Eight Tips to Make Your Cabinets Custom

December 28, 2009

You don't get mulligans when buying kitchen cabinets for your remodeled kitchen. Here are eight tips to help you get it right the first time.

1. Ball-bearings. A Lazy Susan is great for corner cabinets, but it needs to be the type with a wood platter that rotates on a ball-bearing track mounted atop a solid shelf. They can carry a heavy load. The flimsy plastic trays that rotate on a post aren't worth the bag of flour they collapse under.

2. Hinged shelving. This intricate system of rollers and/or hinges, is an alternative to a Lazy Susan in the corner. You might not trust them with heavy pots or appliances, but they can be wonderful for smaller items. Or they might remind you of a Rubik's Cube and you choose to stay with the simple Lazy Susan.

3. Pullout pantry. Even if you have a regular closet pantry, you might love this item. These are tall drawers, about 12- to 15-inches wide that run either floor-to-ceiling or floor to countertop. They have side-access shelves that make everything easy to reach. They are great for bags, boxes and packages. Custom spice racks work well in these.

4. Pull-up mixer shelf. If you like to keep you counters clear, these shelves are wonderful. You simply open a door and lift the appliance into position. But these shelves consume a lot of space--usually holding only one appliance, where regular shelves could hold two or more. Make sure there is an electrical outlet inside the cabinet, or at least one in the backsplash directly behind the shelf.

5. Deeper uppers. The upper (wall) cabinets used to be a standard 12 inches deep. Many custom cabinetmakers now make a 14-inch wall cabinet, and the extra depth is worth it.

6. Drawers or Doors? Whatever style, you want to have pullout access in your base cabinets. Doors with pullout shelves add an extra step in getting into your storage--you must open the doors all the way, then slide the shelf out. But while having all drawers, with a combination of widths and heights, is more efficient than doors/pullout shelving, some people prefer the more traditional look provided by having some doors.

7. Full extension, soft shut. You want full-extension, undermount drawer slides--they give you wider drawers and easy access to the back of the drawer. Soft shut drawers and doors are a nice touch and don't cost much.

8. Under-cabinet lights. Make sure the bottoms of your wall cabinets have enough space to hide under-cabinet lights--an inch should be enough.

Your kitchen cabinets are a huge-ticket item. These are some suggestions to make sure your kitchen cabinets perform to your delight.

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