I do agree that the 42 is to tall. It would be scraping the ceiling and have no room for any deviation in the full 8 ft unless you lowered them below what is standard. Here’s a pic of our 36. If you went with the 39 it would go up to the break in the two pieces. Would you like that look? It is your kitchen.

If you went with the 39 it would go up to the break in the two pieces.

I do not know what that means.

Here is a pic of @badgergal's cabinets from a few years ago that I saved because they are so beautiful. An 8' ceiling with 39" tall uppers and 3" crown.

I understand you want cabinets to go up to ceiling. That was our plan too, until we compared by temporarily installing 2 Ikea cabinets, one 40" to the ceiling, and one 30" which left a 10" gap. The 30" cabinet made our kitchen look larger, and we decided to go that way. Later we placed different souvenirs from our international travels at the top of the cabinets, and those generate a lot of conversation when we have guests.

Actually, taller cabinets make ceilings appear taller. Just like taller draperies make your ceilings appear taller. A row of 30" upper cabinets plus a gap to the ceiling creates visual horizontal blocks that make your ceiling appear lower.

We have 8 ft ceilings and our cabinets are 39". We redid our kitchen 11 years ago with Kraftmaid cabinets. I don't feel my crown is cheap looking. It's not the large and ornate crown, but I wanted something clean and more simple.

Shannon_WI I like the picture you posted! The cabinet person at Lowes said I would have to do 36". She said the 39" would only have a 3" molding and that it would look cheap. The 42" would not have any room for molding. I did see some pictures of 36" cabinets that had 6" of molding at the top. I thought it was too much. Even buying cabinets is so difficult right now. It is hard to get a design finished and ordered. Everyone is so busy!

My first comment above has disappeared, maybe because I used a word that starts with "cr". I took the word out. Here it is again:

You can do either 39" + 3" crown, or 36" tall + 3" crown. There is not enough room for 42" tall cabinets + crown, and you need a crown. I prefer 39" tall uppers and the smaller 3" crown, because crown is expensive, and adds no utility. I'd rather have the additional 3" of upper cabinet space. You think it's too small to make a difference, but it does make a difference. I also like the simpler lines of a smaller crown. I'd prefer a thicker crown be in a den or library.

What the Lowe's person said about it looking cheap is wrong. There are several reasons she may have said that. (1) plain ignorance, (2) 39" upper cabinets are found less frequently than 36" cabinets, and Lowe's may not carry 39" upper cabinets, and (3) crown is expensive, and 6" crown will cost much more and so she has financial incentive.

There have been so many posts on this forum about bad installations from Lowe's. I would go elsewhere. I mean it. The number of complaints here about Lowe's is pretty bad.

The break i was talking about is line between the two pieces of crown in photo. Using standard measurements there would be three inches left for crown with 39 cabinets. If thats what op wants its fine I just wanted to show what it would look like in an 8 ft kitchen. The crown looks like more than 3 inches in your example but dropping the wall cabinets lower than the standard 18 inches above base would give more room up high.

@andyscott I really do not want space above the cabinet. I think 36 or 39" would be better. I am not sure which.

@mojavemaria I think yours does look good with the two types of molding. Is that 6" above your cabinet?

Go with 39". The crown we got came from the cabinet company and doesn't look too small at all. typical crown doesn't go straight up, but at an angle, so 3" is enough to show some nice presence.

Elain, are you looking to add crown that is more traditional like this, or a straight stacked crown like Shannon posted?

I have ceilings that are 8'3". Currently, I'm going with 39" cabinets with at least a 3" space for crown, or maybe a 42" cabinet with a 3" crown. The 3D renderings were done with an assumption of 8' ceilings and showed 39" cabinets and a 3" crown. The shaker-style cabinets I chose look just great with the simpler 3" crown. I don't want a fancier crown in this craftsman home.

Until the walls and ceilings are in place, I don't know which way I'll go. The house is 100 years old- it could be that I have enough of a ceiling height difference across the room that I can't do 42" cabinets and will instead have a flat trim piece to make up some difference with the 3" crown on top of that.

39" ones are just fine for that ceiling height, unless you like super fancy crown pieces!

@Amy Lynn thank you! I really don't think people stare at the top anyway. I think I can live with 3" trim. I hope one of the pros will give their opinion.

@Amy Lynn I like both of them. I am doing plain white shaker cabinets. I am just ready to get it finished!

Ok I measured my crown and it is between 5 and 5 3/4inches which means if we had gone with 39 cabs it would be 2 - 2 3/4. we did put our base cabinets level with finished floor which raised everything 3/4 inch and ceilings are not perfectly flat. I don't think there is one right way but it might help you to draw the plan out to scale with careful measurements. I stood our crown straight up with another piece behind which is why it looks the way it does.

You can also have your uppers a couple inches closer to the countertop than is standard.

But if you do that^^, you may not be able to fit coffee maker, mixer, paper towel holder, or anything that is taller than 15-16”. It also can give a cramped look to the space between the countertop and the bottom of the upper cabinets. I do not recommend shortening that space from the standard 18” distance as a sacrifice in order to get a thicker crown. The exchange is not worth it.

I don't think a typical kitchen with 8 foot ceilings needs 6" of crown, unless the entire house has 6" of crown. Why should the detail of the kitchen be more elaborate than the rest of the house? I think the Lowes salesperson wants to sell mouldings.

We went with 36” cabinets that have 3” crown . I wanted to allow space under the cabinets for a large mixer. Still allows for lots of storage space.

@Judy White How many inches do you have from the countertop to the bottom of the cabinet? Do you have 8ft to ceiling as well? After seeing these pictures I really only want 3" of crown moulding. I like the simple look.I definitely do not want 6" above the cabinets!

I do have 8’ ceilings. I have 24” below the cabinet, which is what I requested. But, no space above the cabinet. It goes to the ceiling. I do really like the 3” molding.

I have 8’ ceilings. I belive crown is 3” Ill have to measure tomorrow.

Lowes isnt the only retailer/designer to carry KraftMaid.

Double check that your ceiling is straight. sometimes an uneven ceiling needs to be compensated for.

@Becky H I love your kitchen!! I would like to know the crown height! Thank you!

@tdemonti I never thought about checking the ceiling to make sure it is straight! Thank you! I will do that before I order the cabinets! Other places to buy Kraftmaid?

Don’t lower the uppers! Our current rental has 7’6” ceilings, and the uppers start ~18” above the counters. Coffee maker, mixer, blender etc., do not fit under. Very annoying. They also wasted a ton of what would have been useful space on crown molding.

@Elaine _M I mention other Kraftmaid suppliers for comparison and know of 3 within a 10 minute drive from my house.

@tdemonti Thank you very much!! I found one about 30 miles from me. I am checking with them next week.