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Kitchen Wall Cabinets

Choosing Kitchen Wall Cabinets

Corrine Dolezal

Kitchen wall cabinets are most likely to be the focal point of any kitchen. Although everyone is aware that base cabinets are there and would miss them if they weren't, it's the wall cabinets that get all the attention. For that reason, manufacturers of fine cabinetry produce many different styles of doors for wall cabinets so that all kitchens don't have to look alike. Commercial cabinets are also being fitted out with more than just shelves these days to give them more functional uses. When it comes time to choose wall cabinets for your kitchen, you'll have plenty of decisions to make.

Standard kitchen wall cabinets are 12” deep. They come in widths starting at 9” and increase by 3” increments to 36”. In addition, the height of standard cabinets start at 12” and also go up in 3” increments to 36”. There are other custom options available such as deeper cabinets which fit over refrigerators and taller cabinets for high ceilings.

There are Choices to Make when Hanging your Cabinets

Some experts will advise you not to make your cabinets any higher than you'll be able to reach, but the choice is actually up to you. High shelves can be used for additional storage of items you seldom use. There's also controversy about whether it's best to just hang the wall cabinets at the standard height leaving the tops open or to build a bulkhead to hang them from. Personally, I don't like having to climb up to clean the tops of open cabinets and prefer having them built in at the top.

Some kitchen wall cabinets come with glass doors, and they can be very attractive. However, if you don't want to keep the interiors of your cupboards totally neat and immaculately clean at all times, everyone is going to be able to see the mess through the glass panels. In addition, when you install cabinets with glass doors you'll be sentencing yourself to years of cleaning fingerprints off the glass. If you've ever had glass tabletops you'll know what I'm talking about. You need to consider how much extra effort you're going to want to make if you install cabinets with glass doors.

Most wall cabinets come with some type of raised-panel design. Traditionally these have been either rectangular or curved at the top. There is a machine available now, though, that actually carves patterns into the raised panels of kitchen wall cabinet doors which has vastly opened up the field of design. The days of simple, square-paneled doors may well become history as we make room for modern technology.