Cabinets under beam

Hello all,

First ever post but long time lurker.

Finally, I am ready to remodel my kitchen. The cabinets are original to my 1959 house. As I go through this process I may beg for sage advice from this community. First issue is I have a galley kitchen where a 9"H x 4.5"W beam goes across the entrance to the kitchen. Currently, my top cabinets are 2.5" below the beam. However, the cabinets are a non standard 33" high.

In my redesign, I want the cabinets to also begin under the beam but my choices are 30" or 36" high cabinets. In my mind having a 30"H x 12"W cabinet below the beam and all other cabinets 36" high would not look that odd. But I went to both Home Depot and Lowe's, both designers commented that it would look strange. I figured some creative approach will help mask the height difference. But maybe I am being difficult and refuse to see the eyesore they see.

Any ideas on going forward with my design or is this a big no no?

PS - please ignore the varying colors and glass cabinets in the design sheet. I am still deciding on color schemes and whether or not to add glass doors. So stuff was randomly added.