When i first designed these cabinets I really wanted to have them look like peices of furniture as opposed to cabinets. The posts go a long way in achieving that look, but I figured taking out the kickplates would really seal the deal. I had thought about the dust bunny conundrum. I figured if dusting underneath the cabinets became too much for my wife and I, I could always add kickplates later without any trouble. I’ve designed my kitchen like my workshop since I do most of the cooking so all of my tools will be at the ready when I need them. Since we redid our kitchen and floors we had to take out the brick covered drywall behind the old cabinets they had to come out. So we have been living without a kitchen sink for about 3 months now. We take all of our dishes to the basement mud sink. I’ll deal with the pain of putting upper cabinets in after base cabinets. I was also thinking of making concrete countertops myself for the cabinets. I want a solid surface, but I don’t want to spend all of the money for granite. If anyone has any suggestions please tell me.
-- Do something nice for somebody
3 comments so far
Scott Bryan
home | projects | blog
16268 posts in 573 days
posted 270 days ago
Dust, food and other debris will accumulate under the cabinets if they are left open at the base. One remedy to handling this you might want to consider is this. This little vacuum does a good job of getting into tight spaces. It needs less than 4” of clearance to clean under furniture so it should work under the cabinets. It is only about 14” in diameter so it should be able to navigate under the cabinets. My wife wanted to get me one for the shop but it just doesn’t have a large enough capacity to do that.
I can empathize with you about washing the dishes. We just completed a kitchen remodel in August and were without a kitchen for 3 months. When we washed the dishes we had to use a bathroom sink. Needless to say we ended up eating out a lot.
Good luck on the remodel.
-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.
CessnaPilotBarry
home | projects | blog
1054 posts in 454 days
posted 270 days ago
Think dust bunnies are your problem? Keep thinking…
How are you going to wash the floor under there if food or beverages are spilled. Think of making a salad, or cooking, and dropping an olive, cuke slice, hunk of garlic, or something else that will stick and rot, and not knowing where it went. Feet have an amazing ability to deflect dropped food.
Commercial kitchens often have open spaces underneath shelves and prep tables, but with enough space to see and easily get a mop underneath.
If you ever decide to change the floor, which happens in kitchens, there’s another problem…
I’d keep the toe kicks. You could always put drawers for cookie sheets, pizza stones, or other flat items, or use pillar or column style parts to jazz them up.
-- - Don't Panic!
Betsy
home | projects | blog
2291 posts in 647 days
posted 270 days ago
I’d keep the toe kicks also. The cleaning problems are huge.
As for the robot cleaner—- they are noisy and not as efficient as they could be. I thought of getting one for my house, but after seeing them at a few friend’s homes—- I figured a good broom and dustpan and vaccum cleaner was much better.
-- My digits count!