Hi Becky,

I'm doing similar cabinets--I'm not sure if they have a name, but I'm calling them horizontally opening cabs. Mine are the only uppers in my kitchen, though, so I think they are serving a different purpose than what it sounds like you're planning. Mine will be 18" tall--a lot of your questions hinge (bad pun) on how high you place them on the wall. If they are 54" off the floor (36 for counter + 18 above), you should be able to reach them just fine. Is there a 24" deep counter there--i.e. are you reaching over something to get to them or will you just walk up to them (i.e. no 24" counter there)? Mine will be over 24" cabs, and I'm placing them a bit higher (24" off counter), so mine will be at 60", which is how tall I am (5'). I think as long as I don't let them swing all the way up when I open, I will be able to reach just fine. One of the things I did was lean over my existing cabs and then reach up as far as I could with one hand and had someone measure how high I could reach! As far as the height of the cabinets--would you want them to meet up with the height of the pantry at the end of the run? That might help you determine how tall to make them. If your tv will sit below, do you want under cab lighting or will that create a glare on the tv? I'm going to do some sort of uplighting since my cathedral ceiling peaks on that wall, but I haven't figured that out yet. Maybe someone will have some good ideas for you on that. Sadly, I don't have pictures yet--just an empty kitchen right now! Hopefully some day it will all come together!

There are some very helpful tips and measurement advice, plus some photos of these kind of upswing doors in the linked article:

Here is a link that might be useful: Starcraft Custom Builders on Ergonomic Kitchen Design

Perfect - Thanks Circuspeanut - -The article is great!!

"Upswing door" What a name!!

Love2Dance - -I think where you are headed sounds great!! You have made me feel better about the height.

I am planning to put the cabinets at normal upper height -- 18" from the countertop. The cabinets will be short - 8" 10" or 12" and the TV will be above the cabinets. These will be the only uppers on this wall with shelves on the other side of the range.

Does anyone have a photo of this sort of upper cabinets? I have seen a photo with a narrow row of drawers and a shelf on top....but, as usual - -I cannot find it again. Becky

Circuspeanut,

That's a very interesting and informative article. I did laugh thru a lot of it, being only 5' tall. My arc of reach is pretty small, and I'd have to make one tiny kitchen to accomodate my size. I'd love to have 33.5" high counters--but not very practical at resale (sad that we have to think of that). I am planning on shaving a half-inch off the standard 36 in the hopes it will feel better to my body without triggering any red flags to future purchasers. I wanted sliding doors on my uppers, but say that to anyone selling a standard cabinet line and they look at you like you're from outerspace. Henry Built has some sliders, but they come with an astronomical pricetag. Ikea has one sliding cabinet, but it didn't fit my dimensions at all. I had sliders in a rental house once (which DID have a funky space-age 50's kitchen w/rippled glass sliders in the upper cabs)--loved those! After 50+ years of living in "standard" kitchens, I've gotten pretty adept at reaching outside my arc....I don't really even notice it much.

Here's a pic of a kitchen with the Upswing Door cabs!!
I have another really good one, but I can't get it to work right now. Will try again after I drink a glass of wine.

In my cabinet layout I'll be having 3 upswing door cabinets (WOW! I never knew what to call them either!!) stacked on each other. They're 18" high and I think 13" deep. The first one is on the counter top, then the other 2 right on top of one another. I have to admit, this was a purely form over function design decision for several reasons. I'm not really sure how convenient storage is inside the cabinets. The hinges and hinge arms (for lack of better description, I'm taking about the hardware that actually lifts the door up) are on the sides in the middle, and they're pretty big. They take up some space in there. And, in my case where I am stacking 3, the bottom door will swing open on its own, but the middle and top doors will open together from the middle cabinet (ie: you lift the middle cabinet door up and the top cabinet door goes up, too). That's fine, but, am I even gonna be able to get into what's in the top cabinet? Will the middle cabinet's door be in the way of the top cabinet when they're open? I never asked my Cab designer. I am assuming he wouldn't plan this way if the top cab will be unusable. I'll definitely need a stool to reach the top cab (I'm 5'4) but that I don't care about that. I figure I'll just store rarely used stuff up there.

I really loved the cabinet when I saw it in person (Brookhaven). I saw a single one. And I love the way the 3 stacked looks on paper. I hope they're at least a little functional. I'm willing to put up with not 100% functional in this aspect of my new kitchen as long as I love the way they look and they hold some stuff.

Oh OK! Now I see. I just read the article circuspeanut linked. Thanks for that, btw!! And I see where it looks like there are two stacked, they are actually just sharing one cabinet box with 2 shelves, so the doors flip up in such a way that you can access both shelves. Ah hah!! I'm feeling better about this, not that I was ever truly worried, but this makes it easier to visualize. T

I just found a picture with the short uppers and wanted to post it - -I hope I can safely take this a little more into a rustic look.

Here is a link that might be useful: Short uppers

Rustic look... not sure what your look will be exactly, but I'm pretty sure you can have these upswing cabs made in the wood to match the rest of your cabinets... And I guess they don't have to be glass front so you'd probably want to go with a wood door on them. They do look pretty contemporary to me but I could see t hem in a cute French Country kitchen, as well???

After searching some more, I found another common name for these cabinets is "flip up" cabinets. There's an old thread about them here from GW.

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0411575127295.html

Hi Hellonasty - -
Thanks for your perseverance The thread is great!

Becky

You're welcome, Becky! Glad to help.

Narrow upper cabinets with lift doors are typically done on contempory style cabinets. There are a few different types of hardware that are used. Blum has several. Check out their "Aventos" series. They have a up and over. A lift stay and a bi-fold. Last summer at the woodworking and cabinet manufaacutring show the displayed a moterized bifold just touch the door and it goes up automatically. Should be out soon. At the time they said it would be out in about a year.
John