Using kitchen cabinets elsewhere in the house and vice-versa

[Fat Guy]

Kitchen cabinets are incredibly useful. I just saw a guy's garage that he'd outfitted with kitchen cabinets and I've seen them used in home offices.

But, kitchen cabinets can get expensive. I also saw, a little while back, a kitchen done up with tool cabinets that had to be a lot cheaper than equivalent-quality kitchen cabinets.

I'm thinking about using some IKEA kitchen cabinets in a home-office setup. Has anyone tried this?

[annabelle]

I have kitchen cabinets in my home office, just the upper set for book storage and a full floor to ceiling cabinet that is a small pantry. Out in the barn we have two sections of kitchen cabinets. One set in the barn is a computer station (yes, we are nerdy) and another set is the base of potting bench. The barn cabinets are not particularly good quality, but they were free from a friend who was going to throw them away.

[ScoopKW]

You-finish kitchen cabinets -- solid oak, no less -- are fairly cheap at the big box stores. I used some as the foundation for a kick-butt entertainment center. Cost 1/10th as much as a custom setup, and looks just as nice.

[Darienne]

The kitchen cabinets which were in the farmhouse when we moved in are now in the cellar holding a thousand disparate items, from laundry soap and Javex to emergency supplies and shoe polish and my knitting needles, massive etc here.

Ed's favorite department store is our local Habitat for Humanity/Restore and he has picked up two additional sets of cabinets for peanuts, one for his part of the studio in the Drive Shed and the other in the Drive Shed proper for storage of who knows what.

[butterscotch]

When I was researching storage beds, I saw a few people had made them by putting together a U shaped configuration of kitchen cabinets as a base. I thought it was pretty clever. And way beyond my skillset.

[Anna N]

Yeah - I have seen some amazing cabinets in Habitat for Humanity at rock bottom prices - very much worth a look.

[Jaymes]

You-finish kitchen cabinets -- solid oak, no less -- are fairly cheap at the big box stores. I used some as the foundation for a kick-butt entertainment center. Cost 1/10th as much as a custom setup, and looks just as nice.

Exactly what my daughter and her husband did. They wanted a long entertainment center/base for their family room - something with bottom doors that open so that they could put all the (three) kids' toys in there when company comes. They did a little checking, and even got an estimate from a local carpenter. Everything was very expensive. So they got unfinished kitchen cabinets at our local Home Depot, I think it was, and made one. The main difference between kitchen cabinets and cabinet units for other living areas is that kitchen cabinets always have a kick space that runs along the bottom, so that you can stand there and work on the countertop. Buffets, entertainment centers, sideboards, etc., don't. So my son-in-law just bought a few oak planks and added that.

It looks terrific and they get lots of compliments on it. Most folks think it was built in and came with the house.

[Jaymes]

So my son-in-law just bought a few oak planks and added that.

Too late to edit, but want to say to anyone that is thinking of doing this, my son-in-law didn't buy "oak planks" to fill in the kick space at the bottom of the kitchen cabinets. He bought moulding. Which was much easier, obviously.

[rooftop1000]

I used to have an "over the fridge" cabinet in my bathroom but we dont discuss that anymore LOL.

This place was fun to check out when I was deciding what to do about my kitchen...I ended up painting all my cabinets ivory but....

http://www.greendemolitions.com/

tracey

[carlux]

When we re-did our bathroom, I wanted useful cabinets, preferably with lots of drawers, and didn't like anything in the bathroom stores. So we went to IKEA, got 3 white cabinets, two with doors, one with 5 drawers. The two sinks went in the cabinets to the right and left, and the drawers in the middle. Even better, the IKEA drawer organizers are great for keeping makeup, medications, etc., separate. We dont need a medicine cabinet above the sinks, and instead, have a whole wall of mirror.

Our plumber was amazed when he came to install the granite countertop -' most people have custom made cabinets with heavy, expensive granite.' But the IKEA ones worked for us, and look good in the bathroom. They hold towels (in slide-out steel drawers, cleaning supplies, soap, all the stuff that accumulates in a bathroom.

[suzilightning]

when my friend redid her kitchen she took the old cabinets and moved them down to her basement and used them for food storage and some of the ones with drawers for her husband's tools. unfortunately with the flooding irene provided to her basement they are now gone.

[DanM]

I have used old cabinets in a laundry room and cheapo cabinets from a building materials shop for a garage. I have also been tempted to line a hallway with cabinets as a pantry and locker type setup.

Dan

[qrn]

I have a complete wood shop ,and build all my own kitchen cabinets,my strangest use of one, was in the back yard near where I have BBQ things to cook on, I put one on the fence next to the cooking area, Only problem was the the wasps kept building nests in it,and I had to take it down cause they stung me a few times...

(

Bud

[threestars]

Never tried IKEA. But I think it is good. Personally, I'd choose a personalized home made cabinets than the ones you can see at furniture shops. Aside from having a good quality of your cabinets you also personalize sizes and styles of the cabinets you like.

[DiscoJeff]

I'm not sure it is that much of an advantage for a home office setup, but the Ikea kitchen cabinets use very high quality (Blum) hinges and full extension drawer slides with optional soft-close features and are very inexpensive. The sizes they offer are limited, but if you can make it work, that is the way to go.

I use uppers and lowers in my garage and couldn't be happier.