We have 42" cabinets and I love them. I also had my cabinets installed 19.5" above the counter with a 1.5" lightrail, to give us a true 18" from the counter. I think 48" with only 2" moulding would not look as good as 39" or 42" with the larger moulding.

Another thing I recommend, if it is an option in your cabinet line, is to go with deeper upper cabinets. If your uppers are 14" or 15" deep instead of 12" deep, you have room for another row of glasses deep. Also, there are some large mixing bowls and other things that just barely will not fit in 12" deep cabinets.

If you want the look of small uppers, several people have done this: have your 42" doors be made to look like 2 doors and have the upper part made to accept glass. I'd probably go 30" for the lower 'door' and 12" for the upper 'door'. Just want to stay close to 2/3 lower part and 1/3 upper part of the total height.

Thanks for the responses. Angela12345, do you have any problem 'banging' your head against the deeper cabinets? I mean, does it reduce the usuable work space on the counter? I think we probably could go deeper.

Deedles, I like the idea of 42" uppers with glass. I'm afraid this is starting to rule out our cheapest option--Ikea!

you could go ikea for the cabs and drawer fronts and barker for the upper doors and paint them to match the cabs.

Nope, no one that I know of has ever bumped their head into the deeper upper cabinets. And part of them are over our prep sink where people normally would have no upper cabinets, or would have the upper cabinets raised higher over the sink section.

We have 15" deep uppers over our prep sink (which is the sink I use most of the time anyway), 16" deep including doors. It is 18.25" to the bottom of our light rail (20" to the actual cabinet). I have never had an issue with it hitting my head or any other issues.

I was nervous to do this over my sink, but went to see a friend in NYC during our build. He had no raised area for head room and there was no issue there either, so that convinced me it would be ok. I don't remember if his were 15" deep, or standard 12" deep. But he is over 6 feet tall. I am 5'3" and my hubby is 5'10".

The left & right cabinets are 12" deep and 42" high. The middle two cabinets are 15" deep and 45" high.

By my reckoning with 36" counters and 18" space between cab and counter, you have 48" to work with.

For IKEA you could do 30" cabs topped with 15" cabs with very minimal (3") trim at the top. BUT -- IKEA doesn't make shortie cabs with glass in them, except horizontal cabs which won't line up with your regular 30" uppers below (dimensions aren't exactly the same) and of course would be really hard to close with a door handle right at the ceiling when open.

Here is a rendering of IKEA 15 over 30 from http://www.ikeakitchendesignonline.com/

If you go away from IKEA, my personal favorite is the single door with a glass panel right at the very top (as opposed to split doors). I don't know if these look high end, low end, or what, but I think they look simple and practical while still giving some glass-display space.

From This Old House:

I much prefer a single cabinet over stacked, from a practical standpoint rather than aesthetic. A single cabinet allows you more flexibility to position shelves.

In general, does the stacked cabinet look help make a kitchen feel taller or shorter, especially if you're talking about 8 foot ceilings? I am pondering how a small glass-front cabinet up top would look if it's right up at ceiling height.

I do wonder if it would look busy? I have 8' ceilings in my current house and I'm trying to picture it. Maybe "10 pounds in a 5 pound bag-esque"?