Determining cabinet sizes and door swing
I have a couple questions about making cabinets.
I have about 72” of hanging cabinets to build.
1. how do I determine the best way to break down the space? Should I build 4 cabinets? Or should I build two 36” wide cabinets? Is it better to build one 36” centered one with an 18” on either side? I also expect that A 36” will get a divider down the middle. Is this true?
2. How do I determine which side should the doors be hinged on? Should the all be right or left hinged? Should the be hinged in pairs of left and right? Should they all be hinged so that , from the center, all left of center doors are left hinged and all right of center are right hinged?
3. Should cabinets alway be taller than wide? I currently believe that my cabinets will only be 18” – 24” tall. They will be hanging over my car door and I want them high enough so that I do not hit my head. Is it wrong to build 18” x 18” cabinets? Do they need to follow the Golden ratio?
Replies
Some of your questions should be answered by determining what you want to store in the cabinets. Will the things you plan on storing fit in the space of an 18" cabinet or will the last row not fit because of the size. An example that comes to my mind is large canning jars in a narrow cabinet. Do you want to end up with an empty "slot" because what you intended to put there won't fit. As far as the heights, I'd do what made sense and fit my needs.
One thing to keep in mind with your doors, if you make a 36" cabinet with a door on either side of the center stile, they will be fairly large doors that will open out into your face when you open the door. Think of your kitchen - do you have any large wall cabinet doors? How far do you have to back up so you can get out of the way of opening the door. That may determine your decision on how to set up your doors. If the cabinets are high enough to avoid hitting your head getting out of the car, does that mean you'll need a ladder or step stool to access things in the cabinets. It's a lot harder to get out of the way of a large swinging door if you're on a stool or ladder in front of the doors.
The rest of your questions relate as much to appearance as to function. Which is more important to you - the appearance or the function?
You could build it in one piece, or 2- 36 wide cabs doors each. Separate cabs add more material, but heavier. Frameless are the easiest.
Doors wider than they are tall look weird.
If they’re 18” tall, then 4 doors 18x18.
Explore hardware to hinge the doors up? Frameless full overlay with a gas strut would work well for what you describe.
Wow, I really did not think of that option. It sounds really cool. When I lift the door, will they need to go above the height of the cabinets? I am in a split so the garage doesn’t have much height to begin with and I am hoping to keep relatively close to the ceiling for max usable space.
They sound cooler than they are many times they can be difficult to close, especially for shorter people and the hardware can get expensive compared to ordinary hinges.
36" cabinets are easier to lift than a 72". 18's are even easier.
Since you are talking the possibility of a center style, I will assume you are going with faceframe construction (not European, frameless) style.
I would probably go with two 36's. I hate center styles.... They always make the cabinet less useful. I don't think a ~30" opening will require a center style.
As for door swing, the space kinda sets the stage. Think about how they will be used. How would a person approach the cabinet and try to get the stuff inside? With two 36's, they would typically both have two doors, hinged on the outside styles, center style or not.
I am doing a kitchen now, and have two wide cabinets, with two narrow cabinets on the outside (I am just following the plans). But, it is required because one of the wider cabinets has a hood vent installed inside it.
Also, wider/taller doesn't matter. Especially in something like a garage... Where' they're more for function, over form. I have no issue with wide, squat cabinets. I see them over refrigerators all the time.
If it were me, building a garage hanging cabinet, I would put cleats on the wall for the shelves. Cleats attached to the ceiling for the ends and top front. Add 2 end panels with cleats. Add the shelves. Build a face frame for whatever door configuration you want. Add doors.
I left out that I am thinking of frameless for the garage but that is not yet set in stone. I do think the frame will add rigidity to the cabinets so that is a plus. The garage is going to be a test for basement cabinets which those will be framed
In this case I'd do something as similar to what you want to do inside as possible for the experience and to help identify any problems you might run into making the ones for the house.
2 36" wide cabinets hinges on the left and right is the best combination of maximum storage flexibility, ease of construction and strength. Shelves wider than 36" tend to sag or require additional support. Small cabinets and openings can limit what you can store.
With the cabinets only 18” tall, won’t they have a tendency to rack from the weight and long length? I appreciate thinking about usable space but I think a long door that is short in height might look a bit ridiculous. I might have stuff hanging from the ceiling too so that LI g door might reduce what I can store over the car since the door will swing out nearly 36” plus the depth of the cabinet (12 - 18”). Thank you for the suggestion and I will take it into consideration.
Are you saying to have 4 doors for the 72” span or just 2? I think I have misunderstood what you said.
The height will have no bearing on racking as long as you follow sound construction techniques, the back should be at least 3/8" plywood set into a dado in the sides and tops and bottoms.
I am suggesting 4 doors, what we call butt doors in the kitchen cabinet business. One door hinges on the left side panel and one on the right for each cabinet with about an 1/8" gap in between with no center stile/divider.
Have to agree with esch.
Only thing to add would be that there really is no ideal spacing - it's up to you. If you look at kitchens, you will see they are all the same height and have multiple different width opening, often combined in the same home.
The only issue I can forsee is that if the base of the cabinet is low enough that you will not hit your head then you will need a ladder to access the contents unless they are very shallow (say 4-6" max depth)
At 72 inches wide and 18 inches high, I would consider sliding doors.
Exactly my thoughts. In fact, I have one sitting a'top a cabinet right now that made the move from the "2-Car 'Shop'" to my new one that's set up for French Cleats when I finally put it in my new shop. It's 48" wide x 14½" deep x 14½" high with three sliding doors. I think he could use the same configuration by just adding one or two more doors which would allow him to overcome the "Squat" look of wider than tall doors. Of course, if he's planning on hanging items from the insides of the doors, then he's left hanging. [Pun intended.]
I have not seen sliding doors. How do you make them?
The only thing I do not care for about sliding doors is that, depending on the handles, you have some portion of the cabinet that is not exposed from either side. I feel this limits the functionality of the cabinet a bit.
Because they are above head height, these would be for things I use rarely or overstock like I buy oil filters by the case.
I am 6' 1" but I agree I would need some help to reach. I was planning on making a folding step stool to hang at one end of the cabinets to facilitate access. As it is, I have a 5 ft aluminum ladder hanging in the garage just a couple feet away so I could just use that too.
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