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Upper cabinets

14 years ago

I need help with my kitchen layout (new construction). I only have four upper cabinets, one by the DW, likely for glasses and plates. The other three are grouped to the left of the stove, but two end up falling over a corner and the eating bar. I love the way they look but I'm worried that they will end up being kind of useless.

We love the look of open shelves and plan to use those in the entire corner left of the sink, undecided on two levels versus three. We are going for a country/cottage/farmhouse like kitchen.

We are a family of 5 (currently 3 kids 3 and under) and are big hang out in the kitchen and cook together types. We like the idea of being able to monitor the dining room / living room from the kitchen if possible. I'm thinking there are at least two nice prep zones, a decent clean-up spot with trash pull out left of main sink. Any other comments are welcome.

More house plan pics available here for reference of other rooms:

Plan pics

Thanks.

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Comments (6)

rhome410
14 years ago
I would think the left cabinet of the set of 3 would be hard to reach, but you could store things you don't use often in it, like serving pieces? The only option is to reduce the size, and then you lose the storage completely, as well as the look you love.
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desertsteph
14 years ago
i think it looks good. is the doorway on the lower left wide enough?
how about drawers under your 1 dish cabinet for other dishes? well, maybe not until kids are older... except for plastic ones - which are often used with little ones anyway! plastic in the drawers, glass etc in the upper cabinet. are you putting mostly drawers in the base cabs?
i hope you're tall enough to be able to use more than just the bottom shelf of the uppers - lol! I'm not.

what's next to the refridge?
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I would not do it. It will leave you only 6.5" of counter footage in front of the appliance garage -- not deep enough for staging those appliances when removing them as well as not enough space below the upper cab to stage items being taken out or put in. 25.5"D counters - 18"D cabinet - 1" door = 6.5" left In addition, it looks to be close to the gas range, significantly reducing your emergency landing space on that side. I also think that , as others have said, it will look like a mistake (oops! I didn't measure right but I crammed it in anyway). Finally, unless you are a tall family, it will make accessing items in the upper cabinet more difficult b/c you will be reaching over a taller item to reach inside (you won't have much "lean into" space when trying to reach into the upper cabinet). I like Mrs. S's idea to try it out...but make sure it's the full size and close to the right color. Don't forget that Kitchen cabinets take up the depth of the cabinet + 1" for the door, so it should be 19" deep, not 18". (I assume you mean a door similar to Jan's first picture.)
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bostonpam
14 years ago
What about another upper (open shevles) on the other side of the main sink. It's in a corner and I don't think you would lose your openess. It would also balance your sink and window with the other shelf on the other side - and it's really close to your dishwasher.
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brickton
Original Author
14 years ago
rhome-
I think that's where we're at, with rarely used items. Thanks for chiming in on the color too. We're doing some green, at least the pantry or the lowers.

desertsteph-
The doorway is 30" (or will be, I may have bumped it down to 28" at one point) and will have a dutch door. One of the reason we didn't plan a lot of uppers is that my wife can only get to the first two shelves. I love the look of 39" uppers or double uppers to the ceiling but she finds it mildly demeaning that half of her kitchen would be out of reach, so I did soffits and fewer uppers. As for what's next to the fridge, I had a poll up on that too:
Fridge pantry or coffee station options

bostonpam-
My wife is a little gun shy on having all open shelves (because of the clutter/mess) so that cabinet was a compromise. I can draw it up with shelves though for comparison, because I think you're right it might look a little more balanced.
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bostonpam
14 years ago
I can only reach the 1st 2 shelves (I'm 5'2")and I'm getting 42" uppers. I will stock the upper shevlves with little used items. I'm actually having my uppers installed 16" above the counters and hope I can also reach the 3rd shelf if it's not too high. I don't have any appliances that would interfere with the lower height. I would hate to waste all the storage space to a soffit. We will have 9'6" ceiling and crown moulding and lights above the cabinets.
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bmorepanic
14 years ago
The right hand door opens into the hood. The left hand door makes the cabinet hard to use from both sides of the peninsula. Consider reversing the door swings?

I would encourage you to consider making the eating space counter height and move the prep sink into the corner. This is for a couple of reasons. I don't like how raised bars play out - they have access problems and they rob you of a big flat counter area when you need one. We had one and it was the first thing removed from the new kitchen.

The prep sink move is to have some landing area for items from the refrigerator - right now, you either walk or put them IN the sink. Also, it puts it at the stool position that wouldn't get used anyway cause of the upper cabinet in face.

In your case, I think the raised bar will make the kitchen look even smaller.

Lastly, be sure of the order of ref, oven, pantry or the reverse or ref, pantry, oven or its reverse or... There can be a problem with the ref and oven opening into each other. I tend to place the ref close to where I think people will come from to get a drink.
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