I don't think I'd go higher than 9, but maybe someone will have amazing pictures. Our house was built in 1970 and has 8ft ceilings, and our builder couldn't believe we didn't want huge ceilings in our new kitchen/family room addition. I didn't want it to look jarringly different from the rest of the house. I'm very happy with our decision now that the addition is finished. Everything blends perfectly.

While I love taller ceilings, I agree you need to keep it in proportion to the rest of your house. I would probably do 9 feet. It would add a nice wow factor without being totally disconnected from the rest of the house.

I do have 10 feet in my kitchen but the Great Room is 14 feet. My upstairs is all 9 feet.

By the way, my upper cabinets NEVER get used. They are only for looks as they are way too high to reach anything. I still like them but they are not functional at all.

9 foot ceilings is a good compromise. I predict that you'll come to love the added height. It'll be a breath of fresh air, especially if you're living with not-quite-7' ceilings right now.

My downstairs has 9 foot ceilings, except a little less than 8 feet in the kitchen (where we are planning to tear out the dropped ceiling to regain the height). I don't think 10 feet would be so weird (especially in a big room) but 9 feet is still pretty generous and wouldn't be too jarring compared to the other rooms.

Borngrace, your situation sounds very similar to ours. Our addition only has 8ft ceilings, except for the game room which has vaulted ceilings that follow the roof line and the kitchen which has 7'7" ceilings due to a 2nd floor bath over one end of it. The neighboring rooms (circa 1775 and 1790) have 7'3" and 8ft ceilings. If our design had permitted a non-flat ceiling in the kitchen we would have let the roof rafters determine the ceiling height, because that wouldn't have seemed inappropriate in an historic sense, especially in a "utility" room like a kitchen.

I agree that having a flat ceiling jump up in height significantly compared to the surrounding rooms could be jarring. How is the 20 x 23 space laid out? If it's just one big open space, then 8ft ceilings might feel low, though I have a hard time imagining 9ft feeling low. If it's visually divided into 2 or more areas, 8ft ceilings will probably feel plenty high in the context of your house. Does your architect have a lot of experience in additions to historic houses? If you're wanting the kitchen to feel like a room that could have always been there and just happens to work out nicely for modern living, there will be more than just the ceiling height that will impact that.

The cabinets themselves can be designed to look nice with any ceiling height, but there's a limit to what they can do to minimize the soaring feeling of a 12ft ceiling when you step in from a room with a 7ft ceiling.

Here is the layout as of yesterday -- I'm going to post a separate post asking for suggestions for next meeting - some things just don't work.

The 23(ish) is to the back of the range wall and does not include the pantry space which is an additional 8 feet.

Architects have a lot of experience with historic houses although the one we met with yesterday is not our primary person and so the comment about the high ceilings may be his idea and not the main architect's.

I would go at least 9'. We have 9' all throughout our first floor (except the family room which is sunken and thus 9'8") and the openness is very nice

@ lindybarts - Can you give me the dimensions of your cabinets.

We have a 10' ceiling in the kitchen where the line of cabinets go and goes up vaulted from there. We plan to go all the way up.

What is your counter height?

What is the upper cabinet height?

What is the the height of the glass part of the upper cabinet?

What is the height of the upper cabinet over your refrigerator?

What is the height of your refrigerator?

What is the height of the cabinet above your microwave?

We are getting a 42" subzero which will be 84" high and the double ovens will be next to that.

Thanks

@Paddykk - look at the dates. More than 11 years ago.