I have no experience with free standing cabinets, but the ones from Green Tea Designs are quite beautiful.

I guess you have to think about resale value of your home if you plan on selling in the near future. Would a home buyer like having cabinets like that?

On the other hand, they are unique and may be a selling feature if done right, (as long as you don't take them with you when you move!)

I know thta's not much help but maybe some others could give their opinons.

I'm planning on having mostly freestanding cabinets (different style) in my kitchen.

Part or all freestanding is really common in Europe. There's almost a superstitious suspicion of it here, but just because it's unfamiliar doesn't mean it's bad.

The only place I could thing where it might be a problem is if you lived someplace with frequent earthquakes, if you had a skinny unit that might fall over. But then, if you live somewhere like that, I guess you learn to cope. You might still work with the shorter counter units.

Advantages to me are that some of them will be really cheap vintage/antique ones. Like $250 for something that Christopher Peacock couldn't match, and I already paid for 15 years ago!
I'll have to have at least one made, which will probably be expensive, but it needs to make the most of a quirky spot.

I like that I can move the cabinets around, paint them, change them completely if they no longer suit my needs or style.

I have an old house, so shimming these is particularly important, so the tall ones don't fall over!

As for resale, in my neighborhood, no kitchen survives a move. The Dumpster pulls up the day after closing. In my neighborhood, I figure I've just saved the next owner thousands on demo.

As long as you're very clear about what you've done, and what, if anything, you're planning to take, it's like anything else. One person's dream kitchen is someone else's suffocation nightmare.

It might just be me, but this doesn't seem like a match for granite counters. Maybe teak? Maybe tile/thick glass? It seems to call for something lighter, more earthy.

Have fun!

I don't see a problem w/ unfitted cabs. After you load them up w/ stuff & slap a slab of granite on top of them, they're not going anywhere.

I'm in So. Cal. Even our free standing furniture is supposed to be strapped to the wall, so if it costs a pit more than standard cabs, I would think it wasn't worth the extra $$ just to finish the backside that has to be connected somehow anyway. But that's based on locale.

Also, personally, I would deduct the cost of building a kitchen from a house I was buying if it didn't have an existing kitchen.

Thanks for the responses everyone. (I thought I told it to email me but I don't remember getting any emails. Maybe my spam filter ate them. I will have to look)

I had heard that free standing was fairly popular in Europe. Good to know that it really isn't that unusual.

That is an interesting point about earthquakes I hadn't thought of (probably because we don't get much in the way of earthquakes here in Ontario).

Good suggestion for tile Growlery... I'm seriously considering it now, I think it would look really nice... and it made me think I'd probably work in butcher block as well.

I'm not sure if using tile would be a bit more difficult as far as constructing the surface and keeping it in place on the cabinets, but I don't know too much about tile counters. Also, having not heard a lot about tile counters, is there much of an issue with keeping them clean compared to other surfaces?

I'm going to start talking with Greentea a bit I think - will try and remember to update as to how it goes!

Thanks again!

-Mike