Cabinets next to a stub wall?

[Greg Urwiller]

My shop walls are sitting on a short (approx. 12") concrete stub wall. I plan on building some base cabinets to go a short distance along a couple of walls. Since I feel it's easier to pull a drawer out to see whats in it than it is to kneel down to look on the back of a shelf they'll mostly be all drawers. Would it be better to butt the cabinets against the concrete wall or cut out the cabinet to fit over the stub wall and butt up against the sidewall? It would be a lot less work and give me a full depth bottom drawer if I backed the cabinet up to the concrete. A lot of wasted space behind the cabinets, but I'd also gain about 3" on the tabletop. Greg

[Tom Ewell]

Any way to utilize the space between the cabinet backs and the wall for material/tool storage?
Might put up a rack system for long sticks if you have enough access to slide stuff in and out.

[Keith Westfall]

Do it the best way to minimize wasted space. you can never have too much space!

[Greg Urwiller]

I don't really think I would be able to utilize the 3 1/2" behind the cabinets if I butted them against the concrete wall. So, here's my next question. Would it be better to notch out the cabinets themselves or just build a base the same height as the base wall (I measured, it's actually 9") and set the full depth cabinet on top? I'd put some short (height/depth), but wide drawers in the base. There wouldn't be any toekick but I wasn't going to have one anyway.

[Wayne Hendrix]

I don't really think I would be able to utilize the 3 1/2" behind the cabinets if I butted them against the concrete wall. So, here's my next question. Would it be better to notch out the cabinets themselves or just build a base the same height as the base wall (I measured, it's actually 9") and set the full depth cabinet on top? I'd put some short (height/depth), but wide drawers in the base. There wouldn't be any toekick but I wasn't going to have one anyway.

I dont see any advantage to either but building one cabinet with a notch at the back and a shallow drawer at the bottom with normal drawers above it would probably be easier than building a base unit of drawers and then topping it with another cabinet. At least for me. I would do which ever is easier for you to build.

[Ryan Hellmer]

Personally, I'd use standard cabinets butted to the stub wall. Then I'd shim out a "nailer" 34.5" high (the height of the standard cabinets) and just build a deeper top, I'm pretty sure the 3.5" space would be pretty much wasted anyway and the extra counter depth could be nice. If you don't already have power/air, you could use the dead space to wire/plumb.

Ryan

[Mike Desch]

Hi;
+1 for regular cabinets against the stub wall.

Then you can have a deeper top (just get a 28" or 30" solid core door slab).

I've done this in my shop, but only had a 2" or so stem wall extension to worry about.

Did one cabinet with a notch in the base and a shorter drawer, but it was a pain.