Woodshop Projects – Ceiling Height In Kitchens When Hanging Cabinets
Measure from the floor to the ceiling and record the measurement. If you have 8’ ceilings and the measurement is within ½” of 8’, then you shouldn’t have a problem if you are using 42” tall wall cabinets. If you are installing crown molding at the top of the cabinets or your woodshop projects, then you are going to have to hold the wall cabinets or wood work project down to accommodate the height of the molding.
There is something else that you should consider if you are going to be installing crown molding to the cabinets or woodshop projects. If you have chosen a full overlay door, then you are going to have to install a board on top of the wall cabinets or woodworking project to allow for the crown to rest against and give you some solid wood behind the crown to nail to.
If your ceiling is over 9’ tall, then you should be able to nail or screw this piece of wood after the cabinets are hung. But, if you have 8’ ceilings and are using 42” tall wall cabinets, then install this piece of wood to each cabinet top flush with the face frame before you hang them. Usually a 1” tall by ¾” wide strip works well for this. You will have about ¼” above the top of the full overlay door to conceal the seam between the top of the cabinet and this strip of wood.
Now, if you find that the ceiling is not perfectly level, then you may find that you will have to add another trim board first before you apply the crown molding, especially if the ceiling is out of level by more than ½” around the run of the wall cabinets.
As you hang the wall cabinets or your woodshop project level and find that there are larger gaps between the top of the cabinets and the ceiling at one end of the run of cabinets and would install the crown tight against the ceiling, then you are going to find that at the other end of the run of cabinets that the crown will not touch the ceiling, with the gap size depending on how out of level the ceiling actually is.
This is where you will need to install a flat matching wood trim molding first to the cabinets and then install the crown against this piece of molding. You will see a difference in reveal on the flat piece of molding, but the crown can then be held tight to the ceiling. This happens quite often, especially in older homes. This is why it is very important to measure the distance to the ceiling in various spots of the kitchen once you have your level lines drawn on the walls.
Your kitchen designer more than likely will not be able to detect this problem when he/she comes out to do the preliminary measurements to start your kitchen design. This is just one of those things that come up and can’t be foreseen unless you take the time to perform this task ahead of time before the cabinets are ordered. More than likely in this case, you will have to ask your designer to order you the materials to fix the problem, or you can go to the local lumber supplier and you can try to match the wood and stain color to make your own molding.
Whatever the case may be, it is very important for you to check these measurements before you start hanging the wall cabinets. Again, if you are not installing the crown tight to the ceiling, then this won’t be an issue.
