Kitchen cabinet wish list: designing for greater efficiency
By Jim MalleryRefacingCabinet.com Columnist
Part 2 of a four-part series, Kitchen Cabinet Wish List
The first article of this series discussed some major concepts to get the most of your kitchen cabinets. This article discusses five more ways to maximize your cabinet space.
5 Tips for Efficient Use of Cabinet Space
- Pullouts. Any shelves you have in the base cabinets, which are 24 inches deep, should be pull-out style on glides, like drawers. While this style reduces the area of the shelf slightly, it makes the shelves much more usable. However, you may want to forget having shelves and opt for only drawers in your base cabinets. This is because to slide a shelf out, both doors must be open all the way. It gets very annoying to have to open both doors completely every time you want to slide a shelf out--it's much simpler to just open a drawer.
- Big Drawers. If you are not able to incorporate a place to hang pots and pans in your kitchen, you want to plan plenty of space to store them. You'll want multiple wide and deep drawers or shelves.
- Corner woes. Your corner cabinets can be the kitchen Bermuda Triangle, where items go, never to be seen again. You need some system that will give you easy access to the area, either a hinged, folding pullout conglomeration of shelves, or a lazy Susan. Speaking of the latter, if you get one, make sure it is the type mounted on a solid shelf with ball-bearing plates. Don't get one that is spindle-mounted--they're too flimsy.
- Sink panel. It's a small item, but a fold-out panel in front of your sink is a convenient spot for small cleaning items that otherwise might get lost in drawers or in the under-sink space.
- Appliance Garage. If you don't want your toaster, mixer or other appliance visible on your countertop, and you also don't want to consume storage space by putting it inside a cabinet, you could opt for an appliance garage. An appliance garage is the unit that is attached to the underside of your upper cabinet that has a sliding door that pulls down to the countertop. They let you keep your appliance in a convenient spot, but out of sight within a piece of your cabinetry.
This is a list of some things that might help you make better use of your kitchen cabinet space. The last two articles, Parts 3 and 4 in this series, look at other kitchen cabinet wish list goodies.
About The Author
Jim Mallery, a semi-retired journalist and onetime registered contractor, has extensive experience remodeling, repairing and rebuilding homes.
