My kitchen is still not complete (ugh), but the wall with my range hood in this pic. is about 11'4", and the height of the pitched ceiling over the sink area is 13'. Sorry, the only pic I have of the window wall is before we completed cabinet install. Never mind the super ugly pendant light.

Also, we will have 9" crown molding on top of the wall cabinets which will help a little, but will still not be near the height of the top of the range hood. Light rail and backsplash still to come (ignore the plexiglass! )

We could not budget for stacked cabinets and honestly, I don't have anything on the top shelves of the ones I have because I can't reach them. But, aesthetically, it would have looked much better with stacked.

I think if I could have budgeted for stacked, I would have done shorter glass door lighted display cabinets above the solid door tall wall cabinets.

Also, the only reason the hood is so tall is because we had to get it that high to vent above the laundry room ceiling behind the range hood. Hopefully you won't have to have a situation like that which really makes it out of proportion.

designsaavy, what brand range do you have?

Dreamhouse, Sorry about hijacking the thread to ask the range question.

Have you explored a soffet look? That might eliminate the dead space between cabinet and ceiling in a way that you would like.

We have thought about a soffit. I just worry that a 2 foot soffit will look strange and I can't seem to find any example pictures. Our builder said he can build one.

Aries61, it's an NXR. Love it. If you want specifics about it, you can search the forum because there have been a couple threads.

Dreamhouse, if you don't mind not completing the kitchen all at once, can you do the top set of double stack cabinets later when you can budget them? Do the lowers now and when you can, do the uppers, crown molding and the end panels of the cabinets to cover the sides of both. I'm sure not an expert, but the only issue I can see right now with that is a paint or stain color being off because of not buying them at the same time. And, of course, living with an unfinished kitchen. :-(

Perhaps do the stacked and leave something else out of your remodel that can be done later (my armoire could possibly be a temporary solution for a couple years until I have funds to do cabinetry there).

Someone that knows more than I can give some more details about that, but just thought I would throw it out there.

I believe it's Scrappy here on gardenweb that had a similar situation with a soffit. If you search for her beautiful kitchen you can see how they completed it.

That's pretty, Eam.

Thank you everyone! Theoretically, it will be in our mortgage, so I can do it now. However, it is just trying to decide if the $6000 extra is worth it. I have tried looking for "Scrappy" user but can't find anyone with any posts. Please link it if you are able to find it. I'd love to see it!

For some reason, I can't link to it. Searching from within gardenweb doesn't always work so well. Do a Google search for "Scrappy Finished Kitchen Gardenweb".

Her final reveal, part 4, will link back to the beginning of her demo/remodel.

I'd want the cabinets to go to the ceiling. Can you cut the money in some other way? I think the soffit idea is good, but here are a couple more:

- Eliminate glass fronts? They're very expensive because they require that the inside of the cabinet be finished. Mirrored fronts are much less expensive and give a similar look, especially if they're up high.

- Are you going with painted cabinets? Stained are cheaper.

- Are you planning any expensive pull-out type cabinets? Would you forego them to have the uppers?
- Could you eliminate a couple cabinets and in favor of a simple /less expensive doored pantry?

- What appliances are you using? Could you downsize to a single oven or skip a prep sink to make the cabinets happen?

- Can you cut something in another area of the house so you can get the cabinets you want?

If the upper cabinets are something you want, think long and hard about compromises and decide whether it's worth it and what you're willing to trade. No one gets everything he or she wants in a build.

Thank you everyone! Theoretically, it will be in our mortgage, so I can do it now. However, it is just trying to decide if the $6000 extra is worth it. I have tried looking for "Scrappy" user but can't find anyone with any posts. Please link it if you are able to find it. I'd love to see it!

Be careful of rolling things into your mortgage; keep in mind that by the time you pay interest over time, you end up paying 2-3 Xs the original cost.

Scrappy's kitchen is so well done! My new kitchen will have a very similar layout, and I'd be thrilled if it came out similar to hers -- her reveal is divided into four parts, so it'll take you some time to study it all, but you won't be sorry:

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2817830/scrappy25-renovation-part-1-layout-evolution-and-cabinets

Thank you everyone! It is a new build, so unfortunately, everything is being rolled into a mortgage! ;)

Mpagmom did 54" cabinets, a fascia board and molding to get to 10 ft. How big is your kitchen and is it open to other areas. Going 10 ft in a small enclosed kitchen could be overwhelming - in a larger kitchen, I'd go to the ceiling in a heartbeat. My kitchen is 9 ft but I couldn't wait to get rid of the soffets.

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2676024/10ft-ceilings-run-cabinets-all-the-way-to-ceiling

It is very open. One 215" wall of cabinets/counter space and an island.

Do a Houzz search on soffits and look at the newly-constructed kitchens. They look pretty darn nice. They're nothing like the standard L shaped kitchen with the 30" oak cabinets built in the 80s.

There are some really beautiful examples of soffits. If we go the soffit route, we will trim it out and paint it the same color as the cabinets. I have a question for all of you though. Right now, we have some walls and soffits dividing the space. The soffits are 24" tall (so they coordinate with the 8 foot doors). Here is the current plan (soffits are between the small walls between kitchen and great room and hallway/foyer and great room):

If we do the soffits in the kitchen, should we add the following walls and soffits to make it look more uniform:

A quick thank you to designsaavy for letting me know what kind of range she had.

Now, back to the original topic.

We didn't go to the ceilings in our 10-ft kitchen but it wasn't due to budget. This was the look we wanted. We didn't want soffits, either.

We have 10' ceilings and I didn't want to spend extra thousands for stacked cabinets that I could neither reach nor would likely use (I could've talked DH into anything). Ours was a reno, and we've always had cabinets that go up only ~ 96", finished off with simple crown molding. I just couldn't justify the cost.

Sorry I can't send any full pics right now, but kitchen is an absolute train wreck and is still 'down'. Here are a couple of 'in process' views:

This is the opposite wall on the other side of the island/kitchen, where the fridge and ovens are in recessed spaces -- crown molding ends at 96". So, perhaps this works in our kitchen since there's balance.

When I was designing my kitchen, my KD told me this. In some of the kitchens she designed, to save money on cabinets that the home owner wanted to go all the way to the ceiling they had the carpenter just build boxes (frames really) and then only ordered the door to match the real cabinets and attached it to the box frame. This was done for the cabinet that would be up against the ceiling. She said you could not tell the difference and was much cheaper.

I was thinking about something like that zorroslw1. We had planned to do inset cabinetry (which is actually cheaper than the full overlay right now with a promo they are running), so I don't know if it would work or not.