Continuous shelves inside wall cabinetry.

15 years ago

In the thread I've linked to below is a photo of a butler's pantry.

The 2nd photo of the butler's pantry wall cabinets shows the BIG advantage of continuous shelves inside "uppers". After you open any one panel, you can reach things from the side (a bit) instead of being forced to open the next panel.

i spent my years 10 to 20 in a house that had this.

Years later I rented a house that had this.

Today, knowing what I know now, I would make sure NOT to buy wall cabinets.

Because they cut space up, into separate chunks, with walls.

Instead, I would always go for a custom "cabinet" or structure to hold long shelves.

Then, the front panels could be anything and it wouldn't matter much.

Doors, sliding panels, lift-up panels, whatever.

Frosted or clear glass, whatever, it doesn't matter much.

The thread linked to below has many photos. Monday evening is the batch of photographs I've mentioned. Thank you to Lynn for posting these, and the entire thread.

Here is a link that might be useful: farmgirlinky kitchen before/after

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Comments (5)

natschultz
15 years ago
My current (original) kitchen has a 6 ft. long upper with continuous long shelves going the entire length. While I always open the door I need based on what dishes I want, I think the real benefit is that you can fit more stuff or odd shaped stuff because there are no vertical sides between the doors. For example my saucers, while in the first cabinet (door), actually go beyond the stile into the next, so I can fit the cereal bowls, salad plates and saucers in what "appears" to be a 24" wide cab, but because there is no vertical separation they fit, whereas in a normal 24" cab they never would. And I'd never be able to fit all the jumbo coffee mugs in if there were sides!

My Grandmother's Butlers Pantry had a wrap-around upper on 2 walls with "L" shelves in the corner - no vertical partitions. The stuff in the corner was harder to access (of course) and that's where I always hid my Melmac mouse bowl!
davidro1
Original Author
15 years ago
this is right. No vertical sides, no vertical separation. Lets you store more. Easier to reach anything too.
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artemis78
15 years ago
We had this in our old kitchen (circa 1940s, but pretty sure they were adding onto original cabinetry) and it was often handy. However, we actually chose *not* to do it in the new kitchen because, although we have custom cabinets and our "three" uppers are really built as one single box, we planned to keep dishes in one third of the cabinet and food/pantry items in the other two thirds. So we asked our cabinetmaker to drop a divider down between the two so that food items didn't wander into the dishes area---something that made my husband crazy in our old kitchen. (We did do one long shelve across both of the other "two" cabinets.) In theory someone could remove this in the future and put in longer shelves since it isn't structural. We only have one wall of uppers, though, and aren't wrapping any corners---for corners, I would absolutely do this in any situation, because it makes the space far more usable.

Just another perspective!
sombreuil_mongrel
15 years ago
It's pretty much standard for old-time site-built cabinets. I hope it makes a comeback. Continuous faceframes are a very tailored spiffy look.
Casey
formerlyflorantha
15 years ago
We did extend our end cabs into the spacer--custom cabinetmaker said "no sweat. Never even thought about doing same for the rest of cabs until you made this post. [Homer Simpson slap to head & "Doh!"]