Staggering kitchen cabinets can change the look and feel of a kitchen dramatically. Keep reading to learn all about staggering cabinets and if it it the right choice for your kitchen.
If you are in the planning stages of a kitchen remodel, you know how important it is to get the cabinet layout right. It’s easy to get caught up in choosing the door style and color, but placement and cabinet height are just as important. Most cabinets are installed in a straight line, but another option you can consider is staggering the cabinets to varying heights.
On average, kitchen cabinets are all the same height and depth. Staggered wall cabinets are upper cabinets placed next to each other in varying sizes. Some will be taller or shorter, and others may have a more narrow depth. This is done to provide a focal point and can often create an illusion of a larger kitchen.
Staggering kitchen cabinets can change the look and feel of the kitchen dramatically. Do you want to stagger kitchen cabinets, or are you still deciding if it is right for you? Keep reading to learn all about when to stagger kitchen cabinets and how to determine if they are the right choice for your kitchen cabinets.
Staggered Kitchen Cabinet Ideas
Custom Built or Pre Fab
You can have staggered cabinets custom-built or use pre-fab cabinets selected specifically to fit in your space. There are many wood options to choose from if you would like a stained wood look, or you can choose to have them installed unfinished and paint them.
Brown Cabinets
Brown wall cabinets are often used in traditional kitchens. Mixing different materials adds texture and brings in a fresh look like this tile backsplash that continues to the ceiling.
Painted Cabinets
Traditional doesn’t have to mean old fashion. Painting your staggered cabinets in an on-trend color can make the kitchen look modern and new.
Accent Island
Traditional design dictates that if the cabinets are a Traditional, staggered style, then the other permanent elements in the room must also be in the Traditional style. This doesn’t mean there isn’t room for unique details, though! Painting the island a beautiful color or using a unique countertop, like a butcher block, make your kitchen look one of a kind.
Light Wood Cabinets
Light wood colors can also be used in Traditional kitchen decor. The staggered cabinets in lighter wood tones mix well with farmhouse and country decor and help lighten up a dark kitchen.
Staggered Kitchen Cabinets With Crown Molding
Fitting right in with the traditional kitchen decor are staggered cabinets topped with beautiful crown molding. Crown molding is a decorative trim piece that goes across the cabinets. This decorative accent elevates the kitchen and gives it an elegant and finished look. Crown molding can be wide or thin, but the molding is usually wide in a traditional kitchen with staggered cabinets.
White Crown Molding
Crown molding on the top of staggered cabinets is usually between 3-7″ wide. The height of the ceiling and cabinets determine the width to use in your trim detail. The important thing to get right is to make sure it is proportional to the overall look of your kitchen.
Decorative Crown Molding
On average, crown molding is considered a traditional detail. However, you can achieve a more modern and contemporary look by using decorative trim and molding uniquely. Very thin molding or the opposite, shown below with extremely wide molding, can achieve a more contemporary design.
Simple Crown Molding
Crown Molding can go all the way up to the ceiling, leaving no space at the top of the cabinets. This is a very clean design look that can be used to make Traditional kitchen design look more contemporary.
Traditional Touches
In special circumstances, when there are unique architectural elements, the cabinet molding may not be able to be used on all the cabinets. In this case, it will follow the line of the ceiling and walls. Every kitchen is different, and the type, size, and placement of the crown molding on the cabinets will be unique to every situation.
Custom Cabinets
The types and styles of crown molding used on staggered cabinets are varied. You can combine trims to make an elegant and unique detail across your cabinets. Dental molding is often used in traditional kitchen design. When combined with plain molding to add height, it adds an exquisite and rich look to the kitchen.
Staggered White Kitchen Cabinets
White cabinets are another timeless and classic kitchen element. They provide a great backdrop to almost any other accent color. When used with staggered cabinets, they help lighten up the room.
Mosaic Backsplash
Dark wood staggered cabinets will always be a traditional style, but the white kitchen is a new classic that is here to stay. White cabinets look fresh and modern, especially when mixed with heavier decor details like a mosaic backsplash.
Mixed Level Cabinets
Staggered white cabinets can take on many different configurations. Typical placement is to stagger them with the cabinets resting above the appliances. Tall cabinets are often narrow and used to flank the wide cabinets.
Gray and White Kitchen
The white staggered cabinets break up the monotony of what would have been a very long continuous row of cabinets. Staggered cabinets in a large kitchen are the perfect design element to fill up a large wall.
Modern Meets Traditional
Another way to style white staggered cabinets is to mix in an accent color. A perfect way to do this is to paint a focal part of the cabinetry a different color. This striking look adds a modern touch to the Traditional kitchen look of staggered cabinets.
Farmhouse Style
White staggered cabinets can buck the traditional style even more, when the doors are unique. A slat or shiplap style cabinet door works perfectly with modern farmhouse decor and coordinates seamlessly with the conventional style of the staggered cabinets.
Staggered Kitchen Cabinets vs. Straight
When it comes to cabinet layout, you not only want your cabinets to be functional but to provide a beautiful aesthetic to the kitchen. Kitchen cabinets are made up of upper cabinets and lower cabinets. The lower cabinets have to be the same height because they have a countertop lying across them. The upper cabinets, however, can be straight or staggered. Let’s look at the main differences between staggered and straight cabinets.
Staggered Cabinets
Staggered cabinets have always been the hallmark of an upscale, traditional kitchen. Because it is more effort to design and install staggered wall cabinets, they are considered a kitchen cabinet upgrade. Kitchen cabinets can be custom ordered to fit your layout, or you can use stock cabinets in a staggered pattern.
Staggering cabinets break up a monotonous wall of cabinetry and can provide more visual interest. It can also make a kitchen look larger and more grand because it directs the eye to the ceiling. Try using staggered cabinets in small kitchens because it gives the illusion of a bigger and airier space.
How To Stagger Cabinets
There are a couple of options for cabinetry layout when it comes to staggering wall cabinets.
The first option is to have all of the cabinets end at the same height on the wall. Kitchen wall cabinets are usually hung above the countertops, at a minimum of 18″ or higher, depending on your ceiling height. There will be a linear line across the bottom of the cabinetry in this staggering method. The staggered look comes from having taller cabinets that extend past the others. Kitchen wall cabinets are usually hung, at a minimum, 18″ above the countertops.
Another option is to have alternating cabinets that are both higher and lower. This look can be a little busier and is best kept to a select focal point area. Often you will see it used with narrow cabinets that flank a wide cabinet.
Other options kitchen designers use to create a focal point are staggering cabinets around something already taller, like refrigerator or oven cabinets. Oven cabinets are used over the stove when there is no ventilation hood. If there is a double oven, oven cabinets are often already installed at a higher point. Kitchen designers will use higher or lower cabinets on either side, making the oven and stove wall a focal point. This can also be done with cabinets on either side of a kitchen window to make it the central focal point of the room.
Staggered cabinets are not just limited to height and placement but can also include alternating depths. Often a spice cabinet will be used in a staggered layout and have narrow shelves resulting in less depth. Changes in depth can also make a kitchen appear bigger because it pulls the eye back towards the wall space, giving the illusion of more wall space. Kitchens with more wall space often appear larger and more spacious.
Straight Cabinets
Straight Cabinets are wall cabinets all hung at the same height. There is one continuous line across the top of the cabinetry. They are also the same depth and provide an even block of cabinetry above the countertops.
Because they are all hung on the wall the same, these are the easiest to install, so you will find them used as the standard cabinet in most homes.
Straight cabinets are also used to define a specific style. Modern and Contemporary kitchens will almost always have linear cabinetry because the long clean lines are central to the style.
Stacked Cabinets
Another option for using straight cabinets that look similar to staggering cabinets is to use stacked cabinets. This look combines two upper cabinets stacked directly on top of each other on the wall. Stacked cabinets leave no or very little space at the top of the upper cabinets.
Stacked cabinets provide a very clean and modern look. It is usually best to utilize this type of cabinetry arrangement in larger kitchens with tall ceilings and plenty of open space. Smaller kitchens can look cluttered and busy if there is too much cabinetry. If not used carefully, cabinets going to the ceiling can have the opposite effect of enlarging the space.
Two stacked cabinets are placed directly on top of each other for this look, but the sizes of the wall cabinets can vary. Sometimes these will be two short cabinets. It will often be one standard-size upper cabinet with a short cabinet on top that reaches the ceiling. Upper cabinet door style choices are often glass, either clear or frosted, to allow the light to still bounce around the kitchen and make the space feel larger.
What Cabinet Heights Can I Use for Staggered Cabinets?
When designing your cabinetry layout, you have two main choices for your space. Custom-made or stock cabinetry. Custom cabinets are made to order and created to any width or height that you want, but they are also more expensive. Both base cabinets and wall cabinets can be custom-made or purchased from stock.
The most popular options for cabinet installations start with pre-fab cabinets. These are stock cabinets premade in the most commonly used sizes.
Base cabinets are usually 34.5″ in height with an optional depth of 21-24″. There are numerous choices for the width of base cabinets ranging from 12-42″.
Wall cabinets are available in 30″, 36″ or 42″ heights with optional 12-24″ depths. The width options for wall cabinets range from 12-36″.
Are Staggered Kitchen Cabinets Out of Style?
Trends come and go, but certain styles are considered classic and timeless and never really go out of style. Staggered Kitchen cabinets are part of the timeless kitchen. While their popularity may ebb and flow with the times, they will never be considered “out of style.”
Staggered Cabinets are usually found in a traditional kitchen. The traditional style in the kitchen is more formal and uses lots of decorative detail and accessories. Neutral colors and wood tones are used frequently in this classic look, and they are very warm and welcoming. Staggered Cabinets provide just the right detail for a custom and classic look if you prefer a Traditional Kitchen style.