Martina Collom Design oh that’s such a relief! Would you mind posting a photo of your home from the inside? I started second guessing it all this morning! I can’t decide if I want to do 6’ windows or 5.75’ windows! So many decisions. We are planning for all of our doors to be 7’, that’s why I might be leaning towards the 5.75’ doors. Because if we do 6’ windows and 7’ doors, our windows are only 1’ off the ground. I think that it may look a little funky. Idk. I’m not too worried about the added cost of safety glass. We are building a small house and so it only adds about $400 to the overall build cost.

We did it there because the original cabinets were above the window. (There was a water event from above that damaged them.) We tried to make it look as though these could also be original. For yours, I think your uppers need to be a bit taller for better proportion. We tried to use overscale elements wherever possible because the ceiling was so tall. The existing cove molding was huge too! The section that had to be replaced because of damage had to be custom created. This may be repeating some of the above. ,If so I apologize. I also would have the short uppers go all the way around the room, as a single horizontal design element. Your mantle area needs work as it isn’t deep enough to be functional as a capture area. Not enough drawers, and the island protruding past the perimeter would be a no go for me. The longest that a slab of stone that’s available is right around 9’. Work within that limitation.

so, you'll have 51" of open space above them. you can put some baskets or boxes on top for infrequently used items. or wall mounted shelves if you need storage to go all the way up. this might look cluttered though. I found this article on what to do with PAX and high ceilings. my favorite advice: find matching drawer cabinets and install the PAX on top of them. they don't have to stick out like this, but if they did, one could sit there while getting dressed. I think the drawers don't have to match exactly, you could find something that coordinates with the look. such as wood drawers with a white wardrobe. similar idea: mount kitchen cabinets above. (wall mounted, don't rest them on the wardrobe, it would be too heavy.) an other idea from that article was to buy another PAX, cut it down to the right height, and install that above the first one. it's interesting, but I'd worry about structural integrity, especially if somebody put a really heavy load in the top. would not recommend that unless you had a handy friend who could help engineer this hack safely.

If you have time A L0108 can you take one more photo that is from a little further back so it’s a little wider for context? I think our layouts are similar in that we also have a hallway with a lower ceiling height right next to the built-ins and I’m wondering if I should only do the built-in up to that height. Our great room with center fireplace is 12’ like yours, the hallway adjacent to it is 9’.