Kitchen
For this reason, it often makes sense on an island deeper than 60 centimetres to construct it out of shallower cabinets placed back to back. For example, a 105-centimetre-deep island is often made out of a row of 60-centimetre-deep cabinets on the working side and 35-centimetre-deep cabinets (the depth of standard upper wall-hung cabinets) on the back side, plus a few centimetres of benchtop overhang. With this arrangement, the cabinets on the working side of the island can be used to hold larger and more frequently used items such as pots and pans. The back side can be used to store smaller items, often pieces used less frequently or crockery that’s not used in cooking, such as glassware.Typical base cabinets sitting against the wall are 60 centimetres deep. When cabinets are deeper than this, the back becomes very hard to reach and items become inconvenient to access.
The trade-off here is that the doors will be less easy to access quickly when blocked by stools. Whether having to move the seating to reach certain items is a significant inconvenience or not is mostly a matter of preference and what items you would store in this area. For items that aren’t used often – such as seasonal Christmas platters – this can be perfect. They will be easy to find in the shallow cabinet the rare times they are needed, rather than being lost in the back of a deep cabinet.
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