Top Cupboard

A top cupboard, also called a wall unit, is the wall-hung cabinet fixed above the worktop, opposite the base units in height rather than on the floor. It is built the same way as a base unit, a simple carcass in 18mm melamine faced chipboard with side panels, a top, a back and an adjustable shelf, but it hangs from a wall-mounted rail or bracket instead of standing on legs. Because nothing has to clear a work surface or a person standing at it, the depth is much shallower than a base unit, and the height and the gap left above the worktop are set to suit reach, headroom and, over a hob, the extractor.

Storage above the worktop Top cupboards give the bulk of a kitchen's overhead storage, typically for lighter, bulkier or less frequently reached items, plates, glasses, cereal boxes, than the heavier things kept down in the base units.

Finishing the run visually Running along the wall at a consistent height and depth, top cupboards give the upper half of the kitchen its line, and their doors are usually chosen from the same range as the base unit doors so the two read as one design.

Housing the extractor Over the hob, a top cupboard is often built or adapted to conceal the ducting for a cooker hood, or omitted altogether where a chimney hood needs the space instead.

Along kitchen wall runs above the worktop, wherever there is a wall to fix to and no window, and at internal and external corners, where a corner top cupboard turns the run the same way a corner base unit does below.

Chosen from the same range and door style as the base units below, with the height set to leave a standard clearance above the worktop and, over a hob, to clear the extractor by whatever the manufacturer's instructions require. Corner units, open shelving and glazed doors are usually available within the same range.

• The wall has to take the load: a masonry wall takes a screwed bracket directly, while a stud or dry-lined wall needs the fixings landing on the studs or noggins, not just the plasterboard.
• Manufacturers give a minimum height above the hob for the extractor, which sets how high the run of cupboards either side has to match to look level.
• A cupboard end that is left on show, at the end of a run or beside a tall unit, is usually finished with a matching end panel.
• Corner cupboards need their hinging and any carousel or bi-fold mechanism checked against the door style, since not every finish suits every corner solution.

• Base unit sets the door style and range the top cupboards match.
• Worktop the clearance above it decides where the cupboards start.
• Extractor decides the minimum height of any cupboard above the hob, or removes it in favour of a chimney hood.
• Splashback fills the gap between the worktop and the underside of the cupboards.
• Sockets and switches are sometimes fitted to the underside of a top cupboard rather than the wall.