How Tall should i go with my cabinets?

[mitchn06]

i'm in a self battle in which i can't decide if i want my cabinets to go from the ceiling down or leave a foot or so. let me know what you think!

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everything except the speakers in the top corners is off the wall right now.

this is my plan as of now,

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[Jack Olsen]

Why would you waste the space? If there's room, I'd use it.

 

[niget2002]

If you're doing woodworking of any type... go all the way up. It helps to keep sawdust off of things.

If you have stuff you want to just display and not necessarily keep protected, stop short.

I have nothing but open shelves all over the place and help how dirty everything gets. One day I'll get around to replacing all the shelves with cabinets. Probably use plexi-glass in the doors so I can see what's where.

 

[#1SomeGuy]

I like leaving some space, can throw longer/odd items on top of a row of cabinets that may not fit in the doors.

 

[mitchn06]

thats how i saw it also, if i leave room up there, i'm gonna pile stuff up there when i might as well put it in the cabinet to hide it. If i went all the way up i could also anchor to the rafters and the walls, or just use the french cleat style.

 

[mitchn06]

I have plenty of large object storage

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In this next one you can see that I made shelving behind doors when we first moved in(needs to be redone) all the way on the left under the overhang. Runs the length of the back wall.

 

[djjsr]

If you're building cabinets, I'd run them all the way to the ceiling. Just put the lesser used items in the top.

If you're buying cabinets, they're normally 30" tall and installed with the top of the cabinet at 7'.

 

[Jack Olsen]

You can have the higher ones come out farther. Great storage for stuff you don't need access to every day. Work space underneath.

 

[Steevo]

Like Jack says.
Don't waste storage space, you can put stuff in high cabinets that you don't access often, leaving lower cabinets free for often-accessed stuff.

 

[fringeofinsanity]

I did a bit of a combo, most are to the ceiling to save wall/work space. But ran a section of short cabinets I had at the same lower level where I store 2x4's and such. Il put a few pictures up when I finish.

 

[the1nonlyjl]

like jack says.
Don't waste storage space, you can put stuff in high cabinets that you don't access often, leaving lower cabinets free for often-accessed stuff.

agreed

 

[NUTTSGT]

If it were me, I would either run them up to about 15" from the ceiling, leaving room for the speakers and a space to store larger long stuff

or

run them all the way up to the ceiling, making a open cabinet the speaker to sit in. Something that in time, if you got rid of the speakers, you could put a matching door on the space and use it like a regular cabinet.

 

[mitchn06]

If it were me, I would either run them up to about 15" from the ceiling, leaving room for the speakers and a space to store larger long stuff

or

run them all the way up to the ceiling, making a open cabinet the speaker to sit in. Something that in time, if you got rid of the speakers, you could put a matching door on the space and use it like a regular cabinet.

i was thinking about the opening for the speakers, but since they are at the very top of the garage sitting on a flat shelf, (now and probably if i made an opening) the sound quality is best when i'm on the complete opposite side of the garage, so i thought now would probably be a good time to re-position them and move them around, or invest in several in-ceiling speakers and place them around. probably not yet though.

i've decided to go full length to the top, like the excel plan above, and possibly fill in the middle section top with some more, and leave the lower middle section for the awesome Tool Cabinet Thanks to Tbucit

 

[ekraft84]

I went all the way up. More storage (even if you need a ladder or something to reach, it's worth having), cleaner look, less places for dust, dirt, bugs to accumulate.

My two cents.

 

[santagary]

In my case, I just run pegboard up to the ceiling and hang everything including shelves....guess I'm paranoid about wondering what's lurking behind those cabinet doors that I've forgotten about!! A quick application of my cordless B&D leaf blower with the garage doors open takes care of accumulated dust and dead spiders and then it's clean enough for me and the girls I know in Colorado.

 

[ROB_IN_MN]

this is kind of off topic, but looking at what you did in excel seems kind of putzy

Download goggle sketchup and spend 15 minutes learning how to use it. you'll thank yourself for the time you spent!

that is some fine excel drawing though

 

[BWS]

Just sayin....dust loves horizontal surfaces.So,go to any set of cabinets and do a "white glove test"....well,thats a bit extreme for a garage,but it is a fact.You will never clean the horz. surface up there,its just going to be a dust bin.

Avoiding horz surfaces where you can't keep'm wiped off is going to be cleaner,long haul.Our dust collector pipes(which are round)even get filthy on top.

Ever look at the top of the blades on a typ ceiling fan?

 

[akdiesel]

I would put the cabinets in a location that is comfortable to reach if it is used often.
The section above the cabinets can be used for additional storage as long as the cabinets and the anchors are strong enough to support loads.
I have 12'6" ceilings so my cabinets are approx 60" at the bottom and 90"at the top so that leaves me another 48" of storage above the cabinets. The cabinets are at a height that is easy to access. Your garage looks like it is about 9' tall so you can have plenty of storage above the cabinets as well for occasional items or speakers if you put the cabinets in a comfortable reach, plus if you add task lighting under the cabinets, it will put the light at a better distance to the work surface.
If you are really worried about dust (it collects everywhere) then you can build some doors to cover the upper section. Others on this site have built their upper soffit storage and it looks great.

 

[AMCguy]

Put me down for tall cabinets. I'd go with a full width (wall to wall) unit that is about 24'' high and 12'' deep above the workbench. Then a second full width unit that goes the rest of the way to the ceiling (18'' tall perhaps) and 24'' deep. Pegboard or slat wall at the back of the bench.

Who cares if you need to stand on a stool to get in the uppers. In my opinion, any wall you can see is wasted cabinet space. Any shelf without a door in front of it collects dust.

I'd also enclose under the bench. But we can save that for another day.

 

[mitchn06]

i see that i made a post at about 7am and it never went up, so i'll do it again. i decided to go full length all the way up. 9.5-10ft ceilings and i'm 6'4", so a small stool is just fine. since the speakers are at the top of the ceiling facing directly out, the sound quality out of them isn't any good until you get about 15 feet back. time to re position them in better angles so i can get the full potential out of them, i'm going to build like the excel pic at the top, only full length with a fold up door on the top foot or so. and make the awesome tool cabinet thing like Tbucit did. save some drawer space and whatnot. maybe my computer monitor also, not sure, i just need to focus on the cabinets for now so i can put all the stuff back and re-organize. as much as i love all the building and re-organizing, the clutter and sawdust is really irritating me(literally, i messed up a pair of contacts from sawdust earlier this week.)

 

[coolreed]

Garage Space is precious. Use it wisely.

"Everything has a place and there is a place for everything."

Practice the '5S' rules Weedhopper and your garage will attain enlightenment.