I would not reduce the 16 inches.

My cabinets are just shy of 19 inches and my light rail at about 17.5 inches. (The lightrail is a deeper piece to hide undercab lighting.) The light rail impedes my KitchenAid mixer from fully opening. I solve this little probelem easily by either pushing it further back on the counter or pulling it closer to me. I would not want the space any shorter.

Have you considered removing your soffits? Yes, it is a lot more work. But then you could both have more space and put in your crown molding.

I saw a really cool moulding application using the soffit. They put an uplight up there tucked into the crown and it looks amazing. Let me see if I can find a picture.

Article on soffits in kitchen with some lighting options:
http://www.dream-kitchen-ideas.com/kitchen-soffit.html

Crown on soffit:

If you don't want to/can't take down the soffit can you open up sections of it for above cabinet display and then put crown moulding between the soffit and ceiling.
Regardless I definitely wouldn't decrease your 16" counter to cabinet spacing - that would be for me. However for you - measure things that would be stored on the counter under the cabinets and that may help you make the decision.

..and am still looking for the exact article I found once, which I -think- was on a site called avsforum which might be very helpful for you, by the way, here's some more pics:

With that small of a clearance, I actually would not use 30" cabinets. I'd use 24" tall ones instead. At least on one run, so you could fit a coffee maker under the cabinets. That would leave you with room for a simple moldings at both the top and the bottom. You might lose some storage space, but 16" clearance is pretty claustrophobic and user unfriendly for the whole kitchen.

Crown molding can be useful to hide imperfections, like wonky or less-than-horizontal ceilings. Otherwise, they are pure ornamentation. My cabinet seller insisted they were NECESSARY and tried to sell me shorter uppers than the 40" ones I wanted to maximize storage space under my 8' smooth ceiling. I persisted, and am quite pleased with my crownless cabs. I have 18" clearance over my counters, and no problems with work space.

There was a very helpful and long prior discussion here about how much room people had between their counters and uppers, and it wasn't far off from 16''. You can search for it, but if I find time, I'll dig through my folders. I saved it somewhere...

Thank you All for your replies!!

It seems that the consensus is Not to make the 16" any smaller. Thank you for that, I really needed some sense talked into me! (I was having a problem with my vision matching reality - I guess you can't always have your kitchen look like the dream kitchens that you have photos of.)

colorfast: Thanks for your reply. How I Wish I could remove those (inset colorful language) soffits! I would Happily take a sledge hammer to them! But my DH said that they house plumbing and electric (including a waste pipe - yuck), and we sadly can't afford to re-route them right now.

rosie - I really like the idea of adding delicate molding to the soffit. Thank you!! This way, I can get the look that I'm going for, without sacrificing space. Hooray! The stencil design is interesting too. I'm not sure that I want to draw attention to our soffits, but maybe a google image search will change my mind!

Steph2000: Thank you So much for your replies and photos! The pics with the lighting effects are very cool! I'm not sure if that is something we can afford to do now, but maybe in the future. I do however, really love the 2nd photo in your post with 3 pictures, and I Do think we can pull that off in the not so distant future! I sent it to my DH and he likes it too! There is hope after all!!! :) And based on your advice, I searched for the posts on room between uppers and counters. While the standard is 18", some people are surviving with 16 or even a little less. Our tallest, frequently used appliance is only 14" high (coffee maker), and I currently pull it forward to use it, and push it back when done - so, I guess I'll just keep on doing that! As for any substantially taller appliances, they'll have to find a home behind a closed cabinet door when not in use.

blfenton: Another vote for not decreasing the space and adding molding to the soffit. Thank you!! I'm not sure if we would be able to open up some of the soffit for display, but that is an interesting idea! I'll talk to DH about it!

live_wire_oak: Using 24" tall cabinets is a very creative solution, thank you! Unfortunately, I don't think Ikea cabinets come in that size. :(

cooksnsews: I'm so glad to hear that you love your crownless cabinets!! My curiosity got the best of me and I found your blue kitchen post. Beautiful!! I love it!! Everything flows together so perfectly! And it looks very clean without a crown moulding on top. Just lovely!

Thank you all, again! (With more questions to come, I'm sure,)

I love all the ways the soffit is made to look stylish and go with the kitchen and cabinets better. Thank you everyone for the pictures!

IKEA has a 24" high above the frig cabinet that you can modify. It's only about 13" deep but I see no reason why you can't build it out some. Use side panels from a deeper cabinet to cover the difference even if you have to cut them down some. IKEAfans could probably really help you out. You could then do the crown.

Glad it helped, Bellajourney! We are also considering IKEA cabinets so I hope you post often and keep us up to date! I have to pull the trigger here eventually on choices. Meanwhile, my house is in deconstruction mode and falling apart around me element by element. :)

remodelfla: Ah, I didn't know there was a 24" option! Thank you! I talked it over with DH, and he feels that it's more important for us to have the additional storage space than a crown. (We have a small kitchen.) Also, the 24" does not come in all of the widths that we need, so it would have meant a lot more work customizing everything. But, thank you again for your creative suggestion!

Steph2000: Best wishes with your cabinet decision and kitchen renovation! I'll be sure to keep you all posted on our progress. (I'm off to post another question. Lol! I'm so bad at making decisions! They take me forever! Thank goodness for this forum!)

Crown molding had been overused imho. Every HGTV show slapped it up in every featureless room they did. I say, good riddance.

bellajourney, how many inches between bottom of sofit and floor?

Consider doing some staggared height cabinets---with the staggar at the bottom. As Live_Wire said, most coffeemakers and other appliances have a hard time fitting under upper cabinets with only 15" of clearance. If you used the 24" (or even shorter ones, like 18") for a section, that could be your small appliance run. With the 18" or 15" cabinets, you could use a valance and a couple of brackets to make it appear more "hutch" like and add some overall interest to the kitchen.

Can you consider modifying your soffit? I am in the middle of a huge kitchen remodel and also have all plumbing and electrical in the soffit. Soffit's are often made very inefficiently, that is they are framed with 2X4's with plenty of space to spare, usually 12" total to make the cabinets butt right against them. If you "remodel" the soffits with a 2X4 as the top plate and 1/2" to 3/4" plywood on the side and bottom covered with sheetrock it will be smaller. That should free up 2-4 inches of height depending on how much extra space they left in the soffit. The cost should not be much since it is only light framing and rock/spackling.

Steph, Is this the thread on coutertop-uppers height you meant?

I think the thread was mine -- I started several on the subject while belly-aching about it -- Bella you're not the only one! If this isn't the thread, Bella, I seem to have several more in my folder! Bella, try searching google this way: ' site:ths.gardenweb.com are your uppers lower ' for example -- just whatever string of words you want, I happened to know the name of that thread. The point is to use the site:ths.... part also.

My random .02: function. But there are so many helpful hints here to get both. Stagger, leave extra room in some locations for tall appliances, add goo-gaws to the soffit itself. That said, I actually like the look of no crown molding at all - personal preference is at play. You could even stencil the soffit it you're handy and energetic, just to put some sort of upper finishing touch on if you wish.

Note the way your own height and storage and use patterns affecting how much space you put between coutertop and upper. Plus overhang, and darkness, etc. There's no cookie-cutter one answer, except that some have gotten away with less than 16" successfully. For me, I'd rather lose the space atop personally.

kitschyKitch: Thanks for your reply! Good riddance is the route we're heading! It's amazing how so few cabinets are without a crown (unless they're modern). I only found a handful of pics online.

detroit_burb: I just measured. We have 82.5" between the bottom of the soffit and the floor. The soffit is a whopping 12" tall!

GreenDesigns: Hmmm - staggered heights. That is a very interesting idea! I didn't think of that. I'm not sure if I would like the look of it in our L - but, we will have cabinets on the opposite wall too. I could probably get away with it here. Hmmm... Good food for thought. Thank you! Should the small appliance run be part of the L, or is it okay for it to be on an opposite wall?

This is the wall opposite the L. I could make the white uppers with the space below it the shorter cabinets, and put appliances there. Hmmm...

WALL OPPOSITE THE "L"

THE "L"

Emilner: Ah! Your soffit is 12" too! I will ask my DH if we could possibly reframe it. (He's been working his butt off for a year and a half now renovating our fixer upper house and still has a LOT left to do. I think I remember him telling me that the pipes come close to the bottom of the soffit in some places, and even if they don't, I'm not sure if he'll want to take on the task of reframing the entire soffit just so I can have my crown molding, but I will (gently) ask!)

aliris19: Wow, that was a really informative thread! Thank you for it and for your thoughtful reply! The two things that stuck in my mind were the photo showing 15" inches as ideal for someone 5' 10" (DH is just shy of 5' 11" and I'm 5' 7"), and someone saying that an OTR microwave (which we are planning on getting) needs 18" (ack!!) - hope that is wrong!! Lol!

It seems that the main purpose to have 18" is for small appliances. We don't have a tremendous amount of counterspace as it is, and aside from the coffee maker, I don't think I want them cluttering things up. So, they will most likely be stored away in a cabinet until needed. If that's the case - I guess my only "need" (want) for more space is for a crown. And like you said, there are other ways to go about making it look nice. We should probably mount the cabinets flush first and see how we like the look. So many decisions!!

Thank you all again for your replies!!!

Bellajourney, I've done three IKEA kitchens, I love what you can do with the system. the uppers are called 30" but are really 30 3/8". I like a number of the suggestions above for fitting out your soffits with moldings and I will add a suggestion to finish the bottoms of the cabinets that will save some precious millimeters.

Instead of light rail, you can cover the bottom of the cabinets with the 24x80" cover panels because these are 1/2" thick, and the light rail is over 1" thick. Have the cover panel extend past the front of the box to just shy of the door front, and leave a space in the back to mount LED strip lighting, or other low profile lighting to be mounted directly on the cabinet box, not on the cover panel (i.e. "recess" the lighting so it does not protrude much) for under cabinet lighting.

You can also plan for 3/4" countertop material instead of the usual almost 1.5" material. The typical countertop height comes to about 36" with the usual 3cm tops, you can do just over 35" and still be comfortable.

another suggestion is if there is a subfloor under your current floor, you can strip it down before laying something over it.

most appliances will fit under 15", and good lighting will make it feel bigger.

I would not give up any cab space nor go any lower to the counter. If you want a real cottage type look, then consider open shelves. That solves the height issue and not needing crown.

IMHO crown molding is overrated. I think it looks wrong when that is the only room in the house that has it. If you have an older home with chunky molding, then I can see the benefit. I still would choose form in your case. The gap between the counters and your uppers is also there to feel less claustrophobic.

Any pictures of your Ikea Adel cabinets installed? I wish I had a handy husband or boyfriend to help me install them since I would be willing to put them together myself.