Should wall oven cabinet stick out past lowers b/c of granite?

13 years ago

Our architect just showed us preliminary drawings of his ideas for our kitchen. There are some ideas we like and others we need to change to suit us better. His drawings show a 26" deep wall cabinet for the double oven stack with 24" lowers next to it. He said he always does the wall oven (or fridge) cabinets deeper than the lowers since granite counters on 24" lowers are usually 25 or 25.5" deep. He thinks it looks way better for the granite edge to dead end into the deeper wall oven cabinet rather than sticking out past it. We are looking at contemporary cabinets - slab or similar. I see his point about the granite, but worry that having the tall cabinet stick out 2" extra interrupts the sleek lines of the cabinetry, plus only a 2" difference seems too small to be an intentional design choice (I worry it will just look "off"). We are also working with a tight space on 2 adjacent walls, so I hate to lose the extra 2".

We are also thinking of moving the fridge and frezer columns to a different wall where they would book end a set of uppers and lowers, so we will have the same issue with those appliances. I am buying the Freedom columns because they integrate sleekly and seamlessly with adjacent 24" deep cabinets, so it seems odd to me to make them stick out on purpose.

Do your tall cabinets stick out past your lowers? Will it look as bad as our architect implies to have the ends of the granite stick out slightly? Any advice, opinions or pictures would be much appreciated.

Featured Answer

adel97

13 years ago

My tall oven cabinets are flush with the lowers. The oven doors do stick out a bit further than the granite, now that I look closely, but I like it given the "chunky" and knobby look of my ovens. (I.e., these particular oven doors are not supposed to be sleek and flush to the cabinet)

Comments (10)

antss
13 years ago
It can - but doesn't have to. Depends on the look you are after.

My personal ones are deeper FWIW.
steff_1
13 years ago
My oven cabinet is 24" and the granite does stick out. It's not something that would be easily noticed unless you look at it carefully. A finished edge there might work for you since you really want a sleek line of cabinets.

You should be able to get the KD to give you a detail drawing that shows exactly how each option would look.
Related Professionals
Greensboro Kitchen & Bathroom Designers · Highland Park Kitchen & Bathroom Designers · Martinsburg Kitchen & Bathroom Designers · Ocala Kitchen & Bathroom Designers · Southampton Kitchen & Bathroom Designers · Cloverly Kitchen & Bathroom Remodelers · Allouez Kitchen & Bathroom Remodelers · Andover Kitchen & Bathroom Remodelers · Biloxi Kitchen & Bathroom Remodelers · Pearl City Kitchen & Bathroom Remodelers · Pinellas Park Kitchen & Bathroom Remodelers · South Lake Tahoe Kitchen & Bathroom Remodelers · Black Forest Cabinets & Cabinetry · Prospect Heights Cabinets & Cabinetry · Honolulu Design-Build Firms
Fori
13 years ago
I think it's normal to do that--that's how my cabinet guy drew it (fridge cabinet as well) and I insisted they be flush. With a fridge it's possible the door could hit the counter corner, but mine doesn't.

For a contemporary design, go flush. Bevel the corners of your counters if you want. But good golly don't have your oven cabinet or INTEGRATED fridges stick out!
User
13 years ago
How timely...I just had this discussion with our KD this morning. She also does a 26" depth for oven and refrigerator. I also do not want to give up the depth, but she said the same thing about not wanting your countertop to stick out further than your cabinets. I have my refrigerator, then a few cabinets...sort of a breakfast prep area and then our double oven cabinet. She was insistent that it would look better, especially because I have full cabinets flanking that center countertop area. We are going to have a counter depth KA french door fridge, and the box dimension is 24" depth, but she said you often need an inch or so for the plug and water line, so if you make the fridge cabinet 24", then it might stick out a bit anyway. You may not have that problem, since you are going with an integrated fridge/freezer and they must be meant to fit flush within that cabinet space.
numbersjunkie
13 years ago
After having the edge of my counter stick out in my old kitchen, I was very specific in asking for my refrigerator side panel to be cut deeper so that the counter would dead end into it. I think it gives a much cleaner look.
steff_1
13 years ago
If the refrigerator columns are designed to sit flush with the cabinets then you shouldn't have a deeper panel because the doors will hit the panel when they swing open. Check to make sure they included any space needed behind it.

For standard refrigerators you do want that panel slightly deeper than 24" because you will see too much of the fridge sticking out.
OCJeff
13 years ago
We have a large (26 ft^2) french door Maytag refrigerator and it's quite deep (35.5"). So if we only had a 24" deep cabinet for it it would stick out over 10"!

We asked our KD to provide a 30" deep cabinet for it, so it would sink in further, and appear as more of a built in than it sticking out on it's own into the kitchen. Next to that is a slim 30" deep pantry.
chrisk327
13 years ago
we're doing a full size french door fridge. Our cabinet maker is making the cabinet the depth of the fridge box plus a small amount of wiggle room so that the fridge box is not showing, only the doors. our counters will die into the fridge cabinet. we are making them a litte deeper in that area to not close off the corner, but still making sure they come up short of the fridge cabinet box.

whatever you do, if you're looking for the semi-built in look, you should try and make sure that the fridge doors are the only thing showing from the fridge cabinet.
kaysd
Original Author
13 years ago
If we go with a 25 or 26" deep fridge cabinet, the fridge unit will be pulled forward also so it is flush with the stiles of the cabinet. The Thermador Freedom columns are designed to sit flush in a 24" deep cabinet (I assume that includes the plug and water line, but will have to verify.) I believe the door panel will add 3/4" to 1" of depth, so total depth to the front of the door would be about 25", but I expect the same will be true of the cabinets once the doors are added to the front. I saw an in-store installation that I loved, which had the SS column flush in a wall with 3" wide wood trim/filler on each side framing the SS. All the cabinets and appliances on the display wall were tall and flush, so they did not address the counter issue. I had pictured the doors of the columns being flush with the flat panel drawers of the lower cabinets in one straight line. Maybe I could go with a narrower counter overhang so the counter ends flush with the front of the drawers instead of hanging over, or is that a terrible idea?