41" Kitchen Wall Cabinets: 3 Shelves? Or 2?

Townshiphomes

I'm building kitchen cabinets for the first time for some neighbors of mine. They have 8' ceilings but wanted ceiling cabinets, so I dropped the height one inch and am making them 41" instead of the typical 42". It seems like most 42 inch cabinets have 3 adjustable shelves. These people want fixed shelves with cleats holding them in place to give them a solid farmhouse look. If I make them fixed and evenly spaced, that makes the space between each shelf right about 9", not always enough for items placed in cabinets. If I do 2 shelves the space is about 12.5". Is that to much? They also want glass door fronts, so how it looks is important. Any Ideas?

Leo G

I make most of my upper cabinets 40 1/2" tall. I leave 1 1/2" of space for the crown to cover, it is a 2 5/8" tall crown. On average it covers 1" of the top rail which is 4" tall.
My cabinets always have adjustable shelving and I give them 2 shelves per upper. If you have glass doors with mullion dividers I think it is important to have the shelves line up with the horizontal muntons.

With the adjustable shelving I start the shelf holes about 8" from the deck and finish about 8" from the face frame upper rail. If I have glass doors with mullions I will line up the shelves with the muntons with a custom hole jig.

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Gus Dering

If you are going to drill a continuous line bore for the shelves you can always leave them with three and if they don't want it they don' t use it. It would be a little tight in there with three though.

I am with Leo, I only provide two shelves for a cabinet that size.

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Leo G

I leave them 2, if they want another that'll be $35 please.

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Bergstrom

Agreed... I save the 3 shelves for the 54" uppers. Leo, how many people take you up on the $35 shelf? I always cave on stuff like that, I know that I shouldn't but I always do

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Tom R

Equidistant shelves are rarely convenient, doesn't any body around here eat Kellogg's Corn Flakes??

Leo G

Most of the times I find that a few shelves are left out. Apparently I provide enough shelves. I never get requests for more.

I have never made a 54" upper, I'd hate to have to make the doors for that.

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neolitic

Gus would too....

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Gus Dering

Hey mister, thats funny.

Taller uppers are usually broken up into two doors.

As far as charging for an additional shelf, it's the cheapest thing we do. So throw it in.

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PA woodbutcher

You gotta admit, it was funny

Rather I throw it in or not depends on what the scrap pile looks like.

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Leo G

I was just gong to say that. You do a kitchen and use every scrap and now they want a shelf. The sheet will cost you $80 but you are only going to get $35. Nice.

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Townshiphomes

That was helpful. Now, how wide should the side stiles be on cabinets with inset doors? country/farmhouse style cabinets.

Leo G

Country/Farmhouse should be wider than todays styles. Most of todays are 1 1/2". I would make them at least 2" (that's what I make 99% of mine) and you might want to go to 2 1/4" or 2 1/2".

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Townshiphomes

Thats on the boxes, right? and the doors?

Leo G

My doors have 2 3/8" stiles that have a 1 7/8" flat on them with no edge profile. Most standard doors have 2 1/4" stiles and rails.

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