Figuring out the best cabinet options for your new student housing complex is an essential step in the planning process of your development.
Finding suitable cabinet styles can help you zero in on creating the most efficient and practical cabinet design possible for what you are building.
Here are some things to consider when deciding what kinds of cabinets to install in your student housing project.
What Kind of Student Residences are you Outfitting?
If you are building a student housing complex on-campus, the function of your design will likely vary significantly from off-campus housing. The floor plan and goal of an on-campus housing facility will have different requirements by the college.
Many colleges like to create densely packed dorm rooms with no cooking equipment. This encourages students to subscribe to a meal plan in school facilities. Living quarters like this will not need to accommodate a double basin sink and range for cooking and cleaning.
Establishing your end goal and expectations is essential for finding the right layout to fit your needs. You should consider a few things when creating a floor plan involving cabinets.
Kitchens and Dining rooms
Not all student housing requires a kitchen and dining room; this is especially true for students living in on-campus housing.
Most on-campus housing options include or require students to purchase a meal plan for school-run eating facilities. If students bring food into their apartments, it is not likely that this food will be anything more than snacks to supplement the evenly-spaced meals.
Knowing what the school will require its on-campus students to do for food will eliminate any confusion about including a kitchen in the room layout.
Off-campus housing is much more likely to require kitchens, dining rooms, or eating areas to be included in the layout. These off-campus housing units do not require students to purchase any meal plan as the students will typically be too far from any school dining facilities for that to be practical.
Adding a kitchen area with the necessary cabinet space is essential to enable students to store and prepare food as their needs require.
Bathrooms
Building developers should not overlook cabinet space in bathrooms. Many people use bathrooms to store all their hygiene products, cleaning supplies, toilet paper rolls, towels, and other bathroom-related items.
In college housing, bathrooms are tight and should accommodate room for each tenet’s belongings.
Cabinets are used for structural support as much as they are used for decoration. Cabinetry is necessary for holding up your sink and plumbing. Make a cabinet design that adequately supports the sink you plan to include in your facilities.
Room Capacity
Not every developer will choose to include cabinets in a bedroom. In most cases, a small dresser and closet will suffice.
It may be worth looking into using cabinets to save space in the bedrooms. Using the closet area to install some cabinets for clothes and personal items can make including a dresser irrelevant. Using cabinets for room storage will simplify facility rooms, giving greater control to the tenant to use or decorate as they wish.
Style Requirements for Closets and Storage Spaces
Once you understand what function your cabinets need to perform, it is time to determine which cabinet options will help accomplish those ends.
Here are some ways different cabinets can meet the needs of college students in their living spaces.
Wall Cabinets
Wall cabinets are the typical style of cabinets found in a home. They are most often located in the kitchens above the countertops. They are installed into the wall to provide a place for individuals to store items in a conveniently removed location.
These are probably best used in kitchens or to serve as additional, stylish storage spaces in closets and bathrooms.
Base Cabinets
These cabinets are the most used style. Base cabinets are installed on the wall and floor of a building. They have storage capacity and structural stability. They can be used as extra countertop space or customized to include a desk.
Using cabinets to create a desk in the living areas is a good selling point for student housing locations. Many students will utilize the desk area for homework and storage of school supplies.
Tall Cabinets
The cabinet with the most storage space would be the tall cabinet. These have great versatility.
When used in a kitchen, these cabinets can store food or cooking supplies. Their height and depth make them great for pantry use.
College bathrooms are an especially great place to install a tall cabinet. With so many adults living in one area, having enough room for everyone’s hygiene products can be difficult. Tall cabinets provide more space for storage so everyone can be satisfied.
If you are looking for a creative way to add some storage to a college bedroom, tall cabinets can provide as much storage space as a dresser. Landlords have an added advantage as they don’t need to worry about walls being damaged when tenants irresponsibly shift heavy dressers around the room.
Other Essential Cabinet Properties
If you want to get the most out of your investment, you’ll want to make sure you choose cabinets that are simple and can last.
The typical college suite may expect new tenants to cycle through each year. There is a large mix of students coming and going yearly. Many live away from home for the first time and may be careless about housing facilities.
Developers should build college housing with this in mind. The material you select should be able to put up with more use and abuse than the material used in a standard one-person to two-person apartment.
The Best Cabinet Options from Superior Commercial Solutions
If you are looking for the best cabinet options to include in your new student housing project, you can find all the tools you need at Superior Commercial Solutions.Installing high-quality, high-volume cabinets can be expensive and time-consuming. Don’t hold up your project because a small contractor cannot produce the quantity you need; contact us for a quote today!