Just 3 upper cabinets?
Note, one is a double that opens on both sides with nothing in the middle. All 3 uppers go to the ceiling so 3 shelves. The house also has a large walk in pantry right off the kitchen.
We are debating removing the upper cabinets from over our peninsula to make it more modern open concept space. We would just have a range hood vent from the ceiling and then the 3 cabinets by the sink and fridge on the other side.
grapefruit / 4321 posts
That depends. Do you have good storage elsewhere? I would be able to do this if I could keep the items that aren't used regularly (serving platters, etc) somewhere else. So three upper cabinets would probably be enough for the stuff that we use all the time, but not nearly enough for everything we keep in our kitchen with no where else to put it.
pomelo / 5129 posts
We pretty much have three and a half. We survive, but would like a bigger kitchen.
I think it would be easier if there was also a pantry. We don't have one, so food is in one cabinet, glasses in one, and plates/bowls/serving dishes in the third. (there are two skinny cabinets we keep mugs and vases in)
hostess / wonderful honeydew / 32460 posts
@T.H.O.U.: I only have 2 uppers. The rest are lower drawers and cabinets! I have a butler's pantry and a nice sized pantry though.
pomelo / 5298 posts
We essentially have about that much upper space. We don't use the cabinets above our oven or refrigerator. We have a large pantry style cabinet that houses all of our food and larger appliances. Our upper cabinets are: dinnerware (plates, bowls, cups), plasticware (all of our plastic storage containers), glassware (all of our glass drinkware that never gets used and I probably should get rid of!).
pear / 1770 posts
I have zero upper cabinets, but I do have a pantry and a big buffet/hutch in my dining room.
grapefruit / 4056 posts
Yep! We only have 3 upper cabinets and no issues at all making it work!
pear / 1599 posts
I only have 3 uppers and no it sucks. If I had drawers below it would be fine.
pear / 1788 posts
I only have 3! But lots of lower storage. I also only live in a condo.
kiwi / 524 posts
We actually don't have any upper cabinets in our new house. It's kind of odd, but as long as there's enough storage space overall, it's fine.
pomegranate / 3350 posts
Our old kitchen had 3 upper cabinets and no lower cabinets, except under the sink. It was awful! We survived but redid the kitchen a little over a year after we moved in.
nectarine / 2115 posts
We rented a place that had 3 upper cabinets. We installed shelves and put all our dishes/glass-wear on the open shelving. It was tricky, but I ended up liking the way it looked.
wonderful clementine / 24134 posts
@chopsuey: yes I think we would have to redo the three lowers to be drawers to save space (fourth one being below the sink but that doesn't count for storage)
@regberadaisy: great to know! Basically it would be plates bowls and cups. And then above that in a small square cabinet stemware and other serving pieces.
@Truth Bombs: yes! It's a huge walk in pantry. Currently we store things like tin foil and baggies in there so we are used to walking over for supplies
pomegranate / 3983 posts
Yes, that's essentially what we're doing now! Plates and bowls in one. Cups and mugs in the second. Then storage containers/school lunch stuff in the third. The upper shelves I can't reach as easily have serving ware, wine glasses etc.
eggplant / 11824 posts
Yep! We only have 3 uppers, but it's fine because we have a walk-in pantry and plenty of lower cabinets. If you're planning on having an island, you can have additional cabinet space there (we do).
ETA: actually now that I really think about it, we also have cabinets over our stove and our fridge so I guess we have 5. But we only use 3 so my comment still stands 
persimmon / 1026 posts
I only have two and it sucks right now - mostly because we've had to put anything sharp or breakable (knife block, grater, glass bowls) into the uppers as we don't have locks on our lower cabinets or drawers. Once the kids are old enough and we can rearrange, I think it will be fine. But right now we need like one extra upper cabinet. We do not have a walk in pantry or closet storage in our kitchen.
grapefruit / 4355 posts
I think I would have a hard time with just 3 unless you had a ton of storage elsewhere. I have 4 doubles plus the small ones over the oven and fridge and sometimes I feel like I need a bigger kitchen because I don't have space to store things.
wonderful pear / 26210 posts
No, I couldn't, even with a pantry. I don't like having to "commute" while cooking.
wonderful clementine / 24134 posts
@looch: I guess what's making me consider it is that the only things above the island now is storage containers and pie pans etc. So not realt anything that we use while actively cooking anyways. We still would have four drawers and four lower cabinets that would be converted to pull outs or drawers for better storage for pots and pans
pomegranate / 3350 posts
If you have a walk in pantry I would think it's fine. You can put the breakable stuff that doesn't get used often up high in there. What about over the fridge? When we redid our kitchen we put at 24 inch deep cabinet above and it stored a ton!
wonderful clementine / 24134 posts
@skipra: yes! We will convert the fridge Cabinet to a deep one
GOLD / wonderful pomegranate / 28905 posts
@T.H.O.U.: in our uppers we have plates, bowls, glasses, coffee mugs etc. we don't have a walk in pantry but we do have a lot of lowers. Including an island with a sink. Kitchen design is more about the triangle, making sure your stove, fridge and sink are very close. We have a open kitchen and did not want any uppers on non walls obstructing views. But we do keep a lot of non day to day small equipments in the basement.
wonderful clementine / 24134 posts
@regberadaisy: that's what we are trying to do, remove the upper cabinets that obstruct the view. Right now we have dishwasher, sink and fridge on the wall with the window. And then the stove on the peninsula. So that won't change.
GOLD / wonderful coconut / 33402 posts
I would take everything out and test it for a month and see if it works.
wonderful clementine / 24134 posts
@Smurfette: yes! That's definitely the plan before we do anything. But we are also looking at resale value and don't want people to come into the house and say WTF there are only three upper cabinets.
persimmon / 1467 posts
We only have three upper cabinets and one is a super deep corner one with a glass door (so pretty much useless except for decorative stuff). We survive. It was an adjustment but we have a china cabinet for our dishes so those two cabinets have my baking and cooking food that i don't want at kid height and everything else is in the pantry which is close enough but not super close. We have two tiny open shelves and I want to add more.
nectarine / 2085 posts
Probably. But I'd want a wine glass/china cabinet (or maybe fewer booze glasses... 
)
But now I'm curious what everyone keeps in their upper cabinets! I've got plates/bowls in one, glasses/mugs in another, glass containers in the 3rd, and wine glasses/china in the 4th. My pans and baking stuff are all in the lower ones.
The chief thing that turned me off when looking at houses was open shelves anywhere but in the pantry. I feel like those are dust and dirt magnets, especially in kitchens, and I haven't got time for that!
wonderful clementine / 24134 posts
@honeybear: yes! Agree with you on open shelves. Styled they look great but I don't have time to keep that up!
wonderful pear / 26210 posts
@T.H.O.U.: can you post a photo?
I think I know what you're working with...cabs above a counter that separate two areas, with a space in between upper and lower.
What's on the other side?
grapefruit / 4355 posts
@honeybear: we have plates, bowls, and our wooden salad set in one set of double uppers, glasses, tumblers, mugs, thermos, etc in another double upper, wine/beer/margarita (basically alcohol related) glasses in a third, and Tupperware and cookbooks in the last double upper. Then the two smaller ones above the fridge and oven hold infrequently used stuff (vases, mortar/pestal, fancy steak knives, huge serving bowls, etc).
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