What shallow cabinets are
Most base cabinets are produced at a 24-inch depth, a measurement that often feels heavy in smaller city apartments. Reducing depth to 21, 18, or even 15 inches can materially change how a room works day to day. Those few inches affect how far cabinetry projects into the room and how comfortably someone can move through it. In a New York apartment, reclaiming that space by using shallow cabinets can open up circulation and bring the proportions back into balance, while also making storage more accessible.
Why shallow cabinets work
Reducing depth doesn’t mean losing practicality. In fact, it often improves it. Shallower drawers and shelves keep contents visible and within easy reach, preventing items from disappearing to the back of drawers or cabinets and keeping worktops clear. When using shallower cabinetry, instead of reading fitted in or tacked on, it reads as lighter, more architectural, and integrated with the space.
Shallow cabinetry is typically achieved through custom or bespoke design, where proportions, joinery, and depth are tailored to the room, because standard cabinet systems rarely allow for these subtle adjustments.
Upper cabinets can benefit too. Reducing their depth from 12 inches to 10 or 11 inches can lessen their visual weight and allow light to reach the counter more evenly. Together, these minor adjustments make a kitchen or bath feel more considered, more intentional, and designed specifically for the space and user.
Proportion and perception
When cabinets project less into a room, the space behaves differently. By opening sightlines, circulation is improved, and light moves more freely across surfaces instead of abruptly stopping at the cabinetry and creating voids of shadow below. You feel it most in rooms that are tight. For example, in bathrooms, a slim vanity can recess neatly without crowding the room. In kitchens, a reduced-depth run of cabinets or shelving still provides storage without overwhelming the wall, so moving through the space feels airier and easier to navigate.
Beyond kitchens and baths
The same principle applies elsewhere in apartments with tight spaces. In a narrow hallway, reducing the depth of a storage wall makes passing through feel more expansive, even when coats and books are stored there. A shallow cabinet under a row of windows that conceals a radiator can offer a place to set things down, store items, or display objects without crowding the room. Varying the depth within built-ins also changes how a space feels. When heavier storage is placed lower and lighter shelving above, the wall sits more comfortably in the space and avoids feeling visually top-heavy or monolithic.
Designing for proportion
Shallow cabinetry is not a compromise. It is a measured adjustment of depth made to support movement and proportion in compact rooms, improving everyday usability and helping a space feel more open.
Curious how adjusted cabinet depth could support movement and open up space in your home?