Remaining wall cabinet after removing cabinets above peninsula

11 years ago

We are getting ready to do a small kitchen update (a big one is several years off) in our 1950s ranch house. The first thing I'd like to do is remove the cabinets above the kitchen peninsula. I am trying to figure out what to do with the remaining wall cabinet that connects to these cabinets, though. It appears the soon-to-be-gone cabinets are actually cut into the veneer part of the wall cabinets. So, do we try to cut openings and have open shelves here? Try to replace the veneer with part of what comes down? Painting the cabinets is an option, but I'd rather not at this time if we can avoid it. Any suggestions?

Here are the pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/laniewilliamson/Kitchen#

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (6)

suzanne_sl
11 years ago
Link not working. Can you check it again and put it in the "Optional Link URL" box?
ljw11
Original Author
11 years ago
I fixed the link... Should work now!
Related Discussions
Receptical Requirements For Remodel Of Old Peninsula Cabinet
Q
Comments (3)
I appreciate the response, formula1. Unfortunately, there is no room to place any kind of riser. I know I should call AHJ, but having dealt w/inspectors before, it's all in the luck of the draw. The person I speak w/may tell me not to worry, it'll pass. But another person shows up to do the inspection and he/she doesn't agree. IOW, whatever answer I get gives me no reassurance that come inspection day I don't get screwed regardless. :( What I don't get is that in order to pass (depending on inspector) I'd need a receptacle in the base, under the countertop within 20" of top. But to get that, I'd need a variance which I could only be granted if (a) I were handicappped or (b) there was no other place to put it. Well, duh, there isn't. Seems mighty stupid and dangerous to have an outlet at kid-eye level. Real rocket science. Rock and a hard place.
...See More
Before/After - removed hanging cabinets in kitchen
Q
Comments (21)
Wow, thanks everyone! I will try to post a few more before/afters of other rooms. granolamom - we have more cabinets on the other wall (seen below) so we did not need to add any additional storage. We came from a home with a VERY small galley kitchen so I have not had the opportunity to accumulate a lot of kitchen gadgets :-) I think when we remodel we will add back in some cabinet space...room to grow, so to speak. EG3d - Thanks for the heads up! I do have a Sears card. I actually can't decide whether to keep the double ovens or do an wall oven/micro combo, but perhaps this sale will get my butt in gear! lazydaisynot - thanks for the comment on the potrack, I was afraid it looked funny there. We like having the pots hang but didn't want to put them over the peninsula since they would just block the nice view we had opened up. Some of the pots are hard to reach without walking around to the other side, but that's okay - this is not a permanent set-up.
...See More
Removing old 'stick built' cabinets without destroying the walls?
Q
Comments (13)
So it just so happens that I got an e-mail ad from Harbor Freight Tools showing the knockoff for $19.99, and I figured for that price, I could buy it just in case I get the guts to do this. You see, I've been refacing the cabinets for the last 4 years (working on and off)...but at the time I bought the refacing supplies, my options were unstained (yuk), dark, and "harvest oak". So I got the oak. It's not bad as oak goes -- it doesn't have that yellow look that oak can get, it's shaker doors, and I suppose if I wait long enough, oak will come back. But the kitchen has another problem that has to be addressed: It's 9.5' x 17' and the work area is a U along a wall shared with a bathroom and a load-bearing wall. It's sort of cut in half in the middle by the refrigerator on one side and a wall oven cabinet plunked in the middle of the wall on the other side. Between the wall oven and the start of the "L" (which has the cooktop) is a door to the outside. I would LOVE to get rid of that wall oven cabinet and replace the cooktop with a range. If I keep the existing pseudo-cabinets (and you can read my sad "Kitchen Hell" story, with photos, here, the appliance place said they can cut into the existing base cabinet and finish it off, which will also give sufficient clearance from the outside wall that would be next to the side of the range. But then the oven opens up and blocks the door, so I'm not sure how good an idea that is, even though another house on my block did just that. The other issue is that I would lose four cabinets, which I would want to replace by building a wall of cabinets on the other 9-1/2' wall that is blank...but I have no idea what I'd put up there. I'd hate to do more oak, but I have no idea what would go with. If anyone wants to take a crack at venturing opinions, I can take more photos. Or I can just live in this horrid kitchen until I can afford to remodel it (and can find a reputable contractor who would do it without costing me all my savings). It IS, after all, just a 1950's cape.
...See More
Overhead cabinets above island or peninsula
Q
Comments (31)
Hi Beth, re the spice cab- See the Pacific Heights home posted by Lisa and reposted later. Then focus on the upper glass cabinet closest to the window. Add a full height narrow, say 8 inches wide cabinet and put the cab door opening next to the window. Perpendicular to the rest of the cabs on that run. Many shelves-i have 7. So you end up having room for spice bottles two deep and several shelves high, opening with a cab door that is 12 inches by the height of the cab. hth. Also, I had that 'to the counter' cab on the peninsula made. Mine has a garage with a pull up door and I keep many things there-cutting boards, coffee paraphanalia, small appliances, all handy with no steps to walk. I also had cab doors made on all three sides, so that I can open that cab from the seating side, front facing side and sink facing side. One more thing--I put an undercounter fridge drawer unit in the blind corner on the seating side. Guests can get a drink, soda and kids get yogurt. It keeps traffic out of the working area, sinkside. Also, produce overload. It was a 2k splurge for me. We love it sooo.
...See More
jimandanne_mi
11 years ago
Can you completely take down the longer cabinet setup to the left of the sink, and replace it with the double shorter cabinet from over the left end of the peninsula? You could shorten the existing cabinet side next to the sink to finish off the right side of the double peninsula cabinet.

Anne
leela4
11 years ago
We had a similar problem with the first remodel of our kitchen. We had cabinets over the peninsula similar to yours, except there were doors on both sides; I'm pretty sure they opened from both sides. It's a little hard to see, but it's the cabinet all the way on the left and looked like this:

We had a cabinet made with a shelf and it looked like this:

I have to say that the peninsula is one of the things that drove our remodel in 2010; it was directly across from the refrigerator with a scant 28 inches or less, and was the only passageway through the kitchen.
Cadyren
11 years ago
We recently removed the uppers and the peninsula from our 80's kitchen. We had doors on both sides and the longer cabinet that attached to the wall cabinets. We removed the shorter ones. The large one attached to the wall cabinets was unscrewed and hung next to the wall cabinets so that the door opened the correct way. Our carpenter had to cut some off (It was 12 1/2 inches deep do to the two doors) and made an end piece to go on the unfinished side. It looks like it was there forever. Not sure what you mean that it was cut into the veneer. Ours were screwed in at 90 degrees and were tricky to get apart, as they were also glued. We also removed the peninsula cabinets and they were used along a wall.
localeater
11 years ago
I am pretty sure the part of the wall cabinet that the peninsula cabinets are attached to is separate. You can see the join if you look carefully. I would just take down the peninsula cabinets. Then, hopefully you can take apart the wall cabinet and just leave the small 12" (I think)wall cabinet. If it doesn't work you will still have options. You could take one section of the peninsula cabinets and hange them there, or you could just remove the wall cabinet and the valance over the window and put something freestanding in that spot. They sell metal counter top shelf units, kind of like bakers rack, that could go there, or you could just put up shelves, you could even reuse the cabinets to make the shelves if you wanted everything to match.
So proceed fearlessly, it will be OK, just be open to going with the flow if things don't go perfectly. They rarely do.

Remaining wall cabinet after removing cabinets above peninsula

Comments (6)

suzanne_sl

ljw11
Original Author

Related Discussions

jimandanne_mi

leela4

Cadyren

localeater

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Remaining wall cabinet after removing cabinets above peninsula

Comments (6)

suzanne_sl

ljw11Original Author

Related Discussions

jimandanne_mi

leela4

Cadyren

localeater

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

ljw11
Original Author