Cabinet door clearance question

[Sparetime]

I am currently working on a set of cabinets for my kitchen. I am building a new pantry that will sit next to the refrigerator. I am building the cabinets with 1-1/2 inch wide stiles and had planned to use inset doors. If i use a normal butt hinge, I believe I am going to have issues with the door hitting the side of the fridge and not opening all the way, conflicting with the roll out shelves I have planned.

Is there another hinge style that will alleviate this problem? I'm aware of European style hinges, which seem like they would work, but I actually wanted to have the barrel of the hinge visible for visual appeal.

Thoughts?

[JGrout]

make the cabinet the same depth as the fridge.

or overlay your doors.

Or narrow up your pullouts to accommodate the doors

an inset door on a standard butt hinge is not the solution for pullout slides without some modification

[fredhargis]

Joe's right about that hinge being a problem with slide out shelves. Anyway, what about swinging the door on the other side?

[Curlycherry]

For pullouts I step the slide on the hinge side in by using blocking. I often run a piece of 1" or thicker lumber the height of slide from front to back on the side of the cabinet.

[Sparetime]

Thank you for all of your input. Sounds like there isn't a magical hinge that will work around this issue.

I've always done overlay doors in the past, but like the look of the inset and was looking forward to the challenge of making the doors and drawers. Getting inset to look right is a challenge.

The opening is 27" wide, so a single door is relatively wide. I guess the door could be made with additional stiles and rails to break up the width. Hmmmm, not a bad thought. It would also allow for more free access (no door in the way) to that side of the pantry pullouts since the layout of the kitchen will result in the cabinets being approached from the fridge side most often. Door would still need to be all the way open to allow for free movement of the slide outs. The area where the swing occurs is a walkway and it could be done. There isn't a lot of traffic in that walkway, but there is some. I can see putting groceries away and one of the kids "having" to get through there.

How odd would a kitchen of inset doors look with one cabinet having overlay doors?

[Sparetime]

Speaking of openings for refrigerators, how tall is standard? I've looked at the height of a lot of fridges and found 69" to be common. See any issues with planning a 36" wide by 70" high opening?

[rwe2156]

How about pullouts where the front is the door ie. no hinges.

Check this out.

Seems like a good solution!

[Robert Adams]

Sparetime said:

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Speaking of openings for refrigerators, how tall is standard? I've looked at the height of a lot of fridges and found 69" to be common. See any issues with planning a 36" wide by 70" high opening?

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Unfortunately there are no standards when it comes to fridge dimensions. They are all over the place. Best way to size a fridge hole is to go measure at depot and size the hole for the biggest dimensions your found. Then any fridge should fit....

I ended up ditching built in cabs on he fridge side of the kitchen. Put in a corner pantry then one tall cab next to it then the fridge freestanding. Make sure any time you're put a cab next to the fridge that the cab is far enough back that the doors will open all the way. Usually flush with the box of the fridge or a little further back.

[fredhargis]

Sparetime said:

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How odd would a kitchen of inset doors look with one cabinet having overlay doors?

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I'm trying to imagine it and I think it would be, well, noticeable.

[joe1086]

LIL

Perhaps a bit OT, but when I did a kitchen full of inset doors I found this article at FWW article pretty helpful on how to accurately fit the doors to the openings.

FWW-inset doors