Your best answer will be based upon your kitchen and not an image of part of someone else's kitchen. Can you post details in drawing form that fully explains your kitchen?

What is the height of the start of the vault? Would you be able to stack cabinets rather than have one very tall cabinet? Stacking with glass doors on the upper upper cabinets might ameliorate the closed in feeling.

In that example uplights on top of the cabinets would have eliminated the shadow. The lighting overall is done very poorly there, mostly because it is affected by a vaulted ceiling.

The shadow in that photo would be eliminated if the cabinets were fitted better to the ceiling.

The upper cabinet molding can be made to touch the ceiling so there isn't a gap.

by "all the way", do you mean like what you have in the picture? or so that they literally touch the ceiling, no gap? I agree with Mark that we need to see your house before making that decision.

for example, I like how it looks in the sample photo you posted, mainly because that kitchen is pretty big. but I would not do it for my own home, even though we need the extra storage. why? I don't think it would look right with the exposed rafters or the window next to it. also, it would kill the sightline that goes off to the upper right. in our particular case, I think it would make the room closed in. but who knows, maybe your kitchen has a better layout and will look good with cabinets all the way up.

(I know our fan and cord look bad there, it's temporary.)

Mod, the cord isn't great but the fan isn't bad--it's a stylish fan and gives some interesting personality! (And yes, of course your ceiling needs to stay exposed!)

In general, I like the look of the inspiration photo. It's not a bit dark feeling, and would be even less so with white cabinets. (I don't care much about the shadows one way or another, either.) The proportions of the room are important, though.

Thanks I have a rendering of the kitchen but it's in pdf and can't figure out how to add it😊. I will print and take picture in morning to add. Appreciate the help.

a photo of a printout is not going to be very helpful. open the PDF, take a screenshot, and save it as a jpg. here's how:

windows: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/save-screen-shot-jpg-53951.html

mac: https://www.maketecheasier.com/change-screenshot-file-format-mac/

a rendering will help us advise you, but you might not be sure until the drywall is in so you can stand in the space and really get a feel for it. but I realize that can be a problem for timing. can you wait that long to design and order the cabinets?

EDIT: I don't like the windows tutorial above so I replaced the link.

What is the height of your walls (not your vault)? Are they 8 feet, 9 feet, 10 feet, etc.? 12 feet in the center isn't too much of a vault to begin with, especially depending on your room width, which then determines the slope of that vault. My master bedroom's vault is about 12'6" on top of 9 foot walls but my living room's vault is 14'9" on top of 10 foot walls.

It's pretty standard for cabinets to go to the ceiling on either 8 ft or 9 ft walls.

How tall are you?

No disrespect intended, but many of us are too short to reach the top shelf of 30" tall wall cabinets. That doesn't stop us from storing things in them...or in even taller cabinets.

"it's in pdf and can't figure out how to add it"

Don't take a photo. Use an online PDF converter. Examples:

• https://pdf2jpg.net/
• https://www.adobe.com/acrobat/online/pdf-to-jpg.html

I updated with pics and some info above. Thanks for help again.

With your new photos, I would definitely go to the ceiling with the cabinets and molding. It will also give you better sized high cabinets which are more useful than the short ones.