only lower cabinets and drawers

6 years ago

We are designing a new build. I’m picturing a light and open kitchen with a lot of windows and minimal if any upper cabinets. I’ve heard that newer cabinets allow better organization and storage and was hoping it would be enough storage. We would have cabinets on perimeter, an island and a pantry. I love the idea of using drawers for dishes like plates and bowls. I’m a little uncertain about glasses. I know the size of our kitchen and amount of stuff we have makes a difference but can anyone comment on functionality of using only lower storage?

Featured Answer

sushipup1

6 years ago

I loved it in my old house. Everyday glasses were at the far end of the big island, glass-front doors, glass shelves. Note on the far side, a total of 180" of 40" high and 12" deep wall cabinets, on a 1/2 wall in a split level. In a house my parents built 60 years ago, there was one entire wall floor to ceiling of wall-depth cabinets for extra storage.

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Comments (6)

coveln
Original Author
6 years ago
Love it!
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Lynda Cushman
4 years ago
I love this idea! I am looking into it for my remodel. How did your project turn out?
margaret6557
3 years ago
We are looking into this as well. In order to figure out how much storage we would need I added up the number of drawers and the number of shelves that we currently have in the upper cabinets . I also looked at items that are on the upper shelves that I cannot reach anyway and plan to store those items in one of our two pantries. We also added four cabinets to the back of the island that are 24" deep so lots of storage there as well. For glasses I thought we would do floating shelves.

The one thing I am thinking about is what to do with the bare walls? Do we tile them up to the ceiling? Do we tile them only up to where we will place the floating shelves? What were your plans for the walls?
Trudy P
3 years ago
I've found that if you have enough base cabinets, you don't miss the wall cabinets.

But I'm short and tall people may disagree.

I like using the wall cabinets/shelves for spices, glasses, platters, decor (live plants, pitchers, etc.), and bread.

Two of my six floating shelves could not be installed very securely, so I can't put anything heavy on those, which limits their use. Not sure how common that is.
mariamc1578
2 years ago
I know this is a really old thread, but thought I would put in my two cents. We did a kitchen with no uppers, only windows and I absolutely love it! I have our plastic glasses in a drawer and our glassware in a hutch that our cabinet maker created for us. It's in the dining area of our great room and I don't mind that it isn't right in the kitchen area per se. We use the plastic most of the time and grab the glassware when we're having a nicer dinner or whatever. The plastic ones are right across from the dishwasher which is super handy. At first I had the glass ones in there, but because it's a short drawer (in the island), people kept pulling it open too fast and occasionally the glasses would fall and we broke a few. If you have the space I would definitely go for it. And do as many drawers as you can! Drawers are the best!