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thinktoomuch

tray cabinets - top 1/2 wasted space

thinktoomuch
16 years ago

I am going to have a 12" wide full height base cabinet for tray storage. Has anyone added a horizontal shelf above the trays. It seems my widest tray is 15" so why have 27" high space. If I put a shelf 16" from the bottom of the cabinet will I regret it, If you have this situation please tell me what height your shelf is and what can you fit on it? Thanks

Comments (35)

  • 3katz4me
    16 years ago

    My tray storage is above my ovens and there is a shelf above the vertical dividers. Not easy to get to but just fine for infrequently used items. I don't know off the top of my head what the dimensions of mine are. I have a tray cabinet in a lower at my lake cabin. It has a shallow drawer above it and I don't notice that I have any excess space in the height of the tray sections. Are you having a drawer above yours?

  • weissman
    16 years ago

    I have a drawer above my tray storage cabinet - but I have custom cabinets so I don't know if this configuration is generally available.

  • Fori
    16 years ago

    I'd get a drawer, but at least get a shelf! Actually, a shelf might come in handy for weird items like barbecue tools.

  • dmlove
    16 years ago

    OMG, fori, you just gave me a great idea!

  • Fori
    16 years ago

    ooo what what what?

    And why don't any great ideas have applications in MY kitchen?

  • dmlove
    16 years ago

    Yes! I just checked and my tray cabinet has holes punched for shelves. And I have some extra shelves. And shelf clips. Enter shelf for storing long barbecue tools that don't fit anywhere else. Yippee!

  • thinktoomuch
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    dmlove, what height are the holes for the shelf from the base? can you show pictures? Thanks

  • patches123
    16 years ago

    In the finished kitchens blog someone has a tray cabinet with shelf above it. I thought I had saved a pic of it, but I guess not. Hmmm...love the idea about bbq utensils...know if I can convince DH to drill some holes for the shelf.

  • Fori
    16 years ago

    Barbecue tools? That's it? That's not very interesting. But at least we all agree that SOMEthing needs to go there!

  • needanap
    16 years ago

    Here is mine. I have only one tray divider on the right in this cabinet, for cutting boards. On the left, I keep the wok and baskets. The shelf above is great! I keep large serving trays, the pizza stone, and the griddle there. Those items could also go vertically in another tray divider, but this is how it ended up working for me. Great use of space, IMO. Works best for items that I don't access every day. They are tucked up and out of the way.

  • muscat
    16 years ago

    I'll have a 12" wide lower cab for trays, and planned one shelf, placed as you said, about 16" from the bottom. I seem to have lots of oddly shaped vessels- 8x8 pans, aluminum pie pans from potlucks, etc. I have not done any of this yet, but I think that your idea is sound.

  • kelly_2000
    16 years ago

    I have a really small kitchen and needed to maximize drawer space where I could, so I ended up with a cabinet with two drawers on top and the tray cabinet section on the bottom. This setup has worked really well for me....
    {{!gwi}}

    Here's another view...
    {{!gwi}}

  • dmlove
    16 years ago

    thinktoomuch, I wish I could but I'm away on vacation. Won't be home until the 7th of August. If you're still looking then....

  • Fori
    16 years ago

    KLB, that's just so cute. We need more odd-sized cabinets in the world. It adds so much personality. Love it.

    O, yeah, functional too, and stuff. Can't believe you all have me considering a tray cabinet. I have no problems whatsoever keeping my tray type things in a drawer under the oven! Shame on you!

  • amberley
    16 years ago

    klb 2000, what is the interior width of your baking pans/muffin pans cabinet? Your solution looks perfect for my island (baking center) but I only have about 9-11 inches (exterior width) to work with.

  • weed30 St. Louis
    16 years ago

    KLB, what a simple but clever solution. I never realized that you could actually do something like that. Are your cabs custom?

    And, I agree with fori, the cabinet is cute! I guess it's the 'mini door' :)

  • talley_sue_nyc
    16 years ago

    9" inside is a really useful size. My vote: put a single tray divider in there, so stuff doesn't have to lean too much.

    Also, the more up-and-down you have, the easier it is to get stuff out. So, in a way, more stuff is easier to store than less stuff, oddly enough.

  • Valerie Noronha
    16 years ago

    My cabinets are modular and I have a drawer on top. It stores everything I need. Mine is 12" wide with 2 dividers. Don't think I'd want it narrower than that--unless you have frameless cabinets and then I'd probably only do 1 divider.

  • kelly_2000
    16 years ago

    Aw, thanks for the compliments on my little tray cupboard! Weed30--yep, I do have custom cabinets.

    amberley, the door on my little tray storage cabinet is 15" high by 10" wide, but the interior of the cabinet is a bit wider--more like a tad over 11". Since the cabinet is already pretty narrow, I opted to skip any kind of vertical divider, but like Talley sue pointed out--as long as you have quite a bit of stuff in there, it all sort of 'supports' itself.

  • Babka NorCal 9b
    16 years ago

    Here's mine above the fridge with an 8' ceiling. I can reach the lower edges of the trays to get them out, but I need a step stool to get to the upper shelves.

    {{!gwi}}

  • talley_sue_nyc
    16 years ago

    I like your cabinet, babka--in mine, I have spaced the dividers MUCH more closely, and so things don't lean on one another. They pull out very smoothly.

  • Fori
    16 years ago

    That's a good use of the space over the fridge, Babka. Even *I* could reach the bottoms of those!

  • pinktoes
    16 years ago

    I have one in the current house that's actually a wooden "box" insert DH made for me, with dividers and a shelf. It fits in a base cabinet. There's a shelf above the trays (put it at the height you want for your highest tray opening needed). Then, because it's a complete box (with top and bottom), there's a top also. So it's like having 2 shelves above the trays.

    On the enclosed shelf I have rolling pins, rolls of parchment paper and other baking supplies. On the top "shelf" there's not much headroom; I keep a big collapsible stainless dish drainer there.

    The insert is going with us to the new house, but I'm going to flip it upside down! That way, the trays--mostly baking sheets and baking pans in our case--will be on top. I use them daily and won't have to bend as far to reach them. Rolling pin, etc, is not so often used.

  • Cloud Swift
    16 years ago

    We have pull out shelves above the tray area. That way the height can be adjusted if we get something that needs more height later.

  • norwega
    16 years ago

    in our last kitchen I had DH put a pullout towel rack in the tray cabinet, and used it for potholders, as it was next to the oven.

  • Buehl
    16 years ago

    Bump...useful info

  • Buehl
    16 years ago

    bump

  • sail_away
    16 years ago

    I don't have the tray cabinet/dividers, but I couldn't help wondering why the extra shelf wouldn't be at the bottom rather than the top? In other words, you'd have a short area at the bottom of the cabinet and then a taller divided area on top for the trays, platters, etc. That way wouldn't everything be easier to reach? Or maybe I just thought of this because I'm short.

  • talley_sue_nyc
    16 years ago

    If your tray cabinet is a BASE cabinet, you'd want the smaller shelf on the top.

    If your tray cabinet is above the fridge or oven, you might still want the shelf on the top, bcs if you put the shelf low, you might end up w/ the trays/cookie sheets so high up that you can't reach them without a stepstool.

    I have stuff on that top shelf that is very seldom used. When I want it, I'll get the step stool out. But I would have to hate to get a stepstool every single time I baked cookies or needed a different cutting board.

  • gizmonike
    16 years ago

    I'm short, so I positioned a shelf at the bottom of the cabinets above our Advantium, and put vertical dividers on that shelf for sheet pans & trays. I can put heavy platters & roasting type dishes in the bottom section & still reach the vertical sheet pans to pull them out. I did the same thing above our fridge; I'd have to use a stepstool to reach just about anything there, but I can just reach platters on the bottom & use the stool for what's above.

  • lascatx
    16 years ago

    I have a divider cabinet above my ovens with dividers that go all the way to the top. I filled it up and then discovered more bakeware! I haven't done it yet (just got the idea yesterday), but I want to install strips to act as shelf supports on each side of the existing dividers and sides of the cabinets and then have narrow shelves out in on each section -- creating double decker tray slots over my ovens. I can just reach where the top shelf would be, but I would use those for seasonal and specialty pans and items so that it wouldn't be that big a deal to get out the step stool -- which is just a few feet away. I'm so excited about the prospect!

  • napagirl
    16 years ago

    Bumping ...

    This is a great thread.
    Thank you, Buehl, for linking it to one of your recent posts - wouldn't have known about it otherwise!

    With 56 posts already, it will be awhile before it reaches 150 posts and drops off automatically - lost forever.
    Wish more people knew about that rule, so we could stop posting info after 120 posts or so, and use the rest for bumping every 6-7 weeks (it takes about 2 months for them to drop off).

    BTW, is there any way to clip an entire thread, not just a single post (other than "cut & paste" to a Word document)?

  • napagirl
    16 years ago

    Oops, this thread only has 32 followups.
    I realize now the 56 number was the number of threads I got when I searched for "tray cabinet"

  • my3sons_2008
    16 years ago

    bump

  • Buehl
    14 years ago

    No, my tray cabinet isn't a base cabinet, but the subject still applies. My trays are stored in the cabinet above my ovens.

    To pull a tray out, you only need to reach the bottom corner; you don't need to reach the top. So, I opted to put the shelf only a few inches above the floor of the cabinet and then put my tray dividers on the shelf. This allowed me to use the bottom section for platters & griddle. The trays are still accessible and I don't have any wasted space on top.


    Also, I've linked a thread from 2009 discussing almost the exact same question.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Thread: Do you like your tray storage? Can you share the details please?