Sometimes you see a design choice that used to be standard and can’t for the life of you understand why it was ever the norm. Enter: Kitchen cabinets that don’t reach the ceiling. We’ve all seen them. Many of us have lived in homes with them. These squat shelves often leave a foot or less of space — no man’s land, really — between the top of the cabinets and the ceiling of the kitchen.
There are several reasons to avoid this mistake and choose ceiling-height cabinetry when you’re renovating your kitchen. First of all, experts say shorter cabinets make your kitchen look smaller. They’re like capri pants for your walls. The other major downside is that the area above your cabinets but below your ceiling basically only exists to collect dust. Whether you use it for storage, attempt to give it some character with fun decor and tchotchkes, or leave it empty, it’s hard to clean up there and is going to end up dusty.
While there are certain situations where it might not make sense to install ceiling-height cabinetry — like if you have extremely high ceilings, for example — it’s a no-brainer for those with standard ceiling heights in their kitchens. Even if ceiling-high cabinets end up being out of your budget, there is an easy way to disguise the unsightly gaps above kitchen cabinets: Adding false cabinet panels that give you the illusion of more cabinetry and close off that space to the collection of grime.
Ceiling-height cabinets have aesthetic and functional benefits
In addition to making your kitchen appear taller and keeping the dust bunnies away, ceiling-high cabinets add so much extra storage space. Sure, it might be a little higher than you can reach on your tippy-toes, but that’s the perfect place to store your ornate cake plates, bundt pans, fancy china, and other kitchen tools you only use once in a while. Plus, it’s an excuse to get your step stool game on or, if you’re really living the dream, install a built-in ladder and spend your days riding it around your kitchen like Belle in the library in “Beauty and the Beast.”
Either way, more storage is never a bad thing. And you have options for the look of the cabinets. You can extend the one cabinet face all the way to the ceiling, or you can install standard-size cabinets with shorter cabinets on top, maybe with glass doors to open up the space even more, which is a clever kitchen cabinet design Food Network star Alex Guarnaschelli swears by. Kitchen and product designer Jan Rutgers touts additional benefits of ceiling-high cabinets in an article for the Vestabul School of Design, writing that they give your kitchen a “sleek and cohesive look” that “provides a sense of unity and balance in the room.”
Of course, whether or not you choose ceiling-high cabinets is up to you — it may depend on your budget, your personal preference, and other elements of the space. But outdated cabinets are a sure sign that it’s time to remodel your kitchen, and extending your storage space to the ceiling is a perfect way to update the look of your kitchen and add functionality in one fell swoop.
