After all, a cabinet is just a box with shelves or drawers, and most rooms in the house could use a few of those for storage.
Think closets, sewing and craft rooms, laundry rooms and mudrooms. And these are just a few of the places where kitchen cabinets in various configurations can come into play. You are only limited by your imagination.
The best part is that using kitchen cabinets to create storage units outside the kitchen is a good deal cheaper than having a custom piece made or buying a piece of expensive furniture to do the job.
Additionally, off-the-shelf cabinets can be tailored to your design specifications. Need a bright red buffet? Paint those cabinets. Dress them up with hardware that reflects the style of other pieces in the room. Add fancy feet to a bedside cabinet or clothing storage piece—bun feet for a more traditional look or steel hairpin feet for a mid-century modern feel.
“We think about 25% of Home Depot’s Hampton Bay cabinets (a line of stock cabinets) end up outside the core kitchen,” says cabinet expert Justin Brown. Even homeowners with a higher end home might not want to spend a lot on a finished basement, and stock cabinetry would be perfect for creating storage there, he says.
“Anywhere you need holding space is an option for adding cabinets,” he says.
In an open plan home, you can use the same cabinets you used for your kitchen throughout the space to create a seamless look, if that’s your preference and budget allows, or mimic the look with stock cabinets.
San Francisco kitchen and bath designer Joanne Cannell likes using semi-custom lines of cabinetry to create storage outside the kitchen because “semi-custom gives you more options, and you can do a lot more with it.”
To get you thinking outside the box, here are some good ways to make use of kitchen cabinets outside their normal habitat:
- Stock cabinets can be used to create a buffet for a dining room by joining several cabinets together and adding a top and stock molding and feet.
- For a more modern look, you can use frameless cabinets to create a floating credenza or buffet for use in a dining or living room.
- A work station can be artfully crafted from kitchen cabinets with the addition of a top for a desk, and feet if wanted. Add open or closed shelving above the station for even more storage.
- The same principle applies to creating a makeup station in a bedroom. Keep it clean and minimal with simple white cabinets or paint wood cabinets to match your decor and add any flourishes you desire with hardware and stock trim.
- Laundry rooms are a natural spot for creating storage with cabinets. Cannell has done a number of laundry rooms where she was tasked with hiding a litter box. She did so by creating an opening in a base cabinet. In several cases, she has made the opening in the shape of a cat’s head, a popular choice for fastidious cat-owning clients.
- A mudroom screams for extra storage, and cabinets can be gainfully employed in this space by using a row of shorter cabinets (the size that normally go above a refrigerator) plus top and stock feet to create a low bench.
- The same applies for creating window seats, which are easy to create out of kitchen cabinets, and provide not only seating with the addition of a top, a long cushion and pillows, but a home for everything from extra pillows and linens to Christmas ornaments.
- A wall of stock cabinets with a mix of shelves and drawers can really up your organizational game in a basement or craft space.
