Should Your Kitchen Have No Top Cabinets?
Yes, a kitchen without top cabinets can work in an HDB flat, as long as the storage moves somewhere else. That usually means a tall pantry unit, deep drawers in the base cabinets, and a side unit or island. Skipping wall cabinets makes a small kitchen feel more open and brighter, but it holds less. It suits households that cook lightly or have storage nearby, and it’s a harder fit for families who wok-fry daily and keep a lot of cookware.
Homeowners usually ask us about it for one of three reasons: the kitchen feels cramped, the top cabinets would block a window, or they’ve seen the look on Pinterest or Xiaohongshu.
Around 25% of the kitchens we built this year had no top cabinets, or tops on one wall only.” This guide covers what you gain, what you give up, and how to plan the storage before you decide. For the full range of options, see our kitchen cabinets.
Why Homeowners Skip Top Cabinets
- The kitchen feels bigger. Wall cabinets sit at eye level, so removing them opens up the room more than removing anything else.
- More light. In many HDB kitchens one wall has a window, and top cabinets on the walls beside it cut the light further.
- Easier reach. The top shelf of a wall cabinet is hard to reach for shorter family members and elderly parents. Drawers bring everything to waist height.
- A cleaner look in open kitchens. In a BTO flat where the kitchen opens onto the living room, a bare wall or one shelf looks calmer from the sofa.
- Cost. Fewer cabinets lower the quote, but only if the storage isn’t simply moved into tall units, which cost more per foot. (See “What it costs” below.)
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
Space and light | Room feels larger and brighter | Wall space is left for tiles, shelves or nothing |
Storage | Forces you to keep only what you use | Less storage overall: often 10 [X]–[X] ft of cabinetry lost in a typical 4-room kitchen |
Daily use | Most items stored at waist height in drawers | More bending if base cabinets use doors instead of drawers |
Cleaning | No cabinet tops collecting greasy dust | The full wall becomes splash zone and needs a wipeable finish |
Cooking | Nothing to bump your head on over the counter | No cabinet to hide the hood duct or gas pipe |
Resale | Some buyers like the open look | Some buyers expect top cabinets and may add them |
On resale: we don’t have data showing that no top cabinets lowers an HDB flat’s price, and most buyers renovate the kitchen anyway. What matters more is whether top cabinets can be added later. Keep the power points, gas pipe and hood position where wall cabinets would go, so they can be fitted later without moving anything.
Where the Storage Goes Instead
Top cabinets usually hold plates, bowls, glasses, dry food and things you use once a month. Before removing them, list what goes in them now and give each group a new place.
What top cabinets usually hold | Where it goes instead |
Plates, bowls, cups | Deep drawers with a peg-board or plate organiser, next to the dishwasher or sink |
Dry food, snacks, spices | A tall pantry unit with pull-out baskets |
Dish rack | A pull-out dish rack in a base cabinet, or a drainer over the sink. See our kitchen cabinet dish rack guide. We have installed Ecoware, BLUM, Higold, and even taobao version before. Talk to us to find out which is best. |
Rarely used items (party ware, big pots) | Top shelf of the tall unit, or a cabinet outside the kitchen |
Everyday mugs and oils | One open shelf away from the hob, or a countertop storage cabinet |
Tall units do the heavy lifting. One full-height pantry unit about 600 mm wide holds roughly what 6-8 ft of top cabinets would. Confirm from our jobs. It also gives you a column for the oven and microwave, which frees counter space.
Drawers, not doors, in the base cabinets. Without top cabinets, the base run has to hold more. Deep drawers let you see and lift things from above instead of kneeling to reach the back. Our drawers use BLUM soft-close runners as standard.
A side unit or island works if the floor space allows. In many HDB kitchens it doesn’t, so plan the tall unit first. For drawer organisers, pull-outs and corner fittings, see our kitchen cabinet accessories, and for layouts that fit narrow kitchens, our guide to layouts for small HDB kitchens.
Does It Work in an HDB Kitchen?
It depends on how much you cook and how much space you have for tall units.
It usually works when:
- You cook only a few times a week with less dry ingredients for storage. a few times a week, not three meals a day
- There’s a wall for at least one tall unit
- The kitchen opens onto the living area, so the open look matters (common in new BTO flats, see BTO kitchen cabinets)
- You have storage elsewhere, such as a store room or a dining sideboard
Think twice when:
- You wok-fry or deep-fry daily and keep many tupperwarepots, woks and appliances
- The kitchen is a single short wall with no room for a tall unit
- Several generations share the kitchen and each keeps their own things
If you’re also weighing whether to enclose the kitchen, our guide to choosing an open or closed kitchen covers smoke, smell and space in HDB flats.
This is one example where the owner choose to keep the wall on the windows side without cabinet, and the other 2 ends with cabinet. This helps to ensure there’s still sufficient light coming in without sacrificing storage space away. Upper thomson landed enclave owner Johnny said that this was the best decision as he gets the best of both world.
Open Shelving vs Closed Cabinets in Singapore’s Humidity
Many people replace top cabinets with open shelves, which is what “open kitchen cabinets no doors” usually means. Shelves look light, but in a Singapore kitchen they collect two things closed cabinets keep out:
- Grease. Wok frying throws oil mist well past the hob. On a shelf near the stove, plates and jars get a sticky film that dust then sticks to.
- Dust. Anything you don’t use weekly will need washing before you use it.
How to make open shelves work:
- Keep them away from the hob. Put shelves at the sink end or on the opposite wall, not beside or above the stove.
- Only store what you use every day, so it gets washed anyway.
- Choose a shelf material that can be wiped hard. Aluminium and stainless steel shelves don’t warp or swell from steam and damp. Wood and laminated board shelves can sag under plates and absorb oil at the edges.
- Keep it to one or two shelves. A whole wall of open shelving is just top cabinets without the doors that protect them.
Finishes include wood-look, matte, solid colour and textured, the same as our aluminium kitchen cabinets.
The Middle Ground: Fewer Top Cabinets, Not None
If you’re unsure, you don’t have to choose all or nothing:
- Top cabinets on one wall only, usually the wall without the window, and an open wall elsewhere
- A single cabinet over the hob to house the hood, with nothing else on that wall
- One open shelf plus closed cabinets at the sink end
- Shallower or lift-up top cabinets that feel lighter and are easier to reach. Check the standard top cabinet height and depth for HDB kitchens first.
- Upper corner cabinets only, to use the corner without lining the whole wall
See our top kitchen cabinet designs for styles that keep the room feeling open.
What It Costs
Cabinet prices follow length, so removing top cabinets lowers the quote by the top cabinet run. But adding a tall unit, more drawers and a full-height backsplash adds some of it back. Our aluminium cabinets start from S$240 per foot run.
Example: 4-room BTO kitchen, cabinets only | Typical cost |
Standard: top and bottom cabinets | 5,000 to SGD 20,000, depending on length, tall units and hardware |
Adding a full pantry wall (tall units) | About S1,000–S3,000 more |
No top cabinets, with one tall unit and deep drawers | SGD 3,000 – SGD 15,000 |
Top cabinets on one wall only | SGD 4,000 – SGD 18,000 |
Prices are before GST and valid as of November 2026. Countertops are quoted separately. For how cabinet quotes are built line by line, see aluminium kitchen cabinets price in Singapore.
Talk to Us
Send us your floor plan and a list of what you store in the kitchen, and we’ll show you how much storage a no-top-cabinet layout keeps compared with a standard one. Request a site measurement, or see tall units, drawers and shelves at our showroom at 39 Woodlands Close, #05-21, Singapore 737856. Browse our aluminium kitchen cabinets, or for a full renovation, we also work as a professional kitchen renovation contractor.
Phone: +65 9750 9275·· Email: sales@tse7en.com
Yes, if the storage is planned. A tall pantry unit and deep base drawers can hold most of what top cabinets would. It’s least practical in small kitchens with heavy daily cooking and no room for a tall unit.
There’s no clear evidence they lower HDB resale prices, and most buyers renovate the kitchen anyway. Keeping the power points, gas pipe and hood position unchanged makes it easy for a future owner to add wall cabinets.
A tall pantry unit, deep drawers in the base cabinets, one or two open shelves away from the hob, and a side unit or island if space allows.
In small amounts. Grease and dust settle on open shelves, especially near the hob. Keep them for items you use daily, place them at the sink end, and use a material that won’t warp from steam.
Usually, yes. We dismantle and dispose of old cabinets as part of a replacement job. You’ll need to patch or re-tile the wall behind them and plan how the hood and gas pipe will look once exposed. Cost to remove top cabinet can be only $200 to $800 depending on length
On the wall above the hob, usually as a chimney hood or inside a single hood cabinet. Plan the duct route at the design stage so it doesn’t run exposed across the wall.
Our aluminium cabinets start from $5,000 to $20,000. Generally top cabinet will add only a couple of thousands depending on the length, so the saving is usually smaller than people expect.
Still Unsure?
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