I have 42/15 with a 10 foot ceiling, and I don't think 36 would look too tall at all. I wouldn't do upper cabionets less than 15 -- you find that once you take out the box itself, some of the things you would like to display either won't fit or barely fit and you can't raise them so that you only see them for about the top 1/2-2/3.

Wow I really appreciate all of your input. I have been stalking this site for good ideas and here they are, thank you. My KD did a plan for standard sizes and it went with stacked cabinets but I really want custom so I am going to get some bids, we'll see... elizabeth, thank you, this is what my kd had in mind so I might en up doing this, it looks great romy I saw you posted this previously, i am using it as an example, thank you Sooner- we have the same kitchen! This is such an inspiration. I now know you really can go to the ceiling. kompy- I love the one box and smaller hardware on top, maybe this is what I should do, hmmm I will try to attach my kitchen plan and inspiration pics.

I'm going through the same thing right now. In my humble opinion, with 9' ceilings and 6' 8" doors you do not want to line the windows up with the doors. No older home designed by a real craftsman ever did that. The windows were always higher. I've been in many older houses with high ceiling and the windows are always higher than the doors and it looks great. I was also just recently in a newer build McMansion type house with 9' ceiling and the windows were all at 6'8". This was the first time I had ever actually seen this in person and it made this conclusion very clear to me; it looked terrible. The windows looked too low. It looked cheap and awkward. It looked like a mistake. From what I've seen, the minimun you want to go is 90". That gives you 18" top and bottom for 6' windows. I don't think you ever want there to be more space on top than on the bottom with a window. With doors it doesn't matter because they obviously always go right down to the floor. I think anywhere between 90 and 96 looks good. I'm personally trying now to decide between 90, 92 and 96.

The furniture and walls blend together to make the room feel larger than it is. It would look very different if that were, for instance, cherry or mahogany against off-white walls. I once also had a tiny square office, with a corner cut out for a closet. My husband had the wall to the right of the door, me to the left. My 4+' desk filled the little wall between the closet and the window, with printer, computer tower, and all office supplies tidily on shelves in the closet. I don't normally like to face a wall, but the outside was right there with a little glance to the right. An orange tree with honeysuckle growing through it was just outside, so close that (without screens) I could have reached out and touched the butterflies and hummers flitting around several months a year. Both were lessons I took from that little rental of things that really worked nice for me. Even including facing a wall in the right conditions. Here farther north, it's a bird bath under a small three the birds take their turns from.