Which Comes First: Appliances or Cabinets?

A well-designed and beautiful kitchen is the perfect marriage of functionality and beauty.

After all, the main point of a kitchen is functional–the storing, cooking, and serving of food–but the benefit of a remodeled kitchen is that you get to enjoy a beautiful space while you do those tasks.

So as you think about a kitchen remodel, you may wonder what to focus on first: the appliances your kitchen needs to function or the cabinets that add beauty and form?

Key Takeaways

• Appliances and cabinets need to be considered together in order to craft the beautiful and functional kitchen you want.
• Cabinets take up the most visual and actual space, so prioritizing them makes sense. But appliances are necessary to the function of the kitchen and need to be carefully considered as well.
• Appliances can be freestanding, built-in, or integrated and each type gives you a different look and feel to your kitchen.
• A designer can help you get the kitchen you want, one where appliances and cabinets work together in both function and form.

Your range, cooktop, wall ovens and range hood hardest to change later on so we usually advise getting a new ones as part of the remodel. Dishwashers and fridges are easier to change.

Which Comes First?

If you buy appliances first, you may end up “painting yourself into a corner” and limiting your options when it comes to cabinets and countertops. You will need to work around the appliances, rather than integrating them into your design.

Because cabinets are so integral to your kitchen design, it makes sense to prioritize them. But if you go ahead and have them installed without a plan for your appliances, you could end up with a kitchen that doesn’t give you the seamless look and feel you want.

So which comes first: appliances or cabinets? The right answer is: both.

As Our friends at the Decor Cabinet Company, explain, “Your appliances and cabinetry should work together and be designed together.”

When you’re renovating a kitchen, you have the opportunity to create a cohesive space where your appliances and cabinetry complement each other in terms of both function and form. You really can have your cake and eat it too.

When you choose appliance and cabinets at the same time you can integrate them into the design, like with this panelled dishwasher. 

Cabinets in Your Kitchen

Kitchen cabinets take up the most space in the room, both materially and visually. The cabinets you choose–their color, style, and design–will set the tone of your kitchen. Cabinets are also one of the most hard-working features of your kitchen, providing storage and a base for your countertops. 

We remodel a lot of kitchens in the Tallahassee area. Based on our twenty-plus years of expertise, we have some ideas of what works well and what doesn’t. For example,

• while we install all types of cabinets, we usually recommend semi-custom over custom cabinetry.
• we believe that every kitchen should have these five essential cabinets.
• we always prefer and recommend frameless cabinets over inset cabinets.

Appliances in Your Kitchen

“For a standout kitchen, every detail matters – including how you add the range, fridge, and oven into your design. Gone are the days of leaving a hole in the cabinets to fill in later,” says Decor. There are three main ways of adding your appliances into the kitchen, and which one you choose will impact not only what appliances you purchase, but the overall look and feel of the space.

Freestanding Appliances

Most homes have freestanding appliances. These appliances are the ones you can buy at any big box store or appliance store. They are standard size–for example, refrigerators come in either 24” counter-depth or the more common 36” depth. When designing a kitchen for freestanding appliances, you generally leave gaps in the cabinetry where they will fit. 

Freestanding appliances will fit fairly well, but they will probably stick out past the front of the cabinets. They can be paneled to disguise them a little, or–more commonly–they are left as they are. Freestanding appliances, since they are easy to come by, are less expensive than other types, and they also often offer the most storage and functional space.

A built in fridge has tall cabinets or panels on either side to give it a ‘built in’ look. But fridge is not flush with cabinets doors like an integrated fridge.

Built-In Appliances

Built-in appliances are an excellent choice for custom kitchens. The appliances are chosen first, and then cabinets are made specifically to fit around them. This means there will be a very small gap between appliances and cabinets or no gap at all.

Built-in appliances have a cohesive look with the rest of the kitchen. The appliances can be paneled to match the cabinets for a more seamless look, but they will often have handles and vents that show. The front of the cabinets and the front of the appliances will be very close–built-in appliances usually stick out a little farther than cabinets, but not much.

Appliances that are built in to your kitchen give it a more open, streamlined, and cohesive feel. That makes them a great choice for smaller kitchens. Sometimes you might lose some of the spaciousness you’d find in a freestanding refrigerator, oven, or dishwasher. But overall, they tend to look nicer and more high-end than freestanding appliances.

An integrated fridge is flush the with cabient doors and blends into the cabinet design. 

Integrated Appliances

The third option for appliances is to fully integrate them into the design of the kitchen. Integrated appliances are seamlessly blended into the cabinets. They are specifically designed so that the fronts can be paneled and they match the cabinets exactly in terms of depth and looks. 

Integrated appliances are always 24” deep. Refrigerators are often taller than usual or wider than usual to make up for the lack of depth. The handles, vents, and other mechanics of the appliances are hidden and not noticeable, giving the kitchen a gorgeous, sleek design. Integrated appliances give the most high-end, luxurious look you can get in your kitchen. Like built-in appliances, the fact that they don’t stick out past the front of the cabinets means that the kitchen has a more open feel to it.

With their versatile, stylish design, integrated appliances look great in any kitchen style from modern to traditional and everything in between. They reduce visual clutter and distraction, allowing the areas of your kitchen you want to highlight (a gorgeous kitchen island, fantastic pendant lighting, or the cabinets themselves) to shine.

What’s Best for You?

“Homeowners need to talk to their kitchen designer before purchasing appliances. Their insight into the different types of integration may be helpful to not only decide how you want to add your appliances, but how best to utilize the space you have and create a great working triangle,” according to Decor. Determining the best set-up for your kitchen cabinets and appliances depends on several factors:

• Your priorities
• Your budget
• The size and layout of your kitchen
• The scope of your kitchen remodel
• Your preferences

A great remodeler will be able to help you consider your options, think about your goals for the space, and make a confident decision. And then he will carry out your vision until the kitchen of your dreams is a reality. Ready to get started? If you live in Killearn Lakes, Golden Eagle, Southwood, or other Tallahassee, Florida neighborhoods, contact us today, and let’s talk about your goals for your kitchen.

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Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum

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Have Other Ideas?

The sky is the limit when it comes to great or unusual custom upgrades you can add to your home. And remodeling your Tallahassee home is the perfect time to think about what you can do to make your home the perfect place for you and your family. We’re here to help. We have years of experience in customizing, problem-solving, renovating, and personalizing homes in Midtown, Summerbrook, and other Tallahassee-area neighborhoods. Give us a call today and let us make your home the perfect place, tailor-made for you and your family to enjoy.