Kitchen cabinet wish list: designing your cabinets to maximize space
By Jim MalleryRefacingCabinet.com Columnist
Part 1 of a four-part series, Kitchen Cabinet Wish List
The most used room in your home is probably the kitchen. And the most important aspect of the kitchen, without doubt, is the cabinetry. You want to get as much out of your kitchen cabinets as possible. In this first of four articles that explore your cabinetry wish list, here are six cabinet space considerations to take into account.
6 Ways to Maximize Your Kitchen Cabinets
- Quantity. Easy to say, but not always easy to execute; you want plenty of kitchen cabinets. You don't hear homeowners lament having too many cabinets. If you are working with a kitchen in an older home, it likely is small--that's the way things were back in the day. While it sounds drastic, the modern solution is to punch out a wall to expand the kitchen.
- Island. If your kitchen plans include an island, design it with cabinet-space in mind. Adding a few inches here or there in the island may open up new opportunities for drawers or shelves.
- Glass. Windows are a major competitor for cabinet space: If you want to look out on a gorgeous view, or out over a backyard pool or children's play area, you want plenty of glass. But where there is glass, there are no cabinets. If your kitchen looks out onto the neighbor's backyard used-car lot, you might opt for a smallish, 4' window over the sink.
- Uppers. The old standard for your upper cabinets was 12 inches deep. Nowadays, it is common for manufacturers to make them 14 inches, sometimes for the same cost. Make sure they are 14 inches.
- Pots & pans. Cookware that is hanging is not using up space on shelves. If you have a way to hang your pots and pans, say, over the island cooktop, then do it. Besides leaving cabinet space for other items, it makes the cookware more accessible and reduces the damage done by stacking pieces atop each other.
- Pullout pantry. Often, you have counter space that is wasted. At the end of a run of cabinets, there easily could be a couple feet of counter that does nothing but collect grease. Why not put a floor-to-ceiling pantry cabinet in that space? Such a pantry can be designed to either pull out as a unit, or to have individual shelves pull out giving you easy access to the contents. And a note on pullouts: a pullout gives you slightly less space than an anchored shelf, but pullouts are so much easier to use than having to reach an arm's length to the back of the cabinet to fish out a can of olives.
These ideas should get you thinking how to maximize the space of your kitchen cabinets. In Part 2 we will look at more suggestions to create cabinet space.
About The Author
Jim Mallery, a semi-retired journalist and onetime registered contractor, has extensive experience remodeling, repairing and rebuilding homes.
