You can recycle your cabinets to the garage.

I know technically I could but: does it look good? would garage usage make it impractical (e.g. damage, dirt, heavy stuffs ...)?

It would look like a KD designed a garage. Terrible!!!

@canamrider07 I have that thought too. What is "KD"?

KD kitchen designer. We have older wooden kitchen cabinets in our garage and they are holding up just fine. We have been here 8 years and don't know how long they were here before.....some are solid wood and some are MDF. I painted them all the same color so they match. They are wonderful for storage!

@Kim Weaver - Thanks. How do they look though? Do they still look like "kitchen cabinets" BUT in the garage? I try to imagine if I paint them metallic silver color, would it look better.

I don't think they look kitchen-y because there are no appliances or sink and the counter is just painted plywood. Maybe I can take a picture later. I painted mine a medium gray.

It's your garage. in two homes, we recycled kitchen cabinets to the garage. Too good to send to the landfill, too old for resale. Last set got recycled, again, to a friend's workshop. 1950s plywood boxes/ birch doors. He repainted them. they look great.
Husband put a double layer plywood top. Worked fine. Separate tool cabinets.

We just did this. We remodeled the kitchen and reinstalled the cabinets in the garage. It doesn't matter if it looks good. It's excellent storage in the garage.

Kitchen cabinets in the garage look like, well, kitchen cabinets in the garage. Do you want almost-free storage? Put them in. If you want garage cabinets in the garage, buy some. It is pretty common to reuse kitchen cabinets in the garage, basement, storerooms. You can paint them, but they will still be kitchen cabinets. Kind of hard to change the dimensions. But the cabinets look better than all-open storage.

We installed our old cabinets in both the laundry room and basement workshop. We were even able to reuse the counter top in both areas.

I don't think of garages as places with particular design aesthetics, but then again I could have said the same for laundry rooms and they seem all the rage on houzz. Perhaps aesthetically pleasing garages are next? If you need the storage, use them.

Kitchen cabinets are great for storage in a garage and the counters for a work bench. It look much neater. It's only a garage. Who cares what a garage looks like, it's a place to park your car and store tools. Really, does anybody entertain in their garage.

Yeah, kinda. We have guys friends coming over. Sometime we have a round table with beers in garage. At some point, it would be nice to look neat and aesthetic... :D

yes, people do it. you can make them look as good as you need to.

this one is rather fancy

@Beth H - Yes that is exactly what I hope to achieve.

I agree with Beth, repaint & use them.

I don't see anything wrong with using kitchen cabinets for storage in a garage. You should recycle whenever you can. And if the cabinets will have a practical purpose, why not? You will save money, for sure. Also, your cabinets seem gray (or light gray) and feature slab doors, which, style wise, is more convenient for this particular purpose than, for example, brown traditional cabinetry with ornaments (if you are worried about the style).

They're great in a garage! Go right ahead! I can't believe it's even a question, quite honestly. Like old paint cans on a crappy shelf looks BETTER? Jeeeeesh.

As a "GD" the thought of kitchen cabinets in a garage is embarrassing. Recycle them by giving them to someone that can use them in a kitchen or Re-Store type outfit. Nothing like junking up a garage with kitchen cabinets........"where's my drill, I know I put it in one these lousy little cabinets!"

Oh come ON!!! They belong to the OP. They will go to good use in his own garage. He wants a nice man cave in there. Who CARES? Lets see your garage.......................: )Or is it "embarrassing" ?

Mine ended up in hubs office/man cave and his shed

@ wacokid ..stupid comment !

How little respect a garage is given around here...tools belong in a steel cabinet, with matching hinges, and a great backsplash with subway tile...jeeeeshhhh

" Do they still look like "kitchen cabinets" BUT in the garage? "

Hangem, Paintem and use em. They are yours and paid for. If you arrange them properly they will be perfect. I would probably not use them all but the full height uppers and lowers with a nice fresh gray paint will be perfect. Just my 2 cents.

Perfect use for old cabinets! Go for it!

Would be more embarrassed by entertaining in the garage, than by preventing more landfill waste by demonstrating reduce-reuse-recyle.

Kiddos, Ive got a client with a garage that looks a HELL of a lot better than most folks family rooms and no I am not kidding. Right down to mahogany tongue and groove ceiling.

A man space, and don't think of touching his tools, in drawers and laid out like surgical instruments.Equal inches apart...........

Appreciate all the feedback and strong opinions on both sides :-) A lot of us use garage for entertaining "overflow" especially if you live in the rainy Washington State. My spouse is also taking over part of the garage for HER stuffs.

@JAN MOYER - That is called "garage obsession." Maybe I am not there.. yet. lol

I'd be okay sleeping in it........assuming great linens : )Has nice art.

@JAN MOYER - My son and I hanging out in the garage a lot. He found the mess amazing (which won't be a mess any more with cabinets - I hope ;-))

Maybe ya need a dumpster for the purge ? lol.

Absolutely yes! Your cabinets look sturdy and have a simple, clean look, just what you need o+in a garage. If you know they will serve the purpose, why even think about it?

Go for it! Post photos when you're done painting and placing!

Do an inventory of what will fit in the cabinets vs what wont (ie bikes, golf clubs, lawn equip etc) and make sure you have wall space to accommodate storing the traditional garage stuff then install necessary cabinets in a space that works. Maybe use the uppers only if you have a small garage so the car hood can fit underneath or create a workstation with just some of the cabinets. If it FUNCTIONALLY make sense then do it- if you are displacing large stuff and have empty cabinets its not a good idea.

Put in a bar fridge for the beer and you are done .Seems to make sense to me .

Like I said ask a "KD" about a garage and they turn it into a lame kitchen...

"Hey guys want a beer?" No, but do you have a Chardonnay out here?

Original the living, kitchen, dining, baths and bedrooms were the only area that was suppose to look like it came out of a designer magazine. Then the designers took the bare basements that was great for storage and kids making a mess and turned them into separate living spaces designed for a magazine. Is that where they stopped? No, next was the laundry room. No more was it "in " to have a laundry room with a plastic or old concrete statonary tub, a open shelf with your laundry supplies easy to grab and mop, broom and buckets in the corner. Then they still weren't happy so they moved into designers garages. Sorry, enough is enough. Leave my garage be. It is mostly neat and organized, thanks to a OCD hubby but it is far from a designer garage. It the one space left in the house where a messy project can be done. The one space that the salt and dirt from winter on the floor can be cleaned with a garden hose. The one place I could care less if there is paint, glue, or whatever is splattered on the work bench, the old second fridge can live there, or the storage matches, or the walls have scuff marks on them.. Most important it the ONE SPACE left that doesn't have to be cleaned every week. What's next? What else are they going to come up with to make your home feel as though it is subpar and not fit for a magazine? And don't even get me started on designer he /she sheds.

We did it, and not to make it a "finished, decorated space", but for storage in a house that definitely needed storage. We even converted the two car garage to a one car, heated garage with very large ikea armoires for off season clothing. (Added a new two car garage next to it). My husband calls it my "car closet". Definitely don't clean it like the rest of the house. It does have a refrigerator and yes, with chardonnay. Projects still happen there, especially in winter because, well, the heat. Whatever works. We don't gather there (unless it's a project), but I sure recall my parents and their friends having some great garage parties!

I don't know anyone who doesn't have old kitchen cupboards in their garage.

I agree with partim!

I think your kitchen cabinets would look good in your garage because they are flat panels. Sometimes, if the door cabinets have an arch they might look too much like a kitchen, but personally I wouldn't even care if they did simply because of the storage. I would, however, change your cabinet handles.

As far as the cabinets lasting in the garage, it depends on the quality, the installation, and what you're storing in them.

Geez, how insecure does a guy have to be, to think recycled kitchen cabinets would take away from the “manliness“ of a garage?

Functionthenlook, nobody’s talking about making the garage into a designer showcase. The OP is just looking to recycle his cabs for free storage. It’s a great idea. Why should he donate the cabs elsewhere, and then have to spend money on metal shelving/cabinetry?

To the OP, why do you care what the people here think about your idea? It’s your garage. Do what you like, what makes most sense for YOU. It’s a garage, for goodness sake!

Darbuka, apparently you didn't read my earlier comment or the OPs original post. I am all for reusing the kitchen cabinets in the garage. The OP and some others are the ones who are worried it will not look good design wise.

I read both posts. You criticized the idea of dressing up a garage, making it look more than utilitarian, which I guess you think the recycled cabinets will do.

You also scoffed at how fancy laundry rooms have gotten. Yup, the days of simple white washer/dryers and free standing plastic or ceramic tubs like I grew up with, are gone. Many laundry rooms have expensive front loading machines, which come in a variety of colors, and a ton of cycles. They’re surrounded by lovely cabinets, with countertops for folding. Modern life made easier, more convenient, in a more pleasing environment. This is bad? Why?

Hey. When was the last time you found a bag of clothes pins in someones house? Not the cute/colored plastic ones you squeeze. The old wood ones, fixed position. I remember both, and the line in the back forty on which stuff dried. I also remember the wringer washer, ( the last on planet EARTH ) which my dad dug up for my mom somewhere in.... Iowa......?

She kept that machine alongside a set of Maytags, grudgingly using the dryer for towels and the washer only for its spin cycle. Her laundry was a space near the bottom of the basement stair, untouched after the "remodel" that gave us the green Ozite carpet, hideous vinyl clad couch, and the turn table spinning those memorable Motown 45's. Another section was a tidy tool shed, and a former dirt floor fruit cellar was converted to my Dads, office.

The "mud room" was a bunch of pegs on the stair landing, and winter boots and mittens dried in the DINING room on top of the radiator, or in the kitchen if you ran out of room on that radiator half hidden by the kitchen table. She didn't GET the dryer until all three of us were past playing in snow. She didn't want it, Dad jammed it down her tonsils.

Where was I going with this? ....OH! . The house was neat as a pin. Nobody ever wanted for a washed anything, she washed every day, immediately after we left for school. Laundry, blinding WHITE laundry was her "thing" . You couldn't take a scissors from my dads desk, or a hammer from his tool room shop and not risk wrath if you forgot to put it back exactly. If you left a bike in the driveway and he had to move it? It went up to the rafters by a front tire and you were a walking fool for a full week. The house never had a dishwasher other than the three of us. Everyone went everywhere they were going ...... immaculately clean , healthy and on time. .......and did that from one main bath, an immaculate and pretty darn ugly bath with a sheet vinyl floor.

I go in and out of far better homes, and have for nearly three decades. I am the "evil" designer making them better yet, despite even the original may be something that would have thrilled the parents. More days than I can count, I see brand new chaotic kitchens, overstuffed laundry rooms where nobody can discern clean from dirty. I see walk in closets for kids where clothes haven't seen a shelf or hanger in weeks. ..........and that's after I've tripped over whatever is left behind on the bedroom floor. I exit through a stylish "mud and cubby hall" that overflows with shoes and who knows WHAT despite the bins and baskets and ship lap.

Know what I do? I get in the car and mutter to myself............" Mom, you wouldn't believe it. You just wouldn't believe it."

Frankly, even I can't believe it , many many days. Nobody appears any happier than we were. It's all just a lot better looking and a lot more "convenient" : ) LMAO.

Jan I agree with you. The new "stuff" doesn't create a calm orderly environment - only people can do that, and it takes all kinds to make a world.

My grandmother was born in 1900 and we loved her stories about their everyday life. For example, wringer washers were a fabulous improvement over wringing out laundry by hand. No need to go the gym for an upper body workout when you're wringing out heavy linen sheets by hand!

The previous owners of our home had the old cabs put in the garage. We're so glad they did.

Most metal garage cabinets that I have seen seem to develop rust after a few years. Then I see them on the curb. Unless your garage is a completely insulated and heated/cooled space.