Celebrating Built-in Storage
Consolidating beauty and function, built-in storage is an efficient, space-maximizing option
Storage space has always been at the top of every homeowner’s wish list, and built-in cabinetry is an elegant, efficient way to get it. Adding to a centuries-old tradition, many cabinetmakers continue to enrich the realm of built-ins with skillful designs that reconfigure older models and invent new ones. Designed to fit available space and to integrate with surrounding cabinetry and trim, custom-made storage challenges its makers to achieve higher levels of function and beauty.
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What’s on display? A long white-oak built-in offers plenty of space for exhibiting china and still manages to get top billing with a tiled counter and backsplash, antique glass, and lacewood drawer fronts that show off through-dovetail joinery. Built by Udo Schmidt. Photo by Charles Bickford.
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Light where it’s needed. The renovation of a stately Midwestern Victorian created new spaces just right for built-ins. This narrow unit of plain-sawn white oak is topped with an arched display niche that makes the cabinet stand apart. Jon Frost was the designer and builder. Photo by Charles Bickford.
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Cubist junkiore. Behind every maple panel in this wall niche is either a door or a drawer activated by a touch latch. The hidden boxes are maple faced with an ebonized edgeband; the accent material is bee’s-wing figured andiroba.Design, construction and photo by Jon Frost of St. Paul, Minn.
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Lighting the way. Unlike many solid pantry doors, these Douglas-fir double doors are fitted with single glass lites that offer a view of the contents and lend a spaciousness to the room.Construction by Johnson Cabinets and Woodworking; design by Barley & Pfeiffer Architects, Austin, Texas. Photo by Roe A. Osborn.
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Almost any space is fair game. As part of a new addition in an old house, this pair of windows was recessed into an exterior wall, a perfect place to exploit for storage.Design by Frank Shirley Architects; built by Charron Construction. Photo by Randy O’Rourke.
