Had kitchen installers out today, to get firm measurements before we
order cabinets from Lowes. Installer and designer are two seperate
entities. We planned to have tall cabinets at the ends/corners of the
kitchen, with lower height cabinets in between. We like the varying
height as our kitchen will be a long U shape almost 18 ft long and
almost 9 ft wide, and want to break up the tunnel look a little. These
are the cabinets we are getting.
http://community.webshots.com/user/melnphil Click on Kitchen. We are
probably going with the darkest countertop, not that it matters right
now. You can also see the moulding style and buildup we chose. The
current layout is there too, but for a couple of other changes we know
need to be made due to my original measuring errors, which I've marked
on there. The drawings aren't exact, but give a pretty good
representation. Over to the left of the stove, off the picture is a
tall wall cabinet at the end of that row.

The problem apparently comes from my wanting lower height wall cabinets
in the middles of the rows, you can see this in the photo, but not
choosing increased or decreased depth cabinets, and the way crown
moulding would work because of that. According to the installer, if I
have two cabinets of the same depth, but different heights, butted up to
one another, and both with crown moulding, the crown moulding on the
lower height cabinet will not go flush up against the side of the taller
height cabinet. That crown moulding, because of the way it's tilted
out, would end up showing the side of the moulding instead of returning
back on itself, because it wouldn't have anything to return to, since
the neighboring cabinet is the same depth. So it would look like a
shelf sticking out on some places, rather than looking like it's just
the crown. I can picture this, but don't know what to do about it. He
suggests changing the depth of some of the cabinets, either 2 inches in
on the middles or 2 inches out on the end/tall cabinets. The two pantry
cabinets aren't affected, as they are already countertop depth.

So, the question is, is there some resolve that can be suggested other
than decreasing or increasing the depth of any of the cabinets, and
without having them all be the same height. The cost is already pushing
our budget, increasing or decreasing depth makes the cabinets more
expensive. I'm sticking with the big box due to fears of being burned
by independent contractor. My dad has lost a good bit of money twice
going with independent contractors. So I just won't go there. We'll
change whatever we need to on the cabinets, I'm just hoping there is
some other option without greatly increasing the cost. Thanks for any
ideas.

Melissa