Sunday, August 27, 2006

Is There a Wrong Way to Open a Cabinet?

We watched one of those "house flipping" shows on TLC last night, and we were surprised to learn a little rule-of-thumb regarding kitchen cabinets. The flipping advisor told one of the flippers not to construct "wrong-way cabinets" in the kitchen, that is, not to mount the cabinet doors so that they opened from right-to-left rather than from left-to-right. She said that buyers are turned off by "wrong-way cabinets." I never even heard of "wrong-way cabinets" until last night, and it certainly does not matter to me which way they open. To tell you the truth, this sounds like one of those archaic biases against left-handers (I am not a south-paw myself). When we were looking to buy houses, I never even thought to see which way the kitchen cabinets opened. But at least one potential buyer on last night's show did.

Vote what you think:

3 comments:

  1. If you are left-handed and want the house to be comfortable, install 'em right to left; if you want the house to be marketable, install 'em so as to cater to the largest pool of potential buyers . . .

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  2. Hey...this poll thing is a pretty cool tool. I didn't know it existed. But, then again...I'm a newbie and I don't know about a lot of tools.

    Re: cabinets...I'm right handed, and we have some that open right to left. It works for me because I'm usually opening with my left, while grabbing something out or stuffing something in with my right hand. But, for the most part, I'm just glad the little soft stops that are on the inside of the doors are staying put so they don't bang every time they're closed.

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  3. It technically doesn't matter either way. I do believe the advisors point was not about what was right or wrong. But to remind the flippers to keep things "comfortable or average" for selling purposes. Most people do not know what they do and don't like. But they do know what "feels" right and wrong. And these "feelings" really determine whether or not you will buy.

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