Wood paneling about kitchen cabinets?
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Hi new to home ownership. We bought a 1940 house and it has wood paneling that comes out away from the wall filling the gap between top of cabinets and the ceiling. Is this necessary to keep or can it be removed to raise cabinets higher? I do know that the hood vent goes up through the ceiling from the hood itself and not into the wall like I’ve seen in other houses. It’s just an eye sore for me and I would love to use the extra space to put decor and collectibles.
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Could there be pipes or wiring in that space covered by wood paneling? I would take a corner off and look in and see if you can see anything. If nothing, you can take it down. If pipes or wires, just paint it the same as your walls. You can hang tiles or other small things if you want to decorate it. As for raising your cabinets.....how high are they from the counter now? You might not want to raise them too high or you won't be able to reach things in them.
Its probably covering something such as a pipe etc. But I would totally take it out and have a look for sure! The pipe might only fill up a small area that you could cover and then raise all the rest of your cabinets. No harm in checking it out, that used to be custom in older homes nowadays its just a waste of storage space in my opinion!
I would carefully open up part of the wood paneling to see what is under it. If there is no essential wiring, etc., pull it off and make it your own!
There could be wiring for the hood, over sink light, or anything else in there. There could be a vent pipe for the kitchen sink going up thru the roof. Best bet would be to cut a 4" square hole in the panel and look inside with a flash light and small mirror and see if anything is up there. The hole can easily be patched with what you removed.
You may find ductwork for your furnace and AC behind this area, in which case you may not be able to do any removal. This was typical in many homes built between 1940-1955. Carefully open the area and check it out before tearing down this section.
I think you could use that space for taller cabinets! It’s a dust trap otherwise. You could likely just box it in, add trim and paint it the same colour as your cabinets.
Sometimes there's stuff behind it but more often than not, it's just decorative to fill the space. If you can open up part of it and take a peek, I'm sure you'll get your answer.
You can remove it or save yourself some trouble and just go over it with sheetrock or wallpaper the area. It's probably kind of thick. You might consider adding small cabinets on top rather than raising the ones you have.
I recently changed from a hood as you described to a non vented hood. You can swap it out and just cut the vent off and patch the ceiling. Mine went through a cabinet and when I had a new roof put on the house, the roofers suggested it. Less holes = less chance of leaks down the road.
Take off a piece of the wood paneling (pry it away or apart) being careful to not damage it and see what is under the raised area.From the observation determine what is there or not & proceed with your plans to remodel the area or re-seal the paneling.
Yes, if it is just wood paneling, it can be removed and you can add cabinets or raise your cabinets. You can build the cabinets out over that vent to hide it.
If you can remove a piece of the wood paneling to peek in there, you will find out if they are empty or they house pipes, AC vents, Water lines etc. I know I wanted to do that in my kitchen, but our water lines and AC ducts were there.