Cookaholics Bulletin Board

All,

I want to replace part of our kitchen/dining room with a large cabinet to hold all our small appliances. I want it to be 40"H x 36"W x 28"D, ideally with a butcher-block top, and definitely with several large, probably movable, shelves inside.

So, question: is this likely to be something I can find outside of expensive custom cabinet makers who are more used to working on $100K kitchen remodels? I'm guessing that I'm going to have to build it myself out of plywood, but I thought I'd ask to see who had ideas.

Check Ikea, they have some very flexible options.

Mary

With those dimensions, I don't think you will be able to easily find an off-the-shelf option. If you would be content with 36 x 36 x 24, you could get a RTA cabinet from several sources. I'd go with roll-out shelves - you can get that hardware easily - I installed them in my last cabinets (much cheaper than ordering the cabinets with rollouts, for some reason) and it was not difficult.

Fuzzy,
If you are thinking you are going to build a cabinet, I would check out your local Restore LINK for supplies. A friend on mine recently purchased items at our store for one of his projects for a lot cheaper than buying brand new at Lowes or Home Depot.

This is available at your Restore. For $30, you could buy two and use the drawers on the second one to make doors and shelves to your specifications. They have dozens available.

Like Darcie said, 36x36x24 cabinets aren't hard to come by. Unless you need the extra height and depth for storage, you could customize by raising the cabinet up a bit on legs or a platform, and making your own butcher-block top in whatever size works for you.

I'd second Mary's suggestion of Ikea. They have the Varde series of free standing kitchen islands/workstations which might fit the bill, but if not, the kitchen design centre is also very flexible.

All,

Thanks for suggestions!

Most of the 36*36*24 prefab cabinets I'm seeing (a) are actually slightly under that size(35.5*23.5*34), and include some "dead space" at the bottom already, and (b) are designed for sinks or stovetops and as a result have a top portion which isn't designed to be accessible. Where should I be looking?

Ikea's stuff really tends to be on the small size; when they sell a 36" high cabinet, that's including 6" of legs at the bottom. Plus it's more than Home Depot's options. The kitchen islands, which actually are fairly large, are too large. 49" long. grrrr.

Todd, there's a ReStore in San Carlos. I'll see if I can check it out.

Anyone got any advice on the best place to buy a large butcherblock countertop? Sadly, my source for such things in Oregon closed a few years ago ...

I saw some good sized ones at the Menard's here the other day.

I was thinking along these lines: clickety.

The "dead" space is going to be in every ready-made base cabinet. However, it does serve a useful purpose - it recesses the toe kick. Without that recess, you will probably be cracking your toes into the cabinet - unless you have a very large overhang on your countertop.

One thing you could do (but it would be more expensive) is stack two double-depth wall cabinets (you can get cabinets 36w x 18h x 24d). No deadspace, but you'd have four doors. (You could also do one 36wx24hx24d + one 36x12x24 and stack the shorter one on the taller one.) But that is, admittedly, getting a little crazy.