I'm not sure about the moulding, but one idea to possibly camouflage the difference would be to put silk greenery on top of them. We did this in our kitchen on top of our cabinets. We went to Michael's and bought silk ivy and strung them on top. You could get them to reach the ceiling and it looks really good.

Just a suggestion.

Thanks for the suggestion. However, we do want moulding up to the ceiling.

I know ideally that we should have attached "cleats" or something above the cabinets on the frames before installation, however, we didn't. So now, how do we do this with the cabinets up on the wall to give the moulding something to adhere to?

Thanks.

This is a doable DIY project if you have some woodworking skills and tools. Basically, what you are doing is installing crown molding. Go to the "Taunton Press" sight or "Fine Homebuilding" sight and you will be able to order books, articles, and DVD's showing how to do this. Also, small gaps between your molding and the ceiling are not visible when you caulk and paint them. The operative word here is small gaps. Let me know what you decide to do and how it comes out. Russ

slc2053,

The double molding technique is the correct way to go.

You will have to install nailing cleats to the ceiling to have a place to anchor the top molding strip. The final step is to chaulk any small gaps to finish the job.

I would suggest you go the rockler.com. They have literature you can order on crown molding installation.

Enjoy the journey.

eal51 in western CT

Cleats are attached to the ceiling for the molding to be fastened to, and nailers to the tops of the cabinets.

If you omited the nailers on the cabinets they can be screwed in place from inside the cabinets.
You may need some bar clamps to hold the wood in position as you run screws from inside the cabinet through the top and into the wood.
You can try and hold it tightly in position, but watch out if you drive a screw into your hand.
I anchor cleats to the joists if they line up correctly rarely seem to though. :-)
Molly anchors are also suitable if coupled with some glue (I like a polyurethane here) as long as you use a nail gun to set the nails.
The moly bolts tend to work loose if you use a regular hammer from the repeated blows when driving the nails. The single sharp blow from a nail gun will not disturb things as much.

If you need to use apile of molly bolts a setting tool works much better than the screw expansion built into them. The tool grabs the screw and pulls on it as you work a trigger.

Everyone keeps saying to "caulk small gaps"...that seems reasonable when you have painted cabinets, and you can therefore paint the caulk. But we have medium stained maple cabinets....how do I handle gaps with those? Paint the caulk the ceiling color????

You really can't get enough information here to help you much. You need to go to the Tauton Press site and do a search for crown molding. You'll see about twenty options. One option would be the "Make Your Own Kitchen Cabinets" book. Select the book index and you will see a chapter for installing crown molding. Check out the other options too. You might find one you like better. About the gaps, you would paint them the color of the ceiling, but you need to order a book or article.