Kitchen islands and kitchen carts can do far more than just serve as counter space or a working area for food preparation. With the right features, islands and carts can increase the storage area in a kitchen, relieving congestion inside of cabinetry.

Manufacturers offer a wide variety of storage options in their collections of kitchen islands and kitchen carts, and among these, built-in cabinets are among the most popular with homeowners. The large demand for kitchen islands and kitchen carts with cabinets has led designers to create many options for cabinet styles and features. Even if you know that a kitchen island or kitchen cart with cabinets is the perfect style for your home, you may have a difficult time selecting what specific model to buy, due to the vast selection available from top brands.

Our Buyers' Guide to Kitchen Islands and Kitchen Carts with Cabinets is the perfect companion to shopping for that new island or cart for your home. The guide reviews all of the majors differences between the models that feature built-in cabinets and will allow you to understand the options available and then select what will complement your decor, your working style, your storage needs and your personal taste the most.

Benefits of Cabinets

If you're not sure whether or not a cabinet-style kitchen island or kitchen cart is ideal for you, taking some time to consider the benefits of having cabinetry can help make your decision easier.

• Cabinets provide a large amount of storage space, typically more than any other type of built-in storage in an island or cart, save for open shelves. By choosing an island or cart with cabinets, you'll have a greater amount of room to accommodate items, allowing you to remove more from crowded cupboards and the rest of the cabinets in your home.


• The space inside of cabinets is versatile. Ordinarily, cabinets have ample space to accommodate taller items like kitchen appliances and oversized pots. You can also place separated bins inside of cabinets to keep smaller items organized. Some cabinet-style carts and islands even have cupboards that cover wine racks.


• In most cabinet-style pieces, the doors are solid, and the items stored within the spaces that they cover are kept out of sight. This creates a neater, cleaner look in your kitchen and prevents you having to constantly, neatly arrange everything on the shelves inside of your cart or island.


• Cabinets create enclosed spaces that keep dust and dirt off of your cookware and appliances. With open storage options, you may need to rinse pieces that you do not reach for frequently prior to using them for food preparation.


• Adding cabinets to a cart or island makes it resemble furniture, which many homeowners and designers feel enhances a kitchen space and makes it feel more homey and inviting.

Considerations About Cabinets

While many people find having cabinets in their kitchen islands or kitchen carts incredibly useful, there are some things to keep in mind about cabinets. To access a cabinet, you'll need to stop working and open a door, and in many cases, step back from your work surface. Some home chefs prefer open storage because they feel it disrupts their food prep work less to access pieces kept out in the open.

For a kitchen cart, the addition of cabinets makes the piece heavier. This is particularly the case with cabinets that you'll be filling full of cookware, utensils, equipment and kitchen appliances. If you'll need to frequently move your cart, particularly from one room to another, a piece with a cabinet will be more difficult to shift, navigate and turn than one with an open base. Also, if you choose to have cabinets in your kitchen cart, you won't be able to select ultra compact, folding carts, which are a necessity in some homes where space is at an absolute minimum.

Number of Cabinets

Kitchen islands and kitchen cart styles that include cabinets typically have two or four cabinet doors, though some styles have one large central door or a standard size door set off to one side with drawers or shelves on the other side. A small number of styles have three doors. When considering the number of doors that a cabinet features, you'll need to examine whether the space inside is continuous or closed and how this will affect what items you can store within the piece. For example, having four cabinet doors with separate compartments may mean that you cannot store a pan with a large handle or an extra wide food processor that you might be able to in a piece that has two doors with one large, continuous inner space.

Styles of Cabinets

Most cabinets in kitchen islands and kitchen carts are one of three styles of door.

• Single hinged cabinet doors usually have their hinges all on the same sides, so that they open in one direction with each door leading to a single compartment. Some people find that individual compartments can allow for better organization and that it is easier to keep cabinets or islands with single doors neater inside. To open a single hinged cabinet door, you'll need to step back slightly from the counter top.


• Double hinged cabinet doors feature pairs of doors: one with hinges on the right and one with hinges on the left. The cabinets open up to a shared, continuous space within the island or cart. Double door styles can make it easier to store extra long or wide items and allow more clearance space for putting oversized items into a cart or island for storage. Like single hinged cabinet doors, double styles will require you to step back from the island or cart to access your stored items. The style gives you the flexibility of opening one door or both doors.


• Sliding cabinet doors do not have hinges, and instead slide along tracks within the carts or islands. Like double doors, sliding doors will come in pairs and usually have one continuous space inside with room for storing large items; however, in most styles, only one sliding door can be opened at a time. With these pieces, you'll only have access to half of your stored items at any given time, and you will not have the extra wide clearance space available with double hinged cabinet doors. Some home chefs prefer sliding doors because they do not require you to step back from the island or cart to reach for stored cookware and tools.

Materials

The materials featured in cabinetry on kitchen islands and kitchen carts will usually coordinate with those used in the rest of the base. The three common materials are:

• Wood, which can be left its natural color, stained to resemble another variety of wood or painted in a shade to coordinate with your decor.


• Glass, which is set inside the wood frames of some kitchen island doors, allowing you to see the items inside the piece and adding a decorative touch


• Stainless steel, which is found primarily in heavy-duty, commercial style islands and carts

Wood Patterns

The majority of cabinet doors in kitchen islands and kitchen carts are made entirely of wood. Although cabinets come in a variety of looks, there are some common patterns seen in island and cart collections. The pattern that you choose will depend upon your tastes and the look of the other cabinetry in your kitchen.

• Flat cabinet doors have no patterns on them at all and have plain, smooth fronts.


• Recessed arch panel cabinet doors are higher around their borders and have a lower area or panel in the middle. This lowered area has a rectangular shape with a rounded or arched top.


• Raised arch panel cabinet doors have a center panel that is identical in shape to that on recessed arch panel cabinet doors; however, in this style there is an indentation or groove around the panel to separate it from the rest of the door. The panel and the perimeter are usually the same height.


• Recessed square panel cabinet doors have a lower center area like recessed arch panels, but have a completely rectangular panel shape with no arch.


• Raised square panel cabinet doors are similar to raised arch panel cabinet doors, but with squared off, angular tops to their panels.


• Double panel cabinet doors have two smaller square-shaped panels rather than one. They cab be either raised or recessed.


• Grooved cabinet doors feature vertical grooves along their surfaces, which make the doors look as if they are made of wooden slats rather than solid wood. If these grooves consist of two thin lines instead of one, the style is known as beaded cabinet doors.

Handles

The final determination when considering the styles of cabinets for your island or cart is the handles, what you will use to open the door. Some people prefer the feel of some types of handles to others, or you may make your choice based on what your other cabinets look like or on what type is the most attractive to you.

The three main choices are

• Metal hardware, which comes in a variety of styles and finishes


• Recessed handles, which feature depressed areas in the doors where you can place your hand to grip the door and open or close it. This style is most common with stainless steel doors.


• Wood knobs, which can match the cabinet doors or be a different color