holligator I love the kitchen! Thank you everyone for your responses. The issue of "stacked=busy/limiting" really ate away at me over the weekend. So I did some more research..... Over the weekend I looked at more pictures and nearly googled myself to death looking for ideas. Finally I called the KD and asked him to re-design the uppers using 42" cabinets - the maximum for that manufacturer. This means now they will not be flush with the ceiling. My motivation is that I think 42" cabinets are more useful than 30s topped with 15s. As my mother says, if you don't see it often enough when you look in your cabinet, you'll forget it's there, and then what's the point in having it? Anyway, after I got the drawings, I colored them in like I did with the originals, then passed them around looking for critiques (Mom, DH, and an independent KD). In a nutshell, the 42" cabinets won out. It's simpler, cleaner, and I think gives me more accessible space. It's also several $K less. So what I will have is a to-ceiling corner pantry. Over the fridge and wall ovens (on either side of the pantry) will be "nooks" for putting some decorative things (vase, whatnot) which will reach to the ceiling. The trouble is that for the rest of the upper cabinet run, there will be 9" from the top of the cabinet to the ceiling. No matter what, I will be putting lighting up there (up-lighting). My choices for finishing that area are: 1. Leave it alone with a gap to the ceiling. 2. Build a Soffit down to the cab tops but have it recede (not flush with the front of the cabs - to leave room for the up-lights)This is definitely not my favorite choice since that would be a change order and the drywall is up. 3. Build a decorative wood trim piece in the same dark espresso stain as the cabinets, with geometric cut-outs to allow light to shine though - any handy wood-worker, or I/DH for that matter, should be able to come up with something to prop up there/snap in place so we still have access to the lights. Any other ideas or thoughts on what I'm trying to do? I like my #3 idea because it's different, but not too busy. I'd love to hear other ideas or even "noooo don't do that because xyz!" if it keeps me out of trouble.

Breezy: It does help; I think I understand but let me check. Are your cabs face-frame? If so, then I think your cabinet maker is saying he plans to attach trim (crown molding?) to the face frame, attaching it about 1" above the doors? And that the top of the door would be about 4" below the ceiling? Thanks! A_D

I have stacked uppers and love the look of it. We have just about 9' ceilings. From the bottom of the cabinet to the ceiling is 52". The door (not including frame) on the lower is 28" and the upper door is 12" - the rest is taken up by the frame and molding. Here is a pic (taken before kitchen was fully done): To the far right of this picture is our stacked upper that comes down to the countertop, but doesn't go all the way to the ceiling like the others. This is where we store our dishes and silverware so we were going for a hutch type effect, and this works well given the proximity of this cabinet to the DW and the table. here is a pic of Woodmode cabinets with stacked uppers and with glass doors and lighting in the upper cabinets. I have to say that I did not like the light seeping out around the edges of those upper doors (the issue is not apparent from the photo I am posting). Perhaps this is better pulled off with full overlay cabinets vs. inset?? or maybe this just bothers me??

There was just a thread on this a few days ago - I've linked it below in case you didn't see it. Following their rule of thumb, if you have 56" total for the two cabinets the upper should be should be about 18", but you can do whatever you think looks good. I have 60" total in my kitchen, so mine should 40" and 20". We aren't using custom cabinets, so the closest standard cabinets would be 42" and 18". I don't like that look, so I'm going 36" and 24". Also, I like about 12" between shelves, so that allows me a shelf spacing I'll like. Here is a link that might be useful: Stacked cabinet link