apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

My parent's house has these sliding doors in that space, not exactly cabinets, but probably cheaper.

But if you have a large enough kitchen, you have to admit the glow looks nice. See the background of this photo:
http://www.lightology.com/instshots/kitchen/
(They call it "Flex Strip")

And practically speaking, you have to be able to reach most of your stuff. I'm 5'4" and have to drag out the stepstool to reach above the 2nd shelf. What a pain.

Nonononoo.. I have just been considering this myself. I have a good 5 feet from the tops of my cabinets to the ceiling. Mine are white so I was going to get some plain white cabinets from IKEA (no handles, no nothing) and put them ontop. Walls are white too (sorry. It's a rental) so I figure it will all blend in OK.

If you live in a small space, then isn't it better to have the storage there than not? If it is there, you can always chose not to use it... I'm considering storing spare duvets + hats up there (where else can you store a wide-brimmed hat?)

I suppose it depends upon whether or not there's someone in the household who can reach it. If there is, then it's actually a nice place to store pots and pans with their lids on. My friend uses it as a place to store thing only her (taller) husband uses in the kitchen, like their tabletop grill.

If it's not space that you have easy access to, I'd use it for storage, using colorful boxes that fit nicely into the space. If it's not high enough for that, then the crown molding and rope light idea would be a nice fallback

Reused Milk/cider containers - I store differnt kinds of lentils, rice, barley, oats - up there.

On the other side I have kept extra glasses ( mine gives a blue tinge ) so looks like glass works.

Sto-RAGE! Sto-RAGE!

In my Let's Collect Old Cookbooks phase, those went in the fern gap atop the kitchen cabinets. (It was far enough from the stove that normal cooking didn't cover them with grease.)

I've had cabinets to the ceiling in some pretty cheap construction, so it can't be that hard for the contractor to slap up his own molding. Methinks the fern gap looks good in the model home or something.

When I did my kitchen, I put in a double set of wall cabinets. I have 10 and a half foot ceilings so I took advantage of it -- I hated that every other kitchen I'd lived in had cardboard boxes stuck up there. Cabinets would be much cleaner.

My building is old and a little wonky, but the line up there is pretty clean. If your ceiling is less even, you could always add a little soffit or moulding up there. The double cabinets work really well for me -- I use the storage space for bulk crap and all those things I need only once a year...

Here's the old kitchen:
http://flickr.com/photos/czarina/90249625/

and the new:
http://flickr.com/photos/czarina/116363411/

Oh -- and I'm short too. Those old cabinets were hung so high that I could walk under the cabinet door when it was open. The new ones are hung a little low so that I could get the extra tall upper cabinet in. I have to get out the step stool [or stand on the counter... Don't tell my mom!] to get to anything in the upper cabinet, but I love having the space.

mary,

That's a GREAT kitchen update! I'm not very happy with the drabness of my own kitchen and am debating whether to spend the money to redo it considering it is a rental.

I think AT should do a Best Kitchen Update for Small Spaces (TM) contest.

Thomas

My landlord built my kitchen with to-the-ceiling cabinets, and I LOVE them. You can see a wee gap where the ceiling is unlevel, but not much of one. The top shelf is great for things like flour, serving trays I rarely use, and that sort of thing...things that when I had a kitchen with a space above I would have never wanted out in the open. One thing I did when I rented an apartment with space above was stick shelves on top of them (they had an indentation and were unfinished on top) and have some display space--and also stuck a basket full of random kitchen stuff, which fit perfectly up there (so stuff was less likely to get dusty).

I want to run home and measure the area above my kitchen cabinets to see if I can do this.

one of the important reasons that no one has addressed is the sense of scale. a lot of time if you have cabinets all the way up to the ceiling, it is quite overwhelming for a small space. the space can also be used to mount some ceiling wash lighting fixtures, giving the space a warm glow.

Second, the more storage space you have, the more junk one accumulates, so edit, and edit. Not unlike the fridge problem, the bigger the fridge the better, it just turns out to be a biological lab for long forgotten food.

Right now that gap is covered in our kitchen rendering the space completely useless & our kitchen is small enough that every bit of storage space counts. When we re-do the kitchen we were thinking about turning the space into shelves for things like big serving pieces that are nice to look at but are used infrequently. I like the light idea though - hmmmm.

Is it just me, or is the cry of "edit edit edit!" starting to seem a bit crazed?

If you live in a 350-sq-ft apartment with a kitchen the size of a bathtub and cooking is important to you, editing will not remove the need for running cabinets as high as possible, just to store stuff that you use regularly.

Sure, we could all have a perfect table setting for two and save space by getting take-out (I cook so little that the thought *has* crossed my mind!), but that's not a meaningful lifestyle for everyone.

The cabinets in my kitchen go all the way up to the ceiling (and they need to because the kitchen is small and I need all that space. I can reach most of the stuff because I'm 5'10" but for the stuff at the very top, I use a step ladder that folds up and fits perfectly into the tiny space between my fridge and the wall.

This is the greatest post -- I've been staring at my cabinet gap for a year or two now, hating it passionately but not wanting to shell out the bucks a kitchen redo.

Question: is it possible to install cabinets above the wall cabinets, without removing the wall cabinets first? And how to match the cabinetry?

And has anyone worked with a contractor etc. who did a good job? I want to install stock cabinets in my apartment and they wanted $20k! Mary, I love your kitchen--who did you use and where did you get those cabinets?

Mary, great renovation.

This is a very timely thread. We're in the planning stage of new kitchen cabinets ourselves. We're in a rental, but I've lived in it for nearly three decades.

The apartment is in a 150-year-old building where every possible surface is off-plumb. But we don't want a space above the cabinets because our daredevil cats will use it to divebomb the stove.

My idea (I am currently doing in my kitchen right now, so no pics yet) is to put the standard tall cabinets higher on the wall to be able to fit one set of stainless steel shelving (from IKEA) under it. That way, can still hide the uneven ceiling (which I have blocked with a hood vent pipe), get lots of storage, and the stuff you use most (coffee, utensils, etc. is within closest reach.

> is the cry of "edit edit edit!" starting to seem a bit crazed?

Yeah -- I'm a diehard declutterer, but if I didn't have those upper cabinets, I'd have to either leave my blender out in the open or toss it. I don't think most people could fit all their food and dishes in two small wall cabinets.

Meredith, I did my cabinets through IKEA, and they were $800 bucks less than HomeDepot. My contractor was Willie Rosado, who I met through my super. [Email me and I'll give you his number.] He said that the IKEA cabinets aren't as thick as the HomeDepot ones, but I don't have kids to bang them up so I'd be fine. I also liked that I could really do the design myself through IKEA -- I hated working with a salesperson over at HomeDepot.

mary, I love your cabinets, they look perfect!!

Whatever goes up on top of those cabinets is gonna morph into a dustball

When I did the kitchen in my last apartment (see image linked to my name) I simply chose the taller IKEA wall cabinets and had them run all the way to the ceiling.

Although my galley kitchen was by no means huge, using frosted glass doors made the overall effect seem much more spacious than the white cabinets topped with crap that I had in there before. And because the overall effect drew the eye upward, the ceilings actually seemed much higher! Even though my current kitchen is much bigger, I still miss my old one, when you do it yourself you get the perfect fit ;-(.

Hi all,

I posted this on an open thread, seems lik eit got lost amidst other topics.

Inspired by David and Im's space, and now this discussion on tall kitchen cabinets, I'll throw this out - what are the best step stools out there? I have tall closets and kitchen cabinets, but have a big problem with storing stuff all the way to the roof. Am short too, but fear I'll brak my neck!

Any creative solutions to raise and lower heavier storage boxes?

Oops - that was "like it got lost" and "break", though I might also "brak" it...

In Mississippi, if we got rid of that space we'd have no where to display our fake plastic plants and Gail Pittman pottery! ;)

poldar aluminum step ladders strong, light weght, and fold up small.

If you want to do the decorating route instead of additional storage route, I suggest this: I buy different sizes of inexpensive canvases at the art supply store and paint each in a solid color arcylic I liked. Stack them one in front of the other, off center, to create a nice arrangement of colors and sizes. You can put other objects in front of them if you want so to overcome the dull backdrop of contractor beige that's above the cabinets. Yes, they get dirty eventually but they wipe down with a wet cloth and no residual damage from cleaning.

Step Stool

http://www.holdeverything.com/media/HE/xHE/xHE05H236D_1071_H05_050914204657_PIP_hero.jpg

I bought about 6 big wicker baskets, covered, and put them up there for storage. They are lidded, so the contents don't collect dust. They fit perfectly and, since they're all the same basket, look great.

I'm sorry this is late and disgusting, but have to add-- I learned the (very!) hard way that cardboard boxes and wicker are not good storage solutions up there if you're in a crappy rental building or any building with a bug problem. Why? Because roaches like to eat/live in such materials. I won't share the details, but God, was that disgusting, and I lost a gorgeous wicker basket. They never invaded my cereal, but just lived in the wicker and cardboard. My kitchen is super clean, but you know how roaches can be in NYC. So I only use plastic boxes up there now, full of ski equipment.

i put pieces of plywood on mine to make them level (since there was kind of a lip from the cabinets) and then just used it as a shelf for some of that sort-of-pretty but not often used stuff like pitchers and big chip bowls. so many people have open kitchen shelving like that now, i just think of it as an open extension to the cabinets.

Does anyone have pictures they are willing to cshare of kitchens that have been updated using some of these solutions? I'm in need of some persuasive evidence...

just curious, how often should you actually clean what you store above the cabinet? i always seem to be under attack by kitchen grease, especially up high