Design Ideas for a Short, Wide, Over-the-Fridge Cabinet Door
Ways to handle door design for a cabinet with oddball dimensions. December 27, 2006
Question
Due to a very tall refrigerator and a soffit that cannot be removed, I am forced to build a full depth upper cabinet that is 37" wide and only 11" tall. Using two doors, they each will be 17 3/4" wide by about 9" or 10" tall. How can I make this look good?
Forum Responses
(Cabinetmaking Forum)
From contributor P:
Use four doors.
From contributor J:
I would make a single open box, put a single door front on to match hinge it from the top, and leave the pull off, so it would have the appearance of a panel but still have access to the storage space.
From contributor B:
"Garage" one-piece door that tilts up. Seems to be a trend above refrigerators nowadays.
From the original questioner:
It sounds like the consensus is one door with some type of top mounted hinges. Could I use regular
Blum euro hinges? Since these are raised panel doors, could I run the grain horizontal with this door? Thanks.
From contributor E:
Blum had the hardware setup you need at IWF.
Blum hinges and a
Blum support to hold door. It was fairly new, I believe. Give your rep a call.
From contributor I:
Using Euro hinges still leaves the problem of holding the door open... I did some flipper doors years ago with a spring loaded hinge/stay that was high quality. A bit tricky to install, but the results were very nice. I think the maker might have been Hafele. I've also recently noticed some
Blum "gas filled" cylinder systems for flipper doors in the trade mags, but that would probably be overkill for what you're doing.
As far as design goes, play with what looks best; horizontal grain frame and panel or perhaps a single piece fake double door.
From contributor D:
Why not use two or three sliding doors? Easy to make and no messing around with hinges.
