Take the dinner plates you want to set on edge and measure them? See how much space they need and then space the shelves accordingly.

Mine are set at 13.75 inches apart....they are adjustable, if necessary.

ML

Thank you. Right now my china is packed and I'd like to get the cabinet ready before I get the boxes out so there is less chance of breaking the china. It's Noritake, so probably around 10-12 inches. My everyday plates are 10.5 inches and I think my china plates are a bit bigger.

I like the way someone stacked their oval tureen on their platters. I don't have a tureen, but I have several platters. The smaller ones are probably 12-14 inches across?

Please take pics of your repurposed piece. I think if I had platters that were wider than plates I would want at least one shelf one inch taller so I could display the different shape. My curio is too small for my platters.

Well, this isn't working out as I would like. Here is one piece of the unit as it was built (but without the shelf in the center section.
{{!gwi}}

And here is one where I added the track for adjustable shelves, and one shelf. I found my dinner plates but haven't found the other plates yet. The distance betwee the top shelf and the top of that section is 11 inches. My plates are 10.5" and there seems to be enough room to get them in & out.
{{!gwi}}

The problem is that there is only 17 inches left on the bottom which is not enough for another shelf. With the shelf in the middle, there is plenty of room to stand plates above and below, but a lot of wasted space and not a lot of room for stacked plates. I routered in a couple of grooves for plates on the shelf, but no way to do that on the fixed bottom shelf. I'd have to put them on stands, or nail a piece of trim onto the shelf. Or maybe someone here has another idea?

I put my largest platter in the top section with my oval bowls and gravy bowl, but the bowls can go anywhere.

Right now these two pieces of the unit are in my breakfast room, but I'll put them in the dining room later, and put glass doors on the middle and top sections. IF, it works for a china cabinet. Right now, I'm not crazy about the distance between shelves.

And here it is with another shelf. It's not a tall space between the two shelves, 4.5", just enough to put the remaining stack of plates.

{{!gwi}}

What do you think? Is there a way to make this work, or should I try to repurpose them in another way?

This post was edited by marti8a on Fri, Jul 12, 13 at 1:49