Posting to follow as I have the exact same question. I am leaning towards stacked.

I have 9' ceilings with a stacked cabinet and molding. I'm happy with how it looks. I don't think the uppers look too small.

The stacked cabinets are both a nicer look and more practical because if you instead do 42” cabinets alone, that means you’ll need 12” of crown molding if you want to reach the ceiling. That much crown molding will be very expensive, may give more of a library-cabinet look in your kitchen, and you’ll forego the storage of an upper stack. IMO you don’t want to have a cabinet door taller than 42” because it may lead to the door racking.

Sure, you’ll need a step stool for the upper stack, but it’s a great place to store little used items like holiday things which nevertheless need a place to go.

With 9’ ceilings, a frequently-seen combination is 36” tall uppers + 15” tall stack on top of that, + 3” crown. But you can do different combinations of those. Remember to allow 36” from floor to countertop + 18” from countertop to bottom of upper cabinets.

Here are a couple of pics of uppers with 9 foot ceilings. Sorry about top of one pic getting cut off as these pics were taken for another purpose. We chose to vary the heights of the stacked cabinets to make them more visually appealing. Also varied the fronts of the uppers using glass and solid for variation. Once you view your cabinet makers layout drawing it is easier to picture a finished product. I made several changes before I was happy with the look.

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You can also build a soffit to meet 42" cabinet plus crown.

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I vote for a soffit because 9' tall cabinets are not useful unless you are 7 feet tall. Make the soffit deep enough to put recessed lighting in the soffit like the photo in Summit Studio

Architects posting.

To me, "soffit" is a dirty word, having hated mine for 32 years. You can either have stacked cabinets or a lot of millwork above the 42" cabinet so it goes to the ceiling. the upper cabinets are useless - impossible to climb up a ladder with something in ones hands, let alone climb down. Go with whichever is cheapest but see a scale drawing (or even better, one done for someone else) before you commit.

My parents did tall cabinets with fairly generous crown molding for their to-the-9'-ceiling cabinets. Looks great and works well. Top shelf isn't reachable if you're stabding in the floor (even with us being a tall family), but it's for infrequently accessed items and my parents keep a lightweight stepladder in the kitchen broom closet, so grabbing high up things isn't a big deal.

I'll be renovating the kitchen in our old Victorian somewhat soonish. We have 9'8" ceilings, so I'm definitely doing stacked cabinets (which will go all the way to the ceiling - no soffits or dust-gathering gaps allowed). I figure the top cabinets will be for infrequently used items and such. And we'd need a taller step ladder.

Agree with Cook's Kitchen 100%

While I really like the look of stacked cabinets (especially with glass doors and good lighting in the upper cabinets), not every budget can afford an extra few $K for additional mostly decorative cabinets.

because we do not see everything, moldings, appliances, hood, all these details matter - so to answer simply is 1/3 - 2/3 basic proportions - stack them or one unit broken down into 2 doors - modern or contemporary does make a difference, have your kitchen designer guide you carefully and show you all the options in elevation if it is difficult to vision, for drawings are not as costly as building a cabinet the wrong size or better said wrong proportions - enjoy your new space !

@M E What are your countertops?

9' tall cabinets are not useful unless you are 7 feet tall.

That statement not really logical. Most women need a stepstool for anything over the 2nd shelf, and also just the back of the 2nd shelf. That is whether the cabinets are just 36" high, or whether they are stacked to meet a 9' ceiling - a stepstool is needed regardless. @Suki Kabuki - upper shelves are useful for storage especially for people who have a smaller kitchen or live in a home that does not have a garage or other spacious closet and storage space. A soffit just uses up the space that could, for many people, be valuable storage they would not have otherwise.

"the upper cabinets are useless - impossible to climb up a ladder with something in ones hands, let alone climb down."

Again, all that is needed for cabinets to a 9' ceiling is a good stepstool, while "a ladder" being quite melodramatic for what we are talking about, which is 9'. I have lived with stacked cabinets up to a 9' ceiling for 15 years, and store all kinds of stuff up there, and haul them down and bring them up with no problem. Having said that, if I were a senior citizen I could see where it would be a problem.

Rubbermaid Step Stool

Core Studio Light Slim Step Stool

What I am going to say may be popular with many, but it was a considered aesthetic decision for me, not necessarily a budget or even practical decision (although I don't really view it as impractical either). I like negative space and different depths, I just find them visually pleasing so I went with 48" and crown then open space, while DD on the other side of our duplex went with stacked. Our kitchen is bit bigger with wall to wall cabinetry along a long wall, so solid or cabinetry to the top would have been too much for me. On the other hand, DD's kitchen is smaller and doesnt take up an entire wall and floats. I think they both work.

@mojomom If you have 9' ceilings those would have to be 42" uppers.

A 48" upper plus crown would be to the ceiling.

Agree with Cook's Kitchen. My cabinets are that size. We have lighting in the upper cabinets on a dimmer. It's provides a nice, soft lighting option.

Thanks for the great advice, everyone! I saw a picture of a kitchen with 33" uppers and 15" glass cabinets stacked on top and it also seemed like a nice proportion. The accent lighting was nice too. I also realized that I have two 48" wide spaces so my (4) doors in each area are only 12" wide. So if I didn't do stacked, these could get really tall and narrow looking. So many details to consider!

Thank you Sativa, my mistake. You are correct.

missenigma the counter tops are white rhino quartzite - not quartz

This really comes down to your cabinet choice and the options available. You may not be about to get the sizes you need to go all of the way to the ceiling. The biggest mistake most people make is putting modeling up that is too small of a scale for the cabinets.

It may depend on how you feel about the space above the cabinets. Many different opinions. We had the dustcatcher last house and this time around we spent the extra for stacked. On a 9.5 ceiling I believe we did 42" and 15" uppers with a 6" crown. Main thing was we wanted the cabinets not to see short compared to the open areas. Here's a picture to give you an idea of scale.

The answer is subjective, but whatever you choose should stay consistent.

For me, I have 9' ceilings and I chose to run one continuous cabinet door up to the ceiling/crown. I didn't like an upper 12" cabinet since I'd never be able to reach it without a ladder so that feels awkward to me. I see nothing wrong with stopping the cabinets short of the ceiling, but I hate seeing plaster soffit come down to mitigate this. Either go all the way up, or stop short. And again try to stay consistent and not go up and down since that draws attention to a not-so-pretty dilemma

jesse108 I wouldn't do crown molding, and would do 30" and 24" high on top, that proportion is much better than 30 and 18 than. and doing 12, 15 or 18" high cabinets will require a ladder to get to the bottom of the cabinet (unless you are a giant). In addition if you want to maximize your storage and make the cabinet sizes more practical, 24" high on top of 30" high will provide that flexibility, bet of luck

"I wouldn't do crown molding, and would do 30" and 24" high...doing 12, 15 or 18" high cabinets will require a ladder to get to the bottom of the cabinet (unless you are a giant)"

Poor advice destined to give you trouble. First, if you forego crown molding (with a 30"/24" combination with a 9' ceiling, you have to), you are foregoing the ability to make up for a ceiling that isn't straight and level. And there are no ceilings that are perfectly straight and level, even in new construction. If you took Anthony Perez's advice and did not have crown molding, you'd have to have extremely top-notch skilled carpenters ($$$). Are you confident in your installers' ability to install cabinetry that touches the ceiling and won't have a crown molding to allow for differences in ceiling height, even 1/8"? They'd also have to know how to install the cabinetry so that the doors will open without scraping the ceiling or can lights. Again, it can be done, but adds a complexity which will add to $$$ spent and opportunity for problems.

Second, as mentioned earlier, most women will need a step stool above the second shelf regardless. Making the upper stack above a 30" cabinet won't eliminate the need for a step stool. Anthony Perez's premise of not needing a stepstool if you do a 30"/24" combination of cabinets makes no sense; you will need a step stool for the upper stack, including the bottom of the upper cabinet, no matter what.

Third, the elimination of crown molding is a certain aesthetic that may or may not fit into your decor.

following...

In construction it is a given that you will have to measure the existing space before installing anything, therefore making allowances for something that (people in the industry that know what they are doing) call Scribe molding ( this type of molding is intended to fill in the gaps from an uneven ceiling,) if you are purely concern with aesthetic, you may follow Shannon_WI advice

In addition

If you want to follow Shannon_WI recommendations on installing cabinets without scribe,as described above, you will end up with a problem. but honestly any decent mid level installer can tell you that cabinets are never install without scribe (even if you do crown molding,) this is merely a suggestion, not intended for installation purposes, for that you will need a designer and a project manager that can help you in that regard.

good luck