Galaxy Pistachio Green lift-up cabinets: twelve inches high, and only twelve
Reviewed September 2026 · Captivating Cabinets
The two lift-up boxes in Galaxy Pistachio Green — GPG W421224LU and GPG W481224LU, $689.00 and $747.50 — are long, shallow-faced and deep: 42 or 48 inches across, 12 inches high, 24 inches front to back, with one wide door that swings up and stays there. Most of what gets written about this kind of cabinet is about the door. This page is mostly about the number that sits quietly in the middle of both codes. Twelve inches of height is all the lift-up comes in, and whether that height suits your kitchen is decided by two measurements you can take today with a tape: the height of the appliance underneath and the height of the cabinet line beside it.
The bridge ladder has five heights. The lift-up has one
The boxes that normally sit over a refrigerator are on their own refrigerator wall page, and they come in a ladder. At 36 inches wide there are five of them, all 24 inches deep: 12, 15, 18, 21 and 24 inches high. That ladder exists because refrigerators and ceilings vary, and the gap between them is whatever it is. You pick the rung that closes it.
The lift-ups sit outside that ladder. They come 42 or 48 wide, which the doored bridges never do, but only at the lowest rung. So the question to answer before anything else on this page is not "do I want a door that goes up". It is "is the space above my appliance twelve inches tall, give or take the clearance the appliance needs". If it is taller, the lift-up leaves a band of open air under it or a step in the top line above it, and neither is a small thing on a 48-inch face.
| Box height | 36″-wide doored bridge | 42″ lift-up | 48″ lift-up |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12″ | GPG W361224 — $370.50 | GPG W421224LU — $689.00 | GPG W481224LU — $747.50 |
| 15″ | GPG W361524 — $403.00 | not made | not made |
| 18″ | GPG W361824 — $419.25 | not made | not made |
| 21″ | GPG W362124 — $487.50 | not made | not made |
| 24″ | GPG W362424 — $578.50 | not made | not made |
One oddity in the neighbouring grid, since you will be reading it anyway: at 12 inches high the 33-inch bridge, GPG W331224, is $455.00 — $84.50 more than the wider 36-inch box. If a 33 and a 36 both fit your opening with fillers, price both before choosing on instinct.
Three top lines, three different answers
A standard wall run in this line hangs on a line about 54 inches off the floor, so its top lands at 84, 90 or 96 inches depending on whether the uppers are 30, 36 or 42 inches tall. A 12-inch bridge that finishes flush with that top therefore has its underside at 72, 78 or 84 inches. Set those three numbers against the appliance you own:
Top line at 84″ (30-inch uppers): the natural home
The underside of the box sits at 72 inches. Many standard-height refrigerators fit under that with the ventilation gap their manuals ask for, and so do most hoods with a modest chimney. This is the kitchen the lift-up was drawn for. Check your appliance spec sheet rather than trusting a nominal size; an inch of shortfall here cannot be planed off.
Top line at 90″ (36-inch uppers): a gap to decide about
Hung flush with the run, the box bottom is at 78, which leaves several inches of open air over most refrigerators. You can live with that, drop the lift-up to the appliance and accept a step down in the top line, or close the top with crown. What you cannot do is buy a taller lift-up. If the span is 36 inches or less, the 18-inch doored bridge at $419.25 closes the same gap cleanly.
Top line at 96″ (42-inch uppers): usually the wrong box
Underside at 84 inches means a foot or more of air over a typical refrigerator, and the door is now travelling into the ceiling. In a tall kitchen the 21 and 24-inch bridges are the right parts, and above 36 inches of span two of them side by side with a filler usually beats one lift-up hung in the wrong place. Our wall cabinet overview shows the full height range for this finish.
A deep box above head height has a front and a back
Twenty-four inches of depth is the point of a bridge — it brings the face out flush with a full-depth appliance. It also means half the box is out of comfortable reach for almost everyone standing on the floor, because the shelf is at or above eye level and the back wall is two feet away. Plan the interior as two zones rather than one shelf.
- The front twelve inches: things you take out a few times a month and can grab by an edge — trays, a roasting tin standing on its side, a cake carrier, the big serving platter.
- The back twelve inches: things that come out once or twice a year and justify fetching the step stool — holiday serveware, a spare set of glasses, the ice-cream maker bowl.
- Nothing heavy in either zone. Lifting a loaded casserole down from above your head while a door hangs open over it is a bad combination, and it is the one way this cabinet actually hurts people.
- A shallow bin or two in the back zone. Pulling one bin forward is easier and safer than reaching over the front row to fish something out.
If you want the back half reachable every day, you want a different cabinet — a tall cabinet beside the appliance does that job at a height people can actually use.
Where the pull goes on a door that parks overhead
On an ordinary upper the pull sits at the lower outside corner of the door, and on a lift-up it moves to the bottom edge, centred or in two places along it. That seems obvious until you imagine the door open. The same pull you used to lift it is now the thing you reach up to bring it down, and on a box whose underside is at 72 inches the raised door can finish above the reach of shorter members of the household.
Two decisions follow. Use a long bar pull rather than a knob, so there is always a piece of it within reach whichever side you stand. And on the 48-inch box consider two pulls near the ends rather than one in the middle; a single central pull on a 48-inch door invites a one-handed lift from the end that twists the panel. The mechanism is listed as soft-close, but its maker and its opening angle are not published on the listing, so ask us before you draw anything that depends on how high the open door sits.
Lift the door and the inside is wood
This is the single place the colour changes a decision on this page. The Allure specification lists the cabinet interior as a natural wood veneer finish, and nothing on these two listings says otherwise — they are not in the matching-interior series. So when the door goes up, you are looking at a warm veneer-lined box framed by the green face, at head height, for as long as the door stays open.
Most people like that: sage and pale wood are one of the easiest pairings there is, and the veneer brightens the inside of a deep box. But if you are planning the lift-up as a display piece that sits open during a party, or you expected the inside to be the same colour as the outside, know now. The painted-inside boxes in this finish are on the no-door wall and open shelf pages, and none of them comes 24 inches deep.
What the price is made of
The loose-parts list carries both of these boxes as "carcass only" — GPG W421224LU-BO at $442.00 and GPG W481224LU-BO at $481.00 — which is useful as a replacement part and useful as a price signal. If the carcass-only listing is the box without its door and lift, the face and mechanism account for $247.00 of the 42 and $266.50 of the 48. Ask us exactly what a carcass-only part ships with before you plan around it; the listing title is all that is published.
Per inch of span the 48 is the better buy: about $15.57 an inch against $16.40 for the 42. Against a 36-inch doored bridge at the same 12-inch height ($370.50), the 42-inch lift-up costs $318.50 more for six more inches and an upward door. If either end is exposed, the wall end skins are $50.05 each for GPG SK W30 through GPG SK W42 on the decorative accessories page; confirm with us which skin covers a 24-inch-deep side before ordering.
Before one goes on the order
Measure the appliance, including the gap its manual asks for above it. Measure from the floor to the planned top line of the run. Subtract, and if the answer is not close to twelve inches, look at the doored bridges first. Then plan the two storage zones, pick a pull you can reach with the door up, and decide whether both ends show.
Send the elevation to our free 3D design service: a designer replies within one business day, and the full drawing and quote follow within 24 to 48 hours, with the bridge set at a height that agrees with the run. Galaxy boxes ship pre-assembled, typically in 7 days to 3 weeks. Before any of it, a door sample ($25.00) held above your refrigerator in your own light is the honest way to judge 48 inches of this colour. Trade buyers get 20 to 40% through Captivating Pro, and the rest of the finish is on the collection page.
Common questions
- What sizes do lift-up wall cabinets come in?
- In this finish there are two: GPG W421224LU and GPG W481224LU, 42 and 48 inches wide, both 12 inches high and 24 inches deep, at $689.00 and $747.50. There is no taller lift-up; the 15 to 24-inch bridges over a refrigerator are doored boxes.
- How high should a cabinet above a refrigerator be hung?
- Flush with the top of the wall run beside it, which on a standard 54-inch hang line is 84, 90 or 96 inches. A 12-inch lift-up hung that way has its underside at 72, 78 or 84 inches, so it suits the 84-inch line best. Always leave the ventilation gap the refrigerator manual asks for.
- Can I reach the back of a 24-inch-deep cabinet above the fridge?
- Not comfortably from the floor. Treat the front twelve inches as occasional storage you can grab by an edge and the back twelve as once-a-year storage reached from a step. Keep heavy things out of both, and use a shallow bin at the back so you pull one object rather than reaching over a row.
- Where should the handle go on a lift-up door?
- Along the bottom edge, and long enough that part of it stays within reach when the door is raised. On the 48-inch box, two pulls near the ends are better than one in the middle, because they let you lift the panel evenly instead of from one corner.
- Is the inside of a lift-up cabinet painted?
- No. The Allure interior is a natural wood veneer finish, and these boxes are not part of the matching-interior series. With the door raised you see pale wood inside the green face. Only the no-door and open-shelf boxes are painted inside, and none of those is 24 inches deep.
- Is a lift-up cabinet worth the extra cost?
- Where the space above the appliance is about 12 inches tall and the span is wider than 36 inches, yes: it is the only single box that covers 42 or 48 inches. Where the gap is taller or the span is 36 inches or less, a doored bridge from $370.50 does the job for much less.
Keep reading
The guides behind the numbers on this page.
- Important Kitchen Dimensions to Know Before Buying Cabinets
Hang line, top line and appliance clearance — the three numbers this page rests on.
- Wall & Tall Kitchen Cabinets: Sizes & Buying Guide
Why the bridges over a refrigerator come in five heights and the lift-ups in one.
- Why Blum Soft-Close Hinges Are Worth the Investment
What the rest of the run hangs on, for comparison with a door that lifts.
- How to Read Cabinet SKU Codes From B12 to WBC3042
Width, height and depth in the right order, so W481224LU reads correctly first time.
- Green Kitchen Cabinets: Sage, Pistachio, and Moss Shades and Pairings
The pairings that decide which pull finish to put on a wide green face.
