Help with kitchen cabinet design with very tall vaulted ceilings!

last year

last modified: last year

Hi everyone, looking for input on how to achieve a nice look with kitchen cabinets with a very tall vaulted ceiling in this "modern mountain" designed home (note: the cabinets will not have glass and the colors and counters will be totally different colors than those rendered here).

I don't want to do open shelving, and am looking for some design element that can soften the straight line created by the top of the cabinets with the big wall above it. Any ideas?

Perhaps a shelf or two above the cabinets with art on them? Or just leave it as is (a big wall)? I also attached the relevant section of the floorplan in case that is helpful. Thank you in advance!

Featured Answer

acm

last year

It's ok to have your functional (and even decorative) elements down at human scale, and leave the heights for the eye to travel. No high paintings in living rooms, no soaring cabinets (or giraffe hoods) in kitchens. It's not odd, it's functional. Otherwise, build the kitchen in a lower portion of the house; many prefer that.

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Comments (15)

Chris
last year
Hi. Fun space. I’d consider taking the cabinets up a bit with another layer of uppers to start with. Have you looked on Pinterest for kitchen cabinets and high ceilings? There’s a lot of nice ideas on there.
Kyle Allred thanked Chris
chispa
last year
What is the point of the high ceilings when you then design the space as if it had 9 ft ceilings? High ceilings can be great, but you have to design the elements to have some connection to the high ceilings.

This is a unique kitchen, but look at the scale/height of the windows and the size of the hood. Those things make the tall ceilings relate to some of the elements in the space.
Kitchens · More Info

This space would not have felt the same with a standard sized window over the sink.
Greene Residence · More Info

Again here, the windows and hood make use of the high ceilings in this kitchen.
Inset - Clear Select Walnut · More Info

Inset - Clear Select Walnut · More Info

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The Cliffs at Mountain Park: Private Residence · More Info
Kyle Allred thanked chispa
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User
last year
Lower the ceiling. Or triple your cabinet budget. And your utilities budget. And your window and doors budget. And just about every other budget.
likestonehomes
last year
We have a similar dilema, in our recently purchased home (built 1985)
cpartist
last year
Those are very high ceilings for what is basically a small kitchen dining area at 15'6". Normally I'd agree with Chispa on bringing the elements up but in this case, I would consider something to make the kitchen more human scale. What I did was do a "picture rail at the 8' height throughout my house. Maybe something like that in your kitchen?

Additionally you really don't have enough room between your seating and your island.

It shows you have about 89". Am I seeing it right? Banquet seating requires a minimum of 18" for seating and assuming you have a 36" table, that only allows for 35" between the kitchen table and island. That's not enough room for chairs on the opposite side of the banquet and have walking room
Kyle Allred thanked cpartist
Kyle Allred
Original Author
last year
Thank you for the comments! I really like the ideas of a range hood that extends higher than the cabinets to break up the straight line they create, and also the picture rail at 8' height or so. Wondering how a picture rail will tie with the tops of my cabinets. Your picture looks really nice with the subway tile below the nice and wide rail
Kyle Allred
Original Author
last year
The rest of the kitchen is pretty much windows, but maybe I could tie in a picture trim between the windows and the tops of the cabinets
cpartist
last year
What about my comments on the size of the banquet versus your floor space?
cpartist
last year
Here is another picture of my picture rail and how it ties in with my windows.
Kyle Allred
Original Author
last year
@cpartist Thanks! Also thank you for the comment about the dining area. It will be tight, but thinking 22 inches for the built-in bench with a 36-inch table that overhangs the built-in bench by 5 inches. So that is a grand total of 53 inches and the whole width of the space is 89 inches - that leaves 36 inches for the opposite side of table. When chairs are in use, yes - there won't really be a walking space behind them. Maybe I could make the eating bar 24" wide rather than the current 28 inches wide to help?
cpartist
last year
Are you saying you plan to have seats at the island?
Kyle Allred
Original Author
last year
last modified: last year
@cpartist That wasn't what I was referring to, but, yes there will be stools that tuck under the island similar to this picture:

But even with these chairs tucked in and the dining chairs tucked in, there will only be 36 inches between the table and the kitchen island - so it's a bit tight
cpartist
last year
Not possible.

How far along are you with this house because your measurements are off for anything that will work well long term. 36" with stools and chairs bumping into one another is nowhere enough and if your island is only 28" deep you have no room to "tuck" stools under since cabinets are 24" deep.

I wouldn't consider anything less than 4' and that's pushing it.

I hope you are still at the stage where you can make meaningful changes.
Kyle Allred
Original Author
last year
@cpartist Thank you for the feedback, the foundation is getting poured this week so definitely still at the stage where I can make changes. If you look at the picture I sent (just a rough example), the stools will have their own space (absent of cabinets) to tuck under the kitchen bar:

The stools section of the island will also be offset from where the dining room table is by a bit so hopefully there is minimal bumping. I agree 4' would be better, but not sure how to make that work with footprint limitations.