Not sure where your micro is, but if an OTR micro is above your range, you won't be able to reach it for use if you set it 6 inches higher.

I can't tell from the plan where your ceiling is. Do you have just the 6" or more? How big is your room? Since the bottom edge of the cabinets is staggered in height, I'm not sure you'll gain much by staggering the tops, especially if you don't have a ways to stand back and contemplate the tops.

I don't know what your decorating scheme is like either, but my first instinct, if there's room, to both soften and liven, and alter the straight line across, would be to add some plants on top, and maybe some decorative baskets. That would visually stagger the heights without making it a permanent feature.

One of the things that makes it look so plain is that there's no stove, no fridge, no food and no people. By the time you add all the kitchen stuff and activity the wall will be plenty interesting!

Staggering cabinets will definitely make your 'cabinet line' more interesting and appealing. Staggering is ideally done over an over or cooktop or sink, and multiple staggers can be an effective design technique. Simply using the same length cabinets set 12', 15' or 18' (sometimes even 24') will give you the desired effects. For more info, feel free to contact me through www.highqualitycabinest.com and I can send you some examples. Good luck!

Stan Wilcox, Designer
www.highqualitycabinets.com

Here is a link that might be useful: High Quality Cabinets Design Studio

Personally, I only like staggered cabinets if there is an obvious place that calls for it...like over a large, focal point range or something key like that. I'm not one who is all about symmetry, but also think varying the heights looks better with it. A lot of times people who stagger the height will also vary the depth, making the higher cabinets deeper, so they stand proud of the adjacent cabs.

I think if the space is too small or not of a certain style, varying the heights tends to make the room look too busy. I really like the lines you have going in this view and don't see a really good place to vary the ht. It might help if we knew which cabinet would have the microwave, so we could understand your vision.

If you don't also staggar the depth of the cabinets at the same time you do the height, you run into problems with moldings and end up with funky "returns" rather than the moldings just running into the adjacent cabinets. In your case, I'd have the pantry cabinet on the end, the fridge cabinet, and the over the range cabinet (make it 15" deep) be both higher and deeper than the adjacent cabinetry. If your ceiling height is 96", I'd use 90" as the top alignment height of the tall cabinets (with 6" of molding to the ceiling) and the two shorter cabinets next to the range would be 30" high and the standard 12" deep. You do get into quite a bit more money with this look, and the $$ difference may not be worth it to you.

Let's see if I can explain this well. I have 9 foot ceilings and the kitchen is located within a large great room. There is a u shaped island then the above diagram of cabinets on the wall behind. The microwave is a vent hood combo right above the stove located in the center of the design. Beside each is 36x43 inch cabinets. The fridge is a regular depth but they will build out a cabinet to enclose it with the dimenision of 39x24x24. On the far right is the pantry that is 24x96x24.

Hope I explained that okay. The idea of making the 36 inch cabinets flanking both sides of the microwave a different depth or length might work. Any ideas?

If cabinets flanking micro/hood are deeper you may not be able to open micro door enough to get a cookie sheet, or racks out.

But, I don't think that is even allowed. Per my GE OTR conv/micro/hood instructions, 12"/13" are the min/max range depths of side cabs when this oven is installed over a range.

BRILLIANT on my way earlier post, I was...NOT!

Duh...raising the entire micro oven and cab by 6 inches to achieve a staggered look...when of course getting a taller cabinet would do. Sorry, I didn't get my mid morning nap.

Well, with a large great room you have the visual space to make staggered cabinets work well. (Somehow the picture was making me think small kitchen.) In that case, I'd suggest increasing the height of the three center cabinets together, and leaving the fridge and pantry at the lower height. That way they frame the kitchen and the cooking center gains visual importance. Since the fridge and pantry are shown deeper than the other cabinets, this would also solve the problems mentioned above by Live Wire Oak and Teedup1...I think :)

Raising the center cabinets' height will cause issues with the crown on the fridge and pantry. The return section of the crown, that goes down the R side of the fridge (and L side of the pantry) will hit the door of the center section square on. To not mess up the crown, any cabinets that are higher also need to be deeper.

I wouldn NOT want to make the cooking center such a focal point with an OTR microwave there. It just doesn't look appropriate. I'm not a fan of OTR micros in general, as they are ineffective and a safety hazard. Is there some place else for the MW so that you can have a real hood? You are venting externally at least, aren't you?

With 9' ceilings, you can use 96" as your upper alignment height with a substantial crown molding and still have room for the staggared height and depth with a display space above all of the cabinets. For your fridge "box", if you are using a regular depth fridge and not counter depth, use blocking to have them pull the over the fridge cabinet out by at least 6" and order extra deep side panels and trim it out to really and fully conceal the sides of the fridge. If you don't do this, you'll have 6" or more of the side of your fridge exposed outside of the box, which really defeats the purpose of creating it in the first place. Be sure to work with your designer about the proper support of such a large cabinet if you don't have a wall next to the fridge with which to attach the cabinet to.

I have staggered-height cabs and I love the look. But I have to agree with others that said raising the microwave and making it a focal point would not look good. The fridge and pantry can definitely be raised and made deeper, and would look good - generally staggered cabs look better when there's a reason some cabs to be higher and deeper, such as a fridge, hood, or pantry.

See if you can figure out somewhere else to put the microwave, and get a real vent hood instead, then raise that cabinet up to make it a focal point.

Also, other posters are right when they said the raised cabs need to be deeper for the cleanest look. I also have a stacked molding on the taller cabs so the molding itself is larger as well.

Hi thanks for all the ideas and responses.

I appreciate you confirming that I thought out the fridge box correctly. The builder has to make a fridge box for us because of everything mentioned. We have a 2' wall on the side of the fridge to help with support. I hope that is enough.

All the electrical is in and I couldn't find a place to move the microwave to. I had thought of changing the pantry part to microwave/pantry combo but I am hesitant because I have had alot of issues with electrical and lighting placement. Kind of choose my battles type of thing. I am 90% sure we are going with the GE Cafe line and the microwave within that line is only available as above the range anyway so dh was incredulous when I mentioned it.

If I am understanding all the recommendations correctly I can make all the middle cabinets between the pantry and fridge shorter that will give me the visual interest I am looking for with the molding tips mentioned. Or should I just call it a done deal and play with door styles.

Ooops! I got the ins and outs backwards, but then the drawing doesn't show a crown return on the fridge area :) But to be clear, I wasn't advocating raising the microwave itself, but raising the top of the cabinet over it.

Xoxosmom, another thing you could do, if you're going to make the end units the tall ones, is take them up to the ceiling and put crown molding across the whole run at ceiling height. I don't know how that would look in your room, if you want to maximize the impact of the kitchen area, or if you want to keep it on a more human level. If you went for the drama with the molding, you could also put a board behind it with puck lights in it and some interesting things on top of the center cabinets. Or you could leave off the lower crown, and instead put stained glass framed into the space. Hm... Never mind. Those options would probably lessen the stagger, so I guess that's not the look you're going for.