In my initial kitchen dreams, I had stacked cabinets for my 9 foot ceiling. Then, after talking with one of the designers at Crownpoint, they advised Casey's idea (one cabinet box, two doors to make it look like stacked, with glass in the top door). They advised that to save on the cost of the materials--because if you have real stacked cabinets, you've got two full "boxes", and a double width at the bottom of the upper cabinet (its bottom panel and the top panel of the one it is above). Then, I ended up not going with Crownpoint, and with a local KD. My KD recommended not doing the cabinets to the ceiling because of doug_gb's point about not really using them without a ladder, and because she didn't think 12" above was a usable height for storage. I dislike soffits, so the final design ended up to have 39 inch upper cabinets, an open space above, with rope lights to cast a glow on the ceiling. My husband loved that idea, so it was easy for me to say sure, and not have to argue with the KD about the tall cabinets. (My DH has been so good about giving in on other things I wanted, that I'm trying to pick my battles. :-) My cabinets aren't in yet, so I can't see if I'm going to miss my original dream of the stacked cabinet look. I still love it in pictures though. My advice is if you love the look, go with Casey's idea. If you don't, consider putting rope lights above for the glow.

If you go to the ceiling with all the cabs you can also create visual interest by choosing which cabs to put glass in and which not to. You can then use some of the non-glass uppers to store trays and platters. How tall are you? I'm 5'8" and can reach the vertical tray storage and the first row platter storage flat-footed, and the 2nd row platters on tiptoe. Since the fridge/pantry cabs aren't recessed back over a countertop like regular uppers they're a lot more accessible. So depending on your height you may be able to reach your over-fridge/pantry uppers without a step stool (unlike regular over-cab uppers which are generally a little higher plus set back).

We went all the way up with a cabinet and 9 foot ceilings but the stuff on that top shelf is hard to access, although GREAT storage for things that I only drag out on Christmas or BIG parties. I love the drawing. I guess it depends on if you have something you want to display up there. Open shelf, often means DUST though. I know that I am constantly dusting the open shelves in our kitchen where we have cookbooks. Here is a thought - do you want a TV in the kitchen, because when I first saw your drawing, it screamed flat screen TV at me! Seriously. Well, assuming its location is good for viewing from somewhere.

9' ceilings are ideal for a kitchen though a kitchen in a taller ceiling looks elegant if properly configured. I see a lot of homes with a 9' dropped kitchen ceilings where the great/living room is 12' or higher. We have a 12' ceilings, thank the stars I dropped it down from my original 22' ceiling design. Soffits can be challenging yet I have 30" soffits above one piece 60" wall cabinets 42" wall + 18" wall uppers (except over windows) . The way I designed it, particularly the soffits, leaves little margin for error although everything looks good dimensionally speaking. Allowing 7/8" for tile flooring, our wall cabinets will be 18 5/8" above countertops. We are several weeks away from cabinets install, hence far from done. Sorry only have renderings for our 12'.