a sense of whether he is open to, and excited about, following your style lead, which is key.

...And I agree that stacked cabinets read "country".

I'm excited to follow your progress!

I had the advantage of watching a good friend remodel her kitchen just a few months before I did. Liked many things about her kitchen, but that big corner cupboard was not one of them.

Consequently, I also have a doublefold door like Pllog shows and like it. I admit that I made mine a little too big. It is not terrible, but think about your sizes.

On my other corner, I access the corner from the table side.

First some commiseration - I think having totally new space is the pits, simply because the number of choices to make is at least doubled. Figuring out your vision when literally NOTHING exists is pretty hard.

You can blank a corner too. There are two-three ways of doing that -> like rhome did where you simply fill it in from top to bottom with drywall - she inset a cabinet on one side that didn't have cabinets because of a window. In essence, this is what I did, but made it just big enough to be a corner pantry and what people who place their oven cabinets across a corner are also doing.

You can blank just the wall cabinets by filling in just the upper corner with a pair of fillers or extended stiles. I would mostly always choose to do this as I find the back corners to be unreachable. Blank the base by doing the same thing - depending on the rest of the layout, it can take as little as a 1.5" filler on both sides.

If you use 36" cabinets, light rail and crown, standard height countertop and standard 18" gap between counter and cabinets, you'll have about 13"of wall showing at the top. If you use 42" tall cabinets, you'll have just enough of a gap (7") that it might look weird if you don't fill it in with trim of some sort. As you think about this, maybe consider the interaction of the cabinets and the beamed ceiling pattern.

Remember to check the usable depth of the uppers the dude is selling. You might want to increase it.

hth

PS. The uppy-downy with the wall cabinets thing has been over for a while now. I'm hoping the too short glass uppers stacked over cabs follow them.

About all I can weigh in on here is the blind corner.....currently I have a smallish 80s kitchen, in a modest sized 60s home. I have a 90degree cab currently, where the right side opens and has the hardware, right side no hardware. Working with the KD, she did a blind corner cab on the left and a separate cab on the right....when I questioned her on this, it was more about form, less about function...it had to do with hardware placement and symmetry around the range where the left hand cab is.....so in the new space....left side cab opens to the right with a blind corner, right side cab opens to the left.

I didn't like it at first, but in thinking about symmetry she's right, it works! And looks aesthetically better than my current 90.

Best of luck to you, the design process was stressful for me, we are about 3-4 weeks from demo now, and I can't wait!

Yes, you definitely need to show this guy your amazing DIY remodels! If he's as you describe, it'll push him to have to be even more amazing than you which will be pretty incredible.

Having lived with both soffits and 3 FEET of empty space above cabs over the years, I agree that taking your cabs to the ceiling like you want is 1) much more functional and 2) what YOU want which is the important thing here.

If needed, you could push shorter cabs to the ceiling with a shelf underneath. Someone else here (sorry, can't remember who!) came up with that idea for someone on a smaller budget who wanted to-the-ceiling cabs. It doesn't sound like you have that issue from your understanding GC budget description, but I thought I'd pass it along.

cheers

Post your kitchen space! It's time to work on your layout here! Besides, if you do it now, b/f the walls go up, you'll have more flexibility with window & door placement.

I have staggered cabinets, but only on one wall where I have staggered depth cabinets - it's much easier to do crown molding that way. If I had it to do over, I'd make all the cabinets the same depth (15") and have all my cabinets go to the ceiling.

I love these stacked cabinets from Wood-Mode with a coffered ceiling. Interesting.

We are in the final stages of building our home. It has taken me two solid years of searching for the right person to do my cabinets. I've interviewed several, and I even wasted some money by starting to work with a couple who claimed they were on the same page as I was but who weren't......as by their push for what "they" liked and thought I should have. I stuck to my guns and kept searching.

I do not like staggered cabinets but they were continually being pushed on me. They didn't know how to deal with a large vintage style sink I am using. They kept wanting to line all of them up like lawyer office cabinets, crowd my window trim, etc. I gave up and figured I would use metal cabinets and a couple of tables until I found the right person.

Finally one Saturday my husband was doing a search to find Conestoga cabinets so we could purchase some and put them in ourselves. By then I had sketched out what I wanted, but still needed a skilled person to figure the dimensions, etc.

Well, we found someone. A treasure of a husband and wife team who make custom cabinets. She has an art degree and has considerable experience in restoring vintage kitchens. She saw immediately what I wanted and we are like twins in our thinking. She made sure she understood how I cook. We now only have minor tweaking in a few details and we are ready to start work.

The reason for my long winded story here is to encourage you to follow your heart no matter how long it takes to find the right person. Do not settle. It can be frustrating, time consuming, and very tiring, but it has been more than worth it. I will get up every day for the rest of my life loving this kitchen. Loving your kitchen will inspire you to cook wonderful things in it. Something you don't love will irritate you the rest of your life.

Also, be wary of anyone wanting a chunk of money ahead of even talking to you and starting a design. You have no way of knowing if that person will listen to you and you can work together. It is fair for someone to not release a design you like without compensation, but we have lost several thousand dollars on people who claimed they would design something nice, knew what I wanted, but as soon as the check was cashed they could have cared less. The lady I am working with now never asked for a cent up front.

Sandy

Sandy, and everyone, all excellent advice. The night we went to the KD I quickly sent an email to the KD. I told him that I had some time to think and did not want the staggered cabinets, I wanted prices for cabinets to go all the way to the ceiling, and I did not want that 45 degree upper cabinet. I told him either the blind corner cabinet or the 2 cabinet that meet with a false bottom (either is ok with me, cheaper is better).

I should be clear. This is my only choice of Kds. My builder uses this guy for all his custom work. As I mentioned above, they are giving us a very generous allwoance on our kitchen cabinets, at the wholesale price from this guy. I think I was just overwhelmed when I was there that I just kept finding myself saying "oh, ok, whatever" (secretly thinking when I see the drawings I'd have to have him change them). So, that is why I sent him the email. I did not want him to waste his time drawing up something that I would end up rejecting anyway.

I did point out to him in my email that our taste is really more about clean lines, an a contemporary look, rather than the usual country/Amish look that is so popular there.

Thans for all your encouragement. I'm sure I'll flip when I see the cost of the cabinets going all the way up to the ceiling. But, I think in the long run it will be worth it.

Happy Thanksgiving!
Bee

I am curious to hear everybody's thoughts on doing a built-up molding. I have 105" ceilings. Originally, I wanted to do stacked cabinets (glass on top) but our budget doesn't allow it. if I do 42" cabinets, I am left with 9" to the ceiling. Is 9" to much to do a stacked molding? Maybe something like this?

or something simple, like this?

[contemporary kitchen design[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/contemporary-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2103) by new york media and blogs Vendome Press

What would you all suggest? FWIW I am another one going with an off-white, shaker kitchen.

westtoeast - It's best to start a new thread with your question at the top so you can get answers specific to your kitchen.

sorry to have to imbed the links instead of actual pics, but i am short on time (taking kiddos to a movie!)

my original thought on varied height is "eehh..." but, then i as i was reading through all the posts, i started to recall some of the beautiful finished kitchens here on GW, thought maybe you could look at them and see what you think?

this is the one that came to my mind immediately.....
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0909203329143.html

this is one i saw as i was hunting for the above kitchen....
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0123044014248.html

I know you said higher corner cabs, but hopefully this is somewhat of a visual for you

Happy Thanksgiving !!

Our custom cabinets with 9' ceiling. Cabs will be 48" with 6" panel between cab and large crown.