ToughButterCup Posted September 8, 2018 Share Posted September 8, 2018 At last, there's an opportunity to build our kitchen shelving units as we would want them. That includes pull-down shelving. And i bet there are some things to be recommended, and others to avoid. Would you like to help us think through what to look fr when buying them, and - just as important - what to avoid? Thanks Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterW Posted September 8, 2018 Share Posted September 8, 2018 Got an idea of what you’re looking for as I’m slightly lost on pull down shelving ..?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stones Posted September 8, 2018 Share Posted September 8, 2018 @recoveringacademic you might also want to think about worktop height. Our are set at 1000mm rather than the standard 900mm and it makes a huge difference to comfort of use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterW Posted September 8, 2018 Share Posted September 8, 2018 3 minutes ago, Stones said: @recoveringacademic you might also want to think about worktop height. Our are set at 1000mm rather than the standard 900mm and it makes a huge difference to comfort of use. That’s because you’re 7’3”..... I think I’ve managed 920mm and it’s surprising the small difference it does make. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted September 8, 2018 Share Posted September 8, 2018 Some friends of ours (he was best man at my wedding) are both around 5ft, I think he's 5ft 2" and his wife's 4ft 11". They have their kitchen work surfaces set so low that no normal person can use them... I'm intrigued to find out what "pull down shelves" are, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stones Posted September 8, 2018 Share Posted September 8, 2018 15 minutes ago, PeterW said: That’s because you’re 7’3”..... I think I’ve managed 920mm and it’s surprising the small difference it does make. ☺️ It was certainly for my benefit, but my wife (5'8"), having got use to it, says she prefers having the higher worktop. As Jeremy says, lower worktop heights an option as well. IIRC correctly we could have had our Schuller kitchen supplied with worktop heights ranging between 800 and 1000mm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToughButterCup Posted September 8, 2018 Author Share Posted September 8, 2018 Must be a first ..... JSH and PeterW not knowing every last detail about [xyz] Stand in front of any of your eye-level kitchen cabinets - any one will do. Look up at the top shelf. Now tell me what's at the back of that shelf. If you are like me, you don't know because you cant see. This prevents that. In effect, the back of many cupboards are wasted space - knee level or below, shoulder level or above. I am starting to hate bending down. It'll only get worse. Debbie stands on a stool to get to the back of top-level shelves. Every time she does so, I wince at the potential for a broken this or that. Moving into the bedroom, those storage units that are shoulder-level or above are similarly inaccessible. This time round I can plan to mitigate that problem. Pull-down, fold-out, and rotating shelves seem to me to be a way of slowing the inevitable descent into decrepitude - if I'm not already there.... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterW Posted September 8, 2018 Share Posted September 8, 2018 Right ..!! Hafele do loads of this stuff - look on their website. Much cheaper than buying with a retailer premium. I was thinking along the lines of pull down ironing boards and those tables you get in caravans ..!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stones Posted September 8, 2018 Share Posted September 8, 2018 52 minutes ago, recoveringacademic said: Stand in front of any of your eye-level kitchen cabinets - any one will do. Look up at the top shelf. Now tell me what's at the back of that shelf. If you are like me, you don't know because you cant see. This prevents that. In effect, the back of many cupboards are wasted space - knee level or below, shoulder level or above. I am starting to hate bending down. It'll only get worse. Debbie stands on a stool to get to the back of top-level shelves. Every time she does so, I wince at the potential for a broken this or that. Moving into the bedroom, those storage units that are shoulder-level or above are similarly inaccessible. This time round I can plan to mitigate that problem. Pull-down, fold-out, and rotating shelves seem to me to be a way of slowing the inevitable descent into decrepitude - if I'm not already there.... One benefit of being tall, I can see into the back of the top shelf. Drawers or pull outs below waist level and bingo, no wasted space! ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted September 8, 2018 Share Posted September 8, 2018 Neat idea, @recoveringacademic, would save us having to have the small footstool that lives in the kitchen simply so SWMBO can get at the top shelves of cabinets. Not seen them before, but they look to be an easy retrofit to existing cabinets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe90 Posted September 8, 2018 Share Posted September 8, 2018 We have no wall cupboards in our kitchen because my other half can’t reach them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToughButterCup Posted September 8, 2018 Author Share Posted September 8, 2018 Hmmm. Thats a first. I'm delighted. (not referring to your post @joe90 ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterW Posted September 8, 2018 Share Posted September 8, 2018 @recoveringacademic https://www.hafele.co.uk/en/product/pull-down-basket-shelves-two-tier-chrome-wire-gas-spring-operated-for-cabinet-width-500-or-600-mm/50459222/?MasterSKU=0000004d000165a300040023# £122 ex VAT for 4+ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Davies Posted September 8, 2018 Share Posted September 8, 2018 Neat. Only really needs to the top shelf, not the bottom one, to swing out like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lizzie Posted September 8, 2018 Share Posted September 8, 2018 1 hour ago, joe90 said: We have no wall cupboards in our kitchen because my other half can’t reach them! My friend (5ft 1) has no wall cupboards either for the same reason! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldkettle Posted September 8, 2018 Share Posted September 8, 2018 2 hours ago, PeterW said: @recoveringacademic https://www.hafele.co.uk/en/product/pull-down-basket-shelves-two-tier-chrome-wire-gas-spring-operated-for-cabinet-width-500-or-600-mm/50459222/?MasterSKU=0000004d000165a300040023# £122 ex VAT for 4+ Only 3kg per shelf though ?. It's quite a bit of money for so little storage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdinand Posted September 8, 2018 Share Posted September 8, 2018 (edited) 5 hours ago, recoveringacademic said: Must be a first ..... JSH and PeterW not knowing every last detail about [xyz] Stand in front of any of your eye-level kitchen cabinets - any one will do. Look up at the top shelf. Now tell me what's at the back of that shelf. If you are like me, you don't know because you cant see. This prevents that. I believe that Howdens do them ?. But they do seem to leave a lot of space unused for the gubbins, and have fairly low weight limits. More practically, I get to use the top shelves while my mum who has now gone to under 5ft uses the others. The same even applies in the Bear-Fridge, where my frozen low carb breakfast portions get exiled to the top, whilst the cornettos are lower down. I am sure you have lots of stuff that is not of interest to the boss. Alternatively, do not forget that glass shelves can be a less expensive alternative for top cupboards for things like crockery, and your teapot library (should such exist) - as long as they can be identified from below. For base units, deep drawers are a good alternative. I learnt that from a nice Scottish lady in the Edinburgh 'burbs, who had her mugs and tins arranged on their sides in drawers below the workstop. Again a possibly money-saver, perhaps used in combination with some of the pull-up shelves. I think that pots and pans and tins and crocks (ie heavy or bulky) would be good in drawers below, whilst lighter stuff (dried ingredients, herbs, tea and coffee and so on) would work quite well on these. Cocktails and chocolate, obviously, should always be out on the worktop. Ferdinand Edited September 8, 2018 by Ferdinand 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterW Posted September 8, 2018 Share Posted September 8, 2018 58 minutes ago, Ferdinand said: I believe that Howdens do them ?. Yeh... at Howdens mark up on standard Hafele prices ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdinand Posted September 8, 2018 Share Posted September 8, 2018 (edited) 11 minutes ago, PeterW said: Yeh... at Howdens mark up on standard Hafele prices ... Do you have prices for 2 identicals? The Howdens one in the vid says it has a 9kg capacity. The linked Hafele was 3kg per basket. https://www.howdens.com/kitchen-collection/kitchen-accessories/storage-solutions/standard-600mm-pull-down-shelf/ https://www.hafele.co.uk/en/product/pull-down-basket-shelves-two-tier-chrome-wire-gas-spring-operated-for-cabinet-width-500-or-600-mm/50459222/?MasterSKU=0000004d000165a300040023# Ferdinand Edited September 8, 2018 by Ferdinand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryder72 Posted September 9, 2018 Share Posted September 9, 2018 There are pull down options available. HOWEVER they all come with a price tag and offer severely limited storage, much less than what you would get with regular shelves. My recommendation is not to fall into the quantity of wall unit storage trap and think more about the quality, amount, accessibility and efficiency of storage in tall and floor units. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newhome Posted September 9, 2018 Share Posted September 9, 2018 15 hours ago, Ferdinand said: For base units, deep drawers are a good alternative. I have deep drawers for most of my base units. Easy to pull out and see what’s in them. For the ones that aren’t most have pull out racks. Crockery, pans, glasses, small appliances etc. are all stored in them. I do have wall cupboards but apart from coffee mugs I don’t keep anything of any weight in them. This was hubby’s doing as he decided that he didn’t want the potential of anything of any weight falling out and damaging the worktop, hob etc. So mugs and things like cereal are put on the lower shelf and anything higher up that I need a stool to reach are things I use in a blue moon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdinand Posted September 9, 2018 Share Posted September 9, 2018 (edited) 2 hours ago, newhome said: For the ones that aren’t most have pull out racks. I'd forgotten about those. For 20 years we had pull out wide backets about 150mm deep in 60mm base units. Like a less sophisticated version of these. They provide some of the functionality of what would be pullup shelves. I guess you can also think about wire shelves as used eg for storing sausage rolls in racks in food shops. Ferdinand Edited September 9, 2018 by Ferdinand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newhome Posted September 9, 2018 Share Posted September 9, 2018 Those are not dissimilar to the ones I have. I chose the distance between each pullout dependent on what I was storing in there. So cans vs bottles for example. Tequila and voddy at the bottom ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToughButterCup Posted September 9, 2018 Author Share Posted September 9, 2018 On 08/09/2018 at 14:21, PeterW said: @recoveringacademic [...] £122 ex VAT for 4+ Thanks Pete. How do you get round the need to qualify as a business to get that price..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdinand Posted September 9, 2018 Share Posted September 9, 2018 (edited) 22 hours ago, recoveringacademic said: Thanks Pete. How do you get round the need to qualify as a business to get that price..... I just registered and that gave that price. No apparent checks, but it is identified in the email as a Trade Account. And one of the options is landlord/property developer. Salamander Property Development? It is the price each, btw. F Edited September 10, 2018 by Ferdinand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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