I am in the process of designing a whole house remodel and have been asked by my wife if it is possible to have a 30 inch base cabinet in order to provide additional counter space depth. This would enable us to keep some small appliances such as toaster, coffee pot, etc., at the rear of the counter and still have adequate counter space up-front. My search of on-line cabinet sites leads me to believe that they are not available. Without going to a pure custom cabinet, does anyone have a lead on 30 inch base cabinets?
Respectfully,
Ernie
Replies
Anything out of the ordinary will always be custom.
Your best bet would be to find a small cabinet shop as all of there work would be custom. Most small shops will be more than willing to work with your design criteria without handing down huge custom design charges.
When we do a kitchen we wait til the cabinets are installed before ordering the counters and then we have them delivered 2 days later and they are all custom built according to our criteria.
I would seek out a local shop for these but depending on layout, you could also just pull standard cabs forward and build the tops to fit the width. There are negatives too, like decreased floor space creating need for a larger room.
Keep in mind that a deeper cabinet will affect other things: like countertops. Most standard countertops are 25". Not that they can't be custom ordered, but consider the extra cost. I am guessing that shops would mostly carry pre-cut stock (feel free to chime in, countertop gurus). May not be able to get that molded in backsplash.
Then there are the appliances. Some sort of stop block will need to be mounted to the floor...?
Unless you plan to only have one part of the room w/the extra depth, get lots of input from the installation folks before you commit.
Does sound like a nifty idea, tho. I did this for my potting bench (30"x60"), and at first thought I had overbuilt. Until I loaded it up - then I thought it was genius inspiration.
30 inch counter is the in thing right now, a lot of kitchen designers are incorperating them in their designs. Piffin, as usual covered all the grounds. Unless there are unusual circumstances, most people would just use the standard 24" base. If you want a formed edge and back splash, it is custom ordered and they'll do a 30" with no problem. I would limit the 30" counter to a section of the work space. First of all unless you have a big kitchen or it will take up a lot of floor space. Then most likely you don't really need all these deep counter spaces all over your kitchen. You know what's really nice, it's a green house type window that juts out over the last 6-12"
Tom
If you're gonna have 30" deep tops, and use standard base cabinets, I'd at least consider modifying the backs of the cabinets and building deeper drawers. You could probably reuse the drawer faces so all you'd be talking about is building new boxes and longer (full extension) hardware. I don't know if ANYONE has enough drawerspace.
Brinkmann for president in '04
Ernie,
Since it's a remodel, do a careful analysis of your floorspace to see if you can fit the 30" cabinets in. Check that opposing doors will not knock each other (wall units vs opposing island, etc), that the dishwasher door has adequate clearance, etc.
I don't know of anyone who makes a stock 30" cabinet. Even if I did I wouldn't use them, as stock cabinets are usually woefully inadequate.
Visit a local cabinet shop, with plans in hand, and inquire about them being constructed to your specifications. The labor is essentially the same, it's just the materials cost that will go up.
Everything, and I repeat, EVERYTHING, that is in a 30" deep cabinet should be on slides. Either sliding shelves, pull out pantry storage gizmos, or plain old 28" deep drawers.
I use only KV 100 and 150 pound drawer slides. 8400/8405 and 8500/8505.
The extra storage, and the ease of accessibility with the drawer slides, will amaze you.
Lots of good points by previous posters, but I'll add one more. Don't forget about your upper cabinets. With the extra 6" depth on the base cabinets, you may want to go with deeper uppers as well.
A deeper countertop will need excellent undercabinet lighting to illuminate the deeper work area as well.
I've got 30" deep cabinets in my house, they're the only type of kitchen cabinet I've installed over the past seven years.
How do you address the issue with the upper cabinets when you have 30" deep lower cabinets? That's an extra 6" of reach and if you make them 18" then it would be hard to get to the back and you can't compensate that with drawers as you can do with the lower. Any good ideas? Or just omit the upper cabinets if you have enough storage space.
Tom
I guess you could make them approx 16" deep it would just about work out 3 rips per a sheet of ply. It would be a reach to the back of the cabs. But you would have plenty of storage room... Darkworksite4: When the job is to small for everyone else, Its just about right for me"
Sounds so Canadian to me. Hey, I know, compromise. Why does a Canadian cross the road? To get to the middle. Ron, sounds logical.
Tom
I make a lot of fourteen inch uppers. Check out how many serving trays and bowls won't fitt into a twelve inch wall cab.
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Ya Its interesting, I heard somewhere that as we "humans are getting bigger, eating more , the plares we use are getting larger also. I havent checked it out but old plates were smaller in dia. then the newer ones. So deeper cabs would make sense. Darkworksite4: When the job is to small for everyone else, Its just about right for me"
When our plates don't fit in the cuppord we just fold them in half.
Brinkmann for president in '04
Wood mode uppers are 13" deep
TDo not try this at home!
I am a trained professional!
Yea its funny the fine silverware we own melts in the DW too. Darkworksite4: When the job is to small for everyone else, Its just about right for me"
I agree on going to a local custom shop for your millwork. 30 inch lowers, 16 inch uppers with full depth counters are a good choice if you have the room.
I owned a custom millwork shop for many years and would always put more effort (quality) into a project where the owners wanted something more than straight run cabinetry.
To complicate matters further, have you ever considered a backsplash at 25 inches back with a shelf to close the gap to the wall? The resulting shelf can be used to keep the front of the counter clean of clutter. If you are really anal (I am) put grommets in the rear deck and hide your chords and outlets behind the lower cabinets.
Also, don't forget linear lighting along the underside of the uppers. If you go custom, ask the millworker to make the bottom rail deep enough to completely hide the light fixture.
Lastly, purdy is how we spell it here in Texas y'all. Not that we know how to spell ....
Tony
Now you said it I think I have seen backsplash at 25". It is a good idea that there is something there to stop the splash from going further back and also you don't have to climb over the stuff in front to get to the back. Brilliant. When you said linear lighting, can you elaborate? I am looking for somthing like that for cove lighting.
Tom
Tom - There are many types and styles of linear lighting.
One of my favorites is a fixture line called "Little Inch". I do not know the name of the manufacturer, but I am sure that any good electrical supply house should be able to track them down. It is a fluorescent fixture that is real clean and high quality and, go figure, about one inch thick. By placing the fixtures at the front edge of the upper cabinet, fixture placement becomes less critical.
Another is the linear low voltage lighting and quartz systems used in display cases. These are quite small and very easy to install. Steplight is one really nice manufacturer of low voltage PVC tube lighting. I would not want to read by the light but it is a pleasant warm yellow color typical of incandescent lighting and is dimable. An added bonus is its small size, about 1/2 to 5/8 inch diameter tube.
Whichever you choose, be sure that your millworker knows what you want. A custom millworker can provide the electrician with all the access holes, etc. during the assembly process at little or no expense. Installation of linear lighting often becomes quite tedious and frustrates some electricians.
http://www.johansenlighting.com/ - Real high quality lighting supplier, also good source of info. Contact Robert Nelson and tell him I sent you. They also represent a great bunch of suppliers.
Hope this helps - Tony
You are of great help, thanks Tony.
Tom
Piffin and Ron hit this one.
For 30" base cabinets I almost always run 16" deep uppers. The depth has been adjusted a bit either way depending on storage use. With deeper uppers, either the uppers can be filled to full-depth, or the items stored there can be brought forward so a deep reach is not required. In my own house we have both. Some filled full depth, in others their is a 2" or so dead space at the back. My wife placed some painted serving trays back there leaning against the cabinet back. Those with the trays have glass doors. Looks kinda purdy.
Like Piffin, I think that even with standard-depth bases, often times a 14" deep upper is much more practical than a 12" deep upper.
We spend a lot of time in our kitchen. I'm a big believer in customized kitchen design. "Custom" doesn't have to mean big bucks...but it should always translate to ease of use. Know what you cook, how you cook, where you cook, where you prep, what tools/utensils you have, what tools/utensils you think you'll acquire, how you'll cleanup, and design accordingly.
You can certainly omit the uppers if you have adequate storage elsewhere. It often makes sense to do so in today's multi-use kitchens that have walls that lead into another room. Not having uppers on that transitional wall often improves sightlines, creating a more spacious feel to both rooms.
Dang, Mongo, can't you spell ? Didn't you run that post through the spell checker ???
The correct spelling is purty, not purdy.
Did you know vaseline can be very handy for sex?
You put it on the doorknob, so the kids can't get in the bedroom.
You might think about just spacing a standard 24" deep cabinet 6 inches off the wall, and have custom end panels fabricated. About 90% of the hardware available is geared for a 24" deep cabinet. You can't put a 28" drawer in 24" slides, it won't work. Deeper slides are available at a premium, you can get them up to around 60", but $$$$. This also applies to the "toys" like trash units, tray units, anything that slides in and out will most likely be for a 24",or less, depth cabinet.
The counters wont be a problem if your gonna tile. They'll cost more but no problem. Why not build your own cabs. Have you considered this option? Darkworksite4: When the job is to small for everyone else, Its just about right for me"
We used a 24" cabinet spaced 6" off of the wall with a 30" counter top, located next to the refrigerator on the short side of an ell shaped kitchen. With the 30" next to it, the frig can slide back and be flush with front of cabinets. Upper over this cabinet is 18" deep with garage door under to hide what you plan to store on back of deep counter. We also installed a 30" deep full height cabinet above the frig. This huge box holds all those things that we "absolutely" need but only use a few times a year, so we don't mind have to use a step stool to get to the top shelf or any part or the back. Recommendation to have everything in the lower 30" cabinet on glides is right on. We used this policy throughout kitchen, the only doors on he bottom cabinets, including the island, are in the sink base and access door to the lower corner carousel. Gone are the days of bending over and rummaging around to find the right pot only to discover that it was put in another place.
Ernie why not build your own cabinets? Its not that hard and you than can have cabinets that fit your needs and space and not a generic space in 3" increments. If you are not sure if you can do it well, practice on custom cabinets for the master bedroom closet. Want to please your bride and give her huge bragging rights about what a great catch you were? Build her a tricked out closet for all her stuff.
Unsure? E-mail me and we can discus it.