No upper cabinets, thoughts on dishes/glasses

13 years ago

Our new layout by design has no upper cabinets in the perimeter or island (but a huge back of floor to ceiling cabs elsewhere in kitchen for pantry, etc). The perimeter has 2 sections of 84 inches of windows each. My question is about glasses and dish storage.

My options are 1.)dishes and glasses in the floor to ceiling pantry which is about 6-7 feet from island (with sink& DW) and dining room where we will eat dinner; or 2.) dishes stacked in drawer and glasses in the island in pull out drawers. My SIL has dishes in drawers stacked and likes it very much. or 3.) but I've seen them on end in drawers like you would load a DW. Thoughts???

Glasses would go in a grid in drawer which has its own dis/advantages.

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Comments (10)

aedevm
Original Author
13 years ago
Sorry all, my question wasn't clear...need more coffee. I read the post of fols raving of the dish drawers and it is probably better to have them right by the DW. DO you think it is better stacked or on end like a DW? The storage of glasses is the big question. Not sure what to do with them.
jakabedy
13 years ago
Our dish drawer is immediately to the right of the DW. Plates and bowls are simply stacked in there on a cushy drawer liner. No pegs, holders, etc. It works great. Our glasses are in a drawer immediately to the left of the fridge (the side the fridge opens to). They also happily sit, rim down, on a cushy liner. But I don't store the stemware this way -- that is stored elsewhere.
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rococogurl
13 years ago
I have no uppers at all in the kitchen. Main dishes go in plate racks' secondaryies in the hutch. Glasses are in the pantry pullouts and wines on lower shallow shelves on side of peninsula facing dining room area.

Plate rack is directly over the d/w however and so convenient. Big pantries sound perfect.
elizpiz
13 years ago
No uppers here too - all dishes and glasses are in drawers. Bigger bowls and serving dishes in a pantry or in lower drawers adjacent to cooking area (depending on their use). The drawers are in the island directly across from the island.

Here's a pic to help visualise. I've rearranged some since this was taken (added even more in actually). Like jacabedy, no pegs, special holders etc - works just fine.

Eliz
dianalo
13 years ago
We plan on no uppers as well, but will be putting in shelves on our sink and dw wall. Of course, we will need all neat looking everyday china (white) and glasses and no more mismatched and plastic stuff. They won't all have to be the same style, but all white for plates and bowls and/or clear glass would coordinate with each other.
Our kids are just old enough to make the switch to real dishware and glasses and if that does not work well for their needs, we can designate a drawer for them elsewhere.

Part of our reasoning is for when they or we have guests. I like when people know where to grab what they need and feel comfortable without having to search high and low.
HTH
fun2cook
13 years ago
What size is your dish drawer? I will have 2 deep drawers for dishes: plates, bowls, etc. Glasses will go in one of the 2 remaining upper cabinets. How big to the drawers have to be to hold a set of dishes?
formerlyflorantha
13 years ago
If you're going to have dishes in drawers, be sure that the hardware is sufficiently sturdy, esp. the rails. You can even spec out stronger drawer materials for the lowers that will hold a full set of china or a box of silver flatware or whatever. Our cabinetmaker made all the drawers this way, which was unnecessary. I would rather have had less shallow top drawers to hold everyday flatware, teaballs, aprons, etc. Wish I had lightweight, thinner side and bottom materials there.
kaismom
13 years ago
I stand the dishes like they are in DW inside the drawer. The reason is because I have mix and match type of dishes. I have three patterns of same "set". I like to pull out the color/combination that I like for each meal. The rack is easier than stacking them on a pile. I also put the serving plates on a rack so I can pick without going through all to get to the one I want. They are at the bottom drawer so they are lower than ideal but this was the best fit for the situation....

I stack the dessert and salad plated because I don't use them as much. Bowls are stacked.

My drawers are 6/9/15 inches on the outside from top to bottom. Thet top is for flatware, small glasses, knives, cooking utensils etc. The bottom drawer is tall enough to "stand" all of my everyday plates and most serving plates.
leela4
13 years ago
kaismom-would you mind posting a picture of your setup?
TIA
kaismom
13 years ago
leela4, sorry. I am partially moved in and I don't even know where my camera is....

look at elizpiz picture. Some of her plates are standing up in the second drawer. I use racks like this in the drawer (see link below). I found some nicer chrome ones at the Container Store. You have to know the interior height dimension of the drawers and the dimensions of the plates to know if this will work.

http://www.stacksandstacks.com/4-section-plate-rack?id=176&sku=18113&utm_medium=gan&utm_source=gan

My cups and glasses are stored just like elizpiz

I even have some wine glasses in drawers. Brave but these are really cheap ones that I have had for years and if they break, oh well.