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Design Dilemma Kitchens

stagerred cabinets - HELP!!

4 years ago

I am buying a house with staggered cabinets but don’t have the budget for new upper cabinets. I’m thinking of having my contractor extend the shorter cabinets and fabricate new doors. Has anyone done this or something similar and can share a success story?? Thanks in advance!

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Beth H. :

4 years ago

last modified: 4 years ago

a carpenter should be able to modify it w/o any problem.

for example, I'd take all of these to the ceiling get one height, using the methods below....

these are staggered, but you can see how you even it out too.

another option is to leave the boxes on top open, or do a glass door for those

so if you don't want the open boxes, just have the cabinet made from, say, 30" , up to 36 or 42". then have a new door put over it.

You're painting everything when done, yes?

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Comments (11)

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Patricia Colwell Consulting
4 years ago
IMO we can guess forever but we need to see your situation so post pics
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Comments (12)
People looking to buy your house generally AREN'T thinking of your "living habits" and if you're crazy to have certain utensils in one place or another. ;-) That said, a nice clean decorative crock with a few high quality utensils isn't an eyesore on a clean counter. The number of utensils in the picture that debrak2008 shows looks cluttered to me, so I would pare it down. If any of your drawers aren't opening and closing easily because they are overstuffed with things, you need to pare down what's in there and put the lesser used objects in storage somewhere that makes sense to be a "storage area"...be that in a basement, attic, garage, etc. Almost all of us have things in our drawers that are in there because we use them every once in a while and we want them, but they aren't every day use items...those should be boxed up and out of the way. If your drawers and closets are packed with stuff, people see that as not having very much storage space - it's better for them to see less stuff in the drawers. A nice small bowl of fruit is appropriate to have out. A cleaned up coffee maker is fine as well. One way to think of it is as if you have company coming over and they will be living in your house for a bit without you being there. You would want the kitchen to be "equipped", but without so much stuff that it would be difficult for them to find what they need. You want it to look clean and inviting so that they feel at ease. Good luck - I hope your house sells quickly!
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okmoreh, I don't understand how you are interpreting the postings as being solely from sellers and real estate agents. We are in more of a buyer's market, so sellers are eager to get some helpful advice on how to make their homes as attractive to buyers as possible. I am sure that when it was a seller's market that the buyers were here asking for advice on the best ways to find a house and how best to make an offer. sweeby, our previous house was an Eichler, but I have retained my nom de plume. That was truly our favorite house. I would say that our house/neighborhood would be classified as upper middle class. Our house certainly is no mansion! When I was a kid, I always figured that the folks on the Beverly Hillbillies lived in a $1M house, and our house is nothing like that. It is just over 3,000 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 3 car garage, living room, dining room, family room. We were at Ikea last night and picked up a few pictures, a sofa table, and some accessories for the master bathroom to make it "spa-like". We did not find any $150 leather sofas or other outrageously inexpensive furniture. Thank you all again for your helpful suggestions. I guess no one posting has worked with a stager and decided to rent furnishings during the period their house is for sale? I was hoping to get a little first hand information. clg7067, it is funny looking at the Cort website. They prominently feature the Mies van der Rohe chair we have in their room scenes (the black leather armless chair with chrome legs), but do not seem to offer it for rent. Is Cort trying to look sophisticated using that piece (making us, of course, sophisticated people) or are they trying to appeal to the bachelor who may like leather and clean lines? Our fear is that our furnishings are too masculine and may turn off the female buyer... well, at least that is what the stager was trying to make us believe.
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Comments (13)
Jane_NY. I think you could get just as good advice from the Decorating Forum for what you need to make the place appeal to buyers. The one thing stagers do is to rent you furnishings to make the place look updated and trendy. You can go to a furniture rental store on your own and get matching current looking furniture with the help of their design consultants. Places like Cort Furniture Rental have design consultants to work with you FOR FREE and even a Home Stageing department with furnishing just for staging. (I have had good experience dealing with them BTW.) Brook Furniture rental has been around for a long time and has a good reputation. Some places like Instant Furniture are only located in certain states. Find places near you or use one of the national furniture rental stores. Make sure you tell them you want furniture for staging. The price is cheaper since the furniture is not being used on a daily basis for family living and you do not have to sign a long lease either like for corporate rentals. Save your moola and go with free staging consulting with a furniture rental place directly rather than going through a middleman and paying them $450 for advice that may not even work. Rent directly. The furniture is high quality and they have differnt looks to go with different style houses. They even rent out accessories and wall art for that 'finishing touch'. It will all match. It will be effortless to pull off a cohesive look for the entire home. http://www.cort.com/furniture/home-staging.html http://www.brookfurniturerental.com/homestaging/home_staging.html Just a thought. Here is a link that might be useful: Cort
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Comments (30)
Jane, After I posted above, I read your other threads, and really feel for you--this sounds so stressful and I think the property taxes would give me a heart attack!! But I don't think you can get away with just replacing the cabinet handles. I do think you could keep the floor and backsplash since they are neutral, and maybe the countertop too (though if you really can get granite for free I'd do that). In your price point, and if the demographics of buyers in your area tend to be affluent younger couples, I really think leaving the cabinets as-is (even with new knobs) would be a serious detriment to your ability to sell at an acceptable price --- unless your realtor says people are likely to buy it as a tear down and re-build on the lot (which doesn't sound likely from what you've posted so far). Even if buyers plan to rip everything out and do a major remodel of their own, there's still that first impression that you mentioned. Plus, if the kitchen stays as is, people may discount your house's value by their imagined cost of the remodel, which is probably a lot more than it would cost you to hire someone to change the cabinet finish. And -- speaking as someone who bought a house 4 years ago that was very dated and needed updates throughout the house (which I am still doing) --- I think most people, even those who like renovating/remodeling, when faced with a room that seems dated, ask themselves 'can I live with it as is, and for how long?' In that analysis, there's a difference between a kitchen that has been updated in a way that's not to your taste, and a kitchen that hasn't been updated at all. And I think that a very dark java or black finish on the cabinets would shift your kitchen to the 'not my taste but livable for a while' category, whereas it currently runs the risk of being 'too dated to live with for one day--has to be remodeled before we move in.' And the problem is, if there is another house on the market that needs less work, buyers will choose that and pass you by. I don't mean that to insult or dishearten you at all. Honestly I'd have much preferred to have your current kitchen vs. the kitchen in my house when I bought it; it's clear that you chose high quality materials when you did the kitchen, and the tile and backsplash are neutral. But most buyers in the demographic you describe are not like me (in fact most of my colleagues when I worked in the private sector fit that demographic exactly and purchased homes in DC neighborhods/suburbs comparable to westchester). I deemed my kitchen 'not livable for one day' and replaced the floors, countertop, & stove before I moved in. But I bought near the height of the market in 2004 (when in this area most houses had multiple offers and bidding wars within 2-3 days of being listed), so I didn't feel I had the luxury of continuing to wait to find the perfect place. In fact, even in that market, my house had been on the market for weeks and I bought it for less than appraised value; given the bidding wars on similar houses in my neighborhood, the dated decor seems to have deterred a lot of buyers. If the market in Westchester county has slowed at all this year, buyers are likely to be quite picky, and the more yo can do to make your house appealing, the better. Unless you're in a community where very few houses come on the market, and there are lots of people waiting to buy, I think the kitchen could make buyers pass you by because they don't want to take on a major renovation project immediately. I would not advise painting the cabinets white because the grain is likely to show through and hiring a professional to cover up the grain and get a factory-type finish would probably be cost-prohibitive. But I think applying a gel stain or the dark brown paints like some others in the forum have used would be straightforward, and you may be able to get a handyman to do that (or your realtor may be able to recommend someone inexpensive). I wish you the best of luck. Here is a link that might be useful: Oak-to-Dark cabinet Redo (by girlwithaspirin)
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stewmark
Original Author
4 years ago
here you go!
live_wire_oak
4 years ago
Leave It alone. No reason in the world to spend 10K on sonething you can’t reach anyway.
auntthelma
4 years ago
You are buying a house and moving. Cabiet design is the least of your worries. allow yourself time to move, get settled, unpack, organize and then reorganize because you learn the house. Then, when you are settled in, see if the kitchen works for you.

it took me four years before I felt comfortable in My new home.
PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
4 years ago
4 yrs is a long time but I do agree that waiting to see how the space even functions is the way to go. Right now IMO the upper cabinets are too close to the counter and I think that 18” is too low and worked when all the women were short I like 22” myself and so do most of my clients.I have no idea where the style of staggered cabinets started but it needs to end now.
Shannon_WI
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
I agree that you should wait a bit and take stock, and see what you really and truly want to change about this kitchen - and what you want to spend your money on. Give it 6 months and see how you feel. When first moving into a new house, something will break or go wrong in the home, sure as the sun rises in the east, and you may want to have some money for those surprises, until everything settles down. (Me, I would spend the money to change the backsplash before I would spend the money to MacGyver the heights of the upper cabinets - and the time trying to find a carpenter willing, and able, to do that.)

"that 18” is too low and worked when all the women were short I like 22” myself "

I disagree with Patricia Colwell. The 18" distance works in most kitchens. In fact, older kitchens from a generation ago had a smaller distance from the counter to the bottom of the upper cabinets - just look at an '80s kitchen and see for yourself. The adjustment for women who are averaging 1" taller in this generation than they were 100 years ago (Patricia check your facts about women's height changes in the U.S.) has already been made, and that is why the standard today is 18" distance. Patricia Colwell posts frequently on this forum, and most of her posts are very helpful. However, she consistently sees the world only through her own personal experience and rarely allows for other situations than her own. The average height for a woman in the U.S. is 5'4". A 22" distance would mean the second shelf, and perhaps even the first shelf, is unreachable or barely reachable for anyone shorter than 5'6".
PRO
Beth H. :
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
no one wants to move in w/all of their things, get situated, and the have to remove it again when after she's waited this obligatory 'one year'. Some people just know what they want.

Stewmark, is this your very first home with a kitchen like this? If so, then perhaps you should wait a few months to see what you really want and need.

If it's not, and you already know what you want and need, then have it started before you move in all your stuff. Having lived through a kitchen reno (more than once) it's a royal pain. and dirty.

do you have plans on redoing anything else in there? countertops/splash? If all you want is the cabinets evened out, then there are options.

I'd rather have boxes I can't reach going to the ceiling, than a giant dust/dirt shelf I also can't reach.

This kitchen is basically the same layout as yours. show this to your carpenter if you like this look

the other option is a soffit. but I'd build on the boxes. would look great w/your tall ceilings.
stewmark
Original Author
4 years ago
Thank you! I will be swapping out the backsplash and counters as well as retrofitting the island to ll be counter height. I love the build up suggestion. issue will be that the new builtins will also be different sizes. I am thinking of building up to be even and swapping out the shorter doors with taller ones so all cabinets are even as well as doors.
PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
4 years ago
I am just laughing I do not have one friend or client that is 5’4” tall they are all more than 5’6” for sure and a couple are over 5’10” so yes I do think about how things function in my experience .
chiflipper
4 years ago
In the past, the distance from countertop to the bottom of wall cabs wasn't an issue because most cooks used the kitchen table as their primary work surface. MIL (5' 10") could roll dough on her island while I, at 5' 6", used the dining room table.

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