Before & After: Going Vertical

After suffering severe flood damage to her home, our client decided that it was time to update the look and efficiency of her kitchen. The old upper cabinets were very short, wasting vertical storage space and making the kitchen look small. We stacked the new upper cabinets to increase storage and added uplight accents; both improvements enhance the feeling of height and make the space look much larger.

All of the old cabinets had doors (no pull outs) so the use of space was very inefficient and access to back corners was awkward. All of the new lower cabinets have pull outs and self-closing doors which our client loves. She says, “You wouldn’t think it’s a big deal, but it’s a big deal.”

Every remodel presents challenges, but we love working with our clients and installers to find creative solutions. Some examples from this kitchen:

The client wanted centered horizontal placement of hardware, but this would have caused pull outs to collide in tight corners. We didn’t want to increase the filler size because we would have lost cabinet space and it wouldn’t look good. Our designer added a drawer restrictor to limit those corner pull outs to a safe range of motion.

The refrigerator was slightly deeper than the surrounding cabinetry so it didn’t look finished. Our designer’s solution was to create a custom trim to match the cabinetry for an integrated look.

After the wine rack was installed, the client realized that it sat flush with the cabinets, making it impossible to use corner slots for bottles. The installer customized the rack to push it back a bit and allow the client to use every slot.

Our designer shares her aesthetic and functional highlights:

The sides of the cabinets are visible from the adjacent living room so we wanted to give them a custom look. For the upper cabinets we used flush ends so you don’t see the door lip that you would typically see from the side. On the base cabinets, we used a panel door on the end instead of a typical flat panel.

The decorative moulding on the island gives it a furniture look.

We combined a Rustic look with Contemporary touches to give the kitchen a Transitional feel.

The tall hood and backsplash complements the cabinet height and takes your eye all the way to the ceiling.

We framed out the microwave with filler material to make it look more built-in.

Placing the oven to the side was a win because the heat doesn’t overwhelm while you’re standing at the cooktop.

The microwave was placed under the cooktop to keep it off the counter.

Our client’s favorite things?

I love the (liquor) cabinet on the front side of the island.

The spice rack on the corner of the island.

How quickly we were able to get our cabinets.

Our designer and her team were able to take a standard product and make it look more customized and built-in.

Rollouts – storage, pantry, self-closing, tray divider above fridge.

Our designer maximized our storage – it was literally doubled.

How the glass doors break up the visual and add additional light.

“Cabinet Solutions really helped us in a difficult circumstance. Our designer came out multiple times, listened to us and found a way to give us what we wanted while suggesting other improvements like the island furniture base. She never had a no in her vocabulary and came up with solutions to problems and was great with warranty issues. The quick turnaround was important because our entire kitchen was down after the flood.”