Did you work with a KD on this? I do these often but as LWO points out deflection of the sides needs to be accounted for in the design of the cabinet and the layout. It helps to have cabinets to at least one side, dowelled face frames, wide stiles, an aluminium strut, are helpful but take space. Many brands that offer a suitability made cabinet will ship it with a "removable locking shelf". If conditions allowed and the shelf was dowelled in place I'd remove it and go ahead. If not then separate the doors and do a pullout in the bottom only. Just saw your reply, wall to one side and cabinet on other is sufficient support. NOTE: the center of the floor of the cabinet needs to be supported to the floor below to transfer the load. Re: standing up talls- most brands will ship talls- with the sub-base loose at no charge if needed. This post was edited by jakuvall on Sat, Jan 4, 14 at 21:12

Choosing 42" high cabinets means forgoing crown. On all of the cabinets. Not just crown on some and not on others. You won't have room for it, and putting the pantry shorter and putting crown on it and not the cabinets would be an inconsistant and strange look.Cabinets are standard heights and work as a system for a reason. The top alignment height for 42" cabinets is 96". That works with the pantry heights, as well as the over the fridge and over the stove heights. Some makers offer 39" high cabinets meant to have a top alignment height of 93", but for most, the next step down is 36" high cabinets, meant for 90" high top alignment. If you want crown molding, you don't use 42" high cabinets. You go either 39" or 36" cabinets and the corresponding pantries. If you want staggared height, you'll also need staggared depth. It all works as a system, and changing one single thing affects the whole kitchen. For instance, your ceiiing is too high for 96" alignment but that's the cabinet size you've chosen. That means that your cabinet over your fridge will be shorter and you won't have as much clearance for your fridge. A half inch may not sound like much, but that reduces your under cabinet space to 17 1/2" and then if you have light rail, to 15 1/2 inches, which means you can't fit most small appliances under your cabinets.

Thank you all SO very much for your thoughtful comments and time. I will post some layout pictures here (just met with our Kitchen Designer yesterday again.) We are going on Year 5 of living here this fall, and I have given constant thought as to the space & use since we have moved it. We have had a project going 100% of the time since we moved in due to the original state of the house. Now it's time to upgrade vs "fix". We are overdue! I've toyed around with ALL ideas (removing walls, extending the bar/not pictured-discussed, etc). For the most part, we like the layout and decided the pantry/2nd Kitchen are functional as is, although I love ideas, thank you all for your thoughtfulness. To answer other comments, I don't need 2 Kitchens + Butler Pantry. But that is the existing layout and it's easier to leave as-is than remove any of these large walls or areas, and I do use the space. I don't need 10K sq ft of house either, but it's what we have. (FYI it was a foreclosure we got for $360K on 25 Acres in Rural Indiana; about $100K put in initially to make liveable, and now we are just slowly chipping away at projects). I am going to reuse a lot of these cabinets in a basement storage room & garage. I hate to get rid of them! The Corian should hold up well in the transition too I think. Here is a picture from standing at the Main Island, looking OUT to the rest of the eat-in kitchen. We'll be adding a furniture-style cabinet piece where the additional cabinets are on the left. This bulkhead we may remove. They are big aren't they..? I have no clue what the $-tag would be to remove all of them (this one cheap likely.) I'll get a quote out of curiosity. My gut feeling just says it will be $$..... Just through that hallway to the left is where the 2nd Kitchen & Butlers Pantry are. I can't wait to get rid of this ugly dark red color. Existing Kitchen. Proposed is moving the Fridge from where it is now (right picture, where proposed Wall Oven & MW are - across to other side). Adding 36" rangetop. I can't go much bigger given the space there and existing gas line. We'll be moving our existing GE Induction, Wall Oven, MW to the 2nd Kitchen so did decide to just do 1 Wall Oven + MW in the Main Kitchen. Thanks for your comments on that! You're all right - as we grow/change, we will need that in the kitchen for sure. I was torn on leaving the 48" Fridge in the Main Kitchen, but it helps me avoid re-doing cabinets in the next picture..... as I have a 48" slot with non-working Fridge. Having a 42" and 48" seems to be plenty, vs adding two 48"s. See below. Here is the before of 2nd Kitchen (Please Excuse the Mess - this was previously a child craft room/nanny area). We would paint these cabs and re-do the ugly hood. Existing Wall Oven + old MW would go in here too on the far left replacing that cabinet. And the other side. Little pocket glass door to the bar. Non working 48" SubZero. 2nd Dishwasher, 2nd Trash Compactor, and Sink. Everything in the existing MAIN kitchen will come into here which is nice. No appliance worked when we moved in but I wasn't ready for a full remodel then. But glad to not be wasteful with those purchases. I have always loved the cabinets/style despite being so wood-heavy, so we are just going to paint these to match the main kitchen, new countertops, new backsplash. PROPOSED: And the Butler/WD/Toilet Room. This is on the other side of the Main Kitchen (behind Range/Wall Oven Area). There is a single toilet behind that far wall. And the other side. Here I don't need a 3rd Dishwasher but am struggling to figure out what to do with that space. I could add another Wine Cooler but seems odd to have in the Laundry/Butler area when we have a Bar. Trash Compactor will become pull-out Trash Bin. Ideas for filling the DW space? Again this will be all painted cabs, countertops, backsplash. But see the big bulkhead in here too? I don't want to take that out. We have 6 Bathrooms to remodel in the near(ish) future. I have to be frugal in some areas if I want other areas to pop more. Layout for these 2 pictures: Comments/ideas/suggestions are all ultra welcome. I will put a separate post about some of our semi-final decisions to our next steps in the remodel and would love your criticism.

oldbat2be - thank you and wow! I love your pantry!!! We are going to have a small walk-in pantry in the kitchen too and I was envisioning beautifully divided shelves like yours... I’ll definitely be referring back to your amazing progress pics as we plan out that space. The reach-in pantry in the niche will be for dried goods (with the walk-in being more for small appliances, equipment, and my baking supplies). I will definitely look into using real “door-doors” in the niche rather than being stuck with the limitations of cabinet doors. Our KD is actually a designer project-managing our entire first floor reno (not just the kitchen), so I had hoped she would’ve able to advise us on solutions like this, but I’m staying to realize she’s really kitchen-focused and I think is trying to sell us as much cabinetry as possible rather than looking at what the best solution for our needs might be. Sigh. Luckily, I have a very strong vision of what we want and am tireless at doing my own research, so I am confident I’ll be able to find just the right door solution for our niche. Thanks again!!