Small Home Gazette, Summer 2016

Creative Solutions: An Over-Refrigerator Cabinet

A mainstay in an older kitchen is a step stool for those hard-to-reach upper cabinets. While such cabinets are great for long-term storage, it can sometimes feel risky climbing up to reach that punch bowl Aunt Ginny gave you so long ago. And the cabinet above the refrigerator can be especially challenging to reach because of the refrigerator’s bulk and projection.

Shelves above the refrigerator provide handy access to a gourmet’s favorite cookbooks, as well as space for decorative objects that enliven the kitchen.

Why not solve it with better design? While this particular fix only works if your fridge and the cabinet over it have one side exposed, it’s a creative solution to a vexing problem. Rather than thinking of the cabinet as a front-to-back affair, re-imagine it as space that is accessed from both the front and the side. In the example pictured here, the cabinet is oriented sideways above the refrigerator. The front-facing cabinet wall is open, revealing shelves that are half the depth of the space.

The cabinet doors are on the side of the refrigerator. The door at the left (the end of the open shelves) is fixed. The back half of the cabinet has a functional door that hides storage for cutting boards, splatter screens, cookie sheets, muffin tins and other large, flat bakeware—items that can be easily grasped with the fingertips. To aid accessibility, install a “stop” behind them to prevent them from sliding back deep into the corner.

These cabinet doors face to the side of the refrigerator. The left-hand door is fixed. On the right is storage for anything that’s slim and long—cookie sheets, cutting boards, muffin tins and so forth.

This solution may not eliminate the need to haul out the kitchen step stool from time to time, but it will help make better use of the cabinet over the refrigerator.

Other Examples?

If you know of other creative solutions to make bungalows more livable, send them to us at mail@bungalowclub.net. Whether they save space; provide modern convenience with an historically-appropriate appearance; or simply make the best of a difficult situation, we would love to share them in the Small Home Gazette.