We have 12 foot ceilings, which really did cause us to spend lots of extra money. We are doing a coffered ceiling, to bring the height down without lowering the ceiling. Then we are doing a tall cabinet with a smaller cabinet on top. The bottom cabinet will be solid doors, and the top cabinet will be glass fronted. I forget how many inches tall it will be. We will also have fairly substantial moldings at the top of the cabinets. There will be some space from the top of the cabinets to the bottom of the beams. I actually wish that we had made the cabinets go all the way to the ceiling, even though the top cabinets would be pretty useless, but I love the look.

My cabinets are not installed yet, and the ceiling is not built yet, so we will see what it looks like. I really hope I like it, but I'm nervous about it.

I too have 12 foot ceilings and plan on spending the extra on the upper glass cabinetry. I am not sure what look you are going for but in not doing the taller cabinetry the design might be lacking in aesthetics. I totally understand the money savings but make sure you are good with the decision so you don't second guess yourself later. I would lower the ceiling if you chose not to go higher...

Mine are 42" with 15" and a stacked crown above that flush to the eiling. If my ceilings were 12' I'm not sure I would have done them to the ceiling, but I really like them onthe 10' ceilings.

cbreeze - Wow, what a beautiful inspiration picture. Do you remember what color the walls were? green? gray? brown?

Laurie

I built paneled soffits directly above all the cabinets for a tailored look.

Cbreeze, thanks for that picture. I've been trying to picture what ours will look like. And I think that is similar to what my set-up with look like, except our glass cabinets will have mullions like the pics directly above this post. And we will use an antique type glass.

I really like the way they painted the ceiling in between the beams the same as the wall. I may do that, too.

Thanks for the responses. I like the idea of the paneled soffit. I agree that I want to be happy later. In building a whole house, I find that it is hard to do everything! I have seen many pix where the cabs didn't go to the ceiling and it has never bothered me, but the finished look is nice too. Our doors will be 48" high with a tall crown, so I don't think there will be a TON of space above...

I would still love to hear more about what others have done.

I think this kitchen looks very pretty and the cabs don't go to the ceiling. I don't know how high this ceiling would be or the cabinet doors. I have thought that it might be good to have one thing go all the way to the ceiling like this hood does.

msrose, the ceiling is a medium brown color and walls are green.

I did up to the ceiling and while I'm very happy with the "look"...you are so right that they aren't functional at all. I have a few of them with glass and need to get some more decor up there.

We have 10 ceilings and will be going with a run of 15" solid door cabinets (above 42" glass door cabs) at the top and crown molding. Sure, they won't be practical, but we live in NYC and every bit of storage space helps. Plus we won't get that nasty grease/dust/soot buildup between the ceiling and cabinet tops.

I really like the light colored soffit pictured above. If we were doing custom cabs I'd go for that.

mine will be like cbreeze, I also will have 10 ceilings.