How high should upper cabinets be? 30, 36, 42 inches or to the ceiling

How high above the counter should upper cabinets be?

The industry convention is 18 inches between the countertop and the bottom of the upper cabinets. With a 36-inch counter, that puts the underside of the uppers at about 54 inches from the floor.

Eighteen inches leaves room for a toaster, a coffee maker and a stand mixer under the cabinets, and keeps the bottom shelf in reach. Some kitchens go a little higher for tall appliances or a taller cook, some a little lower for a shorter one. Somewhere between 15 and 20 inches covers nearly everyone.

A few places break the rule:

• Over the range, the hood maker’s installation instructions set the clearance. Follow them, not the 18 inches.
• Over the fridge, a short, deep cabinet sits just above the fridge’s top.
• Over a sink under a window, there is often no upper at all.

How tall are standard upper cabinets?

Stock uppers come in three heights: 30, 36 and 42 inches, all about 12 inches deep. Which one suits your kitchen depends almost entirely on the ceiling, as the table above shows.

Under an 8-foot ceiling, 42-inch uppers starting at 54 inches reach 96 inches, which is the ceiling. 36-inch uppers leave about 6 inches, which crown moulding can close. 30-inch uppers leave a foot of empty wall that collects dust and does nothing.

Should upper cabinets go to the ceiling?

In most kitchens, yes. Taking the uppers to the ceiling gives you storage in space that is otherwise wasted, removes the dusty ledge on top, and makes the ceiling read as higher, because the eye runs straight up the cabinetry instead of stopping short.

The reasons not to are practical ones. The top shelf of a tall upper needs a step stool, so it suits things you use a few times a year. And in a room with a sloping or badly out-of-level ceiling, a gap with a crown can be easier to make look right than a cabinet that has to meet the ceiling along its whole length.

What are stacked upper cabinets?

Stacking puts a second, shorter row of cabinets on top of the first. It is the usual answer for 9 and 10-foot ceilings, where even a 42-inch upper stops well short.

The lower row holds everyday things at the usual height. The upper row, often 12 to 18 inches tall, holds what you rarely use, and many kitchens give it glass doors so it reads as display rather than storage. A crown moulding across the top ties both rows into one piece of furniture.

How do custom cabinets handle the ceiling?

A stock kitchen has to choose between 30, 36 and 42 inches, then close whatever gap is left with crown or filler. A custom kitchen does not have to. Crafted Cabinetry cuts to your sizes in 1/16-inch increments, so an upper can be exactly as tall as the space between 54 inches and your ceiling, whatever that turns out to be.

That matters most in older Bay Area homes, where ceilings are rarely the same height at both ends of a room. Cabinets drawn from the room’s own measurements can follow that, and a crown can be scribed to the ceiling rather than to a straight line.

How deep should upper cabinets be?

The standard is 12 inches, half the depth of a 24-inch base. That leaves your head clear when you lean over the counter. Over the fridge, uppers are usually made deeper, often the full 24 inches, so they can be reached across the top of the fridge rather than behind it.

What about open shelves instead of upper cabinets?

Open shelves follow the same rule for where they start: about 18 inches above the counter, so the lowest shelf clears the appliances beneath it. They are usually spaced closer together than cabinet shelves, because everything on them is on show. Many kitchens mix the two, with closed uppers where storage matters and a short run of open shelving beside a window or the range, where a full cabinet would feel heavy.

What should I measure before choosing?

Measure the ceiling height in several places along each wall, and note any soffit, beam or duct. Measure the height of the appliances that will live on the counter. Then decide what you want the top shelf to hold, because that tells you whether the space above your reach is storage or display.

Frequently asked questions

Related reading

• Kitchen cabinet dimensions: standard sizes, and when custom beats them