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Need advice/opinions on height of kitchen cupboards to bulkhead ratio

6 years ago

Hi everyone, I find it hard to visualise how our kitchen will look from these images and would like opinions on how the height of our wall cupboards (all white) will look in comparison to the height of the bulkhead (painted in Dulux Vanilla Quake 1/2 - white with a grey undertone). I don't want the cupboards to look too tall and skinny or the bulkhead to look to dominant and to heavy.
Are there any design 'rules' as to how tall a bulkhead should be?
I have attached images of the various options below.
Thanks in advance :-)

Featured Answer

oklouise

6 years ago

if the 625mm bulkhead is the same material and colour as the walls and you consider having a cornice to match other ceiling finishes the dominant feature will be your lovely new kitchen, not the bulkhead, although i would consider a taller window splashback if that's possible

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Comments (11)

oklouise
6 years ago
how high are the ceilings? how tall are the users? for a standard 2400mm ceiling the top of the wall cabinets are usually in line with the top of the architrave around the doors which is around 2100mm and then the bulkhead can fit between the top of the cabinet and the ceiling and would be about 300mm tall (and cornice may or may not be attached to the bulkhead)....Taller ceilings (and people) could have taller wall cabinets or bulkheads to suit but the height of the wall cabinets have to suit specific purposes..the bottom of wall cabinets over counters can be as low as 350 above the counter or 650mm above a gas cooktop but the top is still usually around 2100mm above the floor...start with what you want to store in the wall cabinets and that will p decide the sizes and then fit the bulkhead to suit the cabinets
mrswardy
Original Author
6 years ago
Thank you oklouise, the ceilings are ~3m high so the current kitchen cupboard height of 2400mm leaves a bulkhead of 625mm... which seems quite big/bulky to me... but I've never designed a kitchen before! I just hope it looks ok & is not too dominant...
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User
6 years ago
mrswardy, how much storage do you need? With 3m ceilings you could potentially have double stacked overhead cabinets. I will attach a photo of mine. I have an unhealthy obsession with storage space after having none for many years!!! I keep a step ladder in a broom cupboard, and only store the rarely-used things up there.
User
6 years ago

melissa_nethery's Ideas · More Info

melissa_nethery's Ideas · More Info

This is a 3.3m ceiling.
mrswardy
Original Author
6 years ago
Looks great! Thanks Mel. The colours are basically identical to ours too, even with the grey mirror splash back :-)

Unfortunately we can't do the stacking cupboards as we have an integrated extraction fan above the stove...

Do you happen to know the size of your bulkhead? About 300mm? It certainly doesn't look too heavy.

Thanks again :-)
User
6 years ago
It would be approx 300mm. Do u want a photo of our extraction fan?....it's a canopy that vents straight out behind itself (not right up into the bulkhead). I don't see it would make any difference. We went no cornice, just square set. It would of looked too busy with the shaker cabinets.
Judy Bumbles
6 years ago
I took my wall cardboard to the ceiling, it looks nice and neat and more importantly no dust.
User
6 years ago
I would of gone higher but there is air con ducting in the bulkhead.
mrswardy
Original Author
6 years ago
Thanks for your help guys. The builder contacted us today during the installation of the ducted A/C and advised us that we have to drop the ceiling 200m to accomodate the ducts (unless we want a huge bulkhead across the kitchen/living area. SO the gorgeous high ceiling is (unfortunately) no longer an issue. It is really frustrating that they only just figured this out! :-/
siriuskey
6 years ago
simple bulk heads painted the same colour as walls look great, or cupboards up to the ceiling for extra storage, could your extractor ducting be run across the ceiling and exit via the eaves we did this for our dryers as well.

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