[ad_1]

When it comes to keeping costs down, sticking to stock sizes and items is key. So, it’s important to be aware of the stock sizes as you design your space. Standard lengths for plywood and melamine cabinets are 8′ and 12′ in a 4′ width – keep these dimensions in mind during your design process!

While it’s always possible to have some special custom additions made by the manufacturer, you may be able to achieve a custom look without the full custom price. How? Start with a standard cabinet and have a local cabinet maker do some after-market work to spruce them up.

The standard depth for kitchen cabinets is 12″, with bottom cabinets being 24″ deep. These dimensions shouldn’t cause any issues. The challenge arises with cabinet width. Cabinets come in 1′ increments, and sometimes your kitchen space won’t neatly align with these increments. This can result in odd pockets of space that need to be dealt with when using stock cabinets in your kitchen.

Now, onto the best ideas for a floor plan!

To design your cabinets, grab some ¼ inch graph paper and create a detailed floor plan. Use a 1-inch to 1-foot scale. Sketch out the perimeter of your kitchen to scale on the graph paper, and mark all the openings into the room like windows and doors. Don’t include the current cabinets in your drawing, unless you plan on moving your plumbing! You may also want to mark where your refrigerator and sink go.

Now, create stock size cabinets using paper cutouts. Make various standard size cutouts and move them around the kitchen to find the best configuration. Consider creating cutouts for the refrigerator and stove as well to see how they fit into the mix.

With your design grid ready to go, there are some important considerations to keep in mind:

• Avoid putting drawers in a corner as it creates dead space – it’s better to place two cabinets side by side and modify a stock cabinet to add an opening.
• Don’t place your stove in a corner either, as the cupboard beside it will be useless, even if you have counter space on either side.
• Keep corner cabinets at least 18 inches wide to ensure they’re usable.
• Ensure there’s adequate drawer space – it’s better to have more than you need to accommodate all your kitchen essentials.
• Add a lazy Susan to your corner spaces for more efficient use.
• Use common sense when placing your refrigerator and stove – avoid putting them right next to each other in order to prevent the refrigerator from working harder and wearing out faster. Also consider the potential increase in utility bills.

It’s important to keep the efficient food prep triangle in mind when designing a kitchen – this pattern is formed by your refrigerator, sink, and stove. If you have to place all of these spaces on a single wall, try to have your sink in the middle.

After finalizing the configuration of your bottom cabinets, you can determine the placement of your upper cabinets. Instead of using a floor plan style layout, now you’ll want to focus on the elevation view of your room. This view shows the walls of your room to scale, along with all window and door openings. We’re only concerned with height in this drawing, so mark the height of all the base cabinets. Stock base cabinets are typically 34 ½” high, allowing for a countertop height of about 36″.

First, mark out your refrigerator and draw a line around the room – this will indicate the level of the bottom of your upper cabinets. Regular wall cabinets are usually mounted 18″ over the countertop or 54″ from the floor. Alternatively, you can mount them 16″ over the counter for easier access to the second shelf.

Once you have a visual of how the elevation view of your new cabinets will look, return to your floor layout and mark a 12″ line to indicate the depth of the upper cabinets wherever you plan to mount them.

By creating paper scale cutouts of your cabinets from the elevation view, you can place them on your elevation drawing to see how they appear. Pay attention to how the vertical lines of the doors align. Even if the lines between the upper and lower cabinets don’t match perfectly, ensure they create an aesthetically pleasing pattern that doesn’t look disjointed. Move your paper cutouts around to find the most appealing patterns before deciding on the final cabinet placement.

After experimenting with the placement of your paper cutouts and settling on your cabinet configuration, you’ll have a clear understanding of how they’ll look in your kitchen.

[ad_2]

Ihab Salloum