Keys to perfect kitchen storage

Every day, we spend a considerable amount of time cooking, baking, relaxing, conversing, and indulging within our kitchens. It’s no wonder why the kitchen receives so much attention from designers and decorators: it truly is the heart of the home. Today, I will touch on a couple of my special tricks to make your kitchen as efficient as possible using innovative kitchen storage.

For me, the best storage is the kind of storage that frees up counter space. That’s why I adore the ‘Switch cupboard’ design from Scavolini, pictured below.

This appliance garage-inspired cupboard allows you to hide away the bulky appliances that take up valuable counterpace and clutter your sightlines, while keeping them accessible (you can actually plug these appliances in). Pull out surfaces offer a workspace for the appliances for while they are in use, while retractable doors hide everything away with a sleek and contemporary finish.

Scavolini also has some amazing inserts for drawers that are customizable to suite your individual storage needs, such as the drawer tray pictured below.

I love organizing all my kitchens with custom designed trays like these because they allow you to prioritize your most used utensils, favourite knives, and cooking tools so they are easy to grab and not piled atop one another. Another great way to achieve this sort of organization is by creating one large drawer for all your cooking utensils – just another way we take the clutter off the counter and tuck it away into one easily accessible drawer.

I have found that one of the biggest kitchen storage problem areas can be the corner cabinet – an ordinary corner cabinet can leave you scrunched up, in a yoga position, trying to dig to find the perfect pot. I’ve found the best way to solve the infamous corner cabinet problem is by installing a “magic cabinet” like in hardware shown in the photo below. This cabinetry hardware is deemed “magic” because it allows you to store your kitchen equipment in an incredible easy and accessible way. Richelieu and Scavolini both carry excellent magic corner hardware.

Another tip for designing your kitchen is to not locate the waste receptacle in front of the sink, as the area directly in front of the sink is a high traffic area – and it becomes very inconvenient to locate a high-use item like waste or recycling right in front of an equally busy area like a sink. By relocating the garbage adjacent to the sink, we are able to eliminate inconvenience and inefficiency while maintaining the ideal location for the trash, recycling, and compost station.

Finally, I love using vertical slates for storing cookie sheets, muffin tins, and cutting boards – it’s a great way to organize your equipment in a visually appealing way.

I hope you’ve found these little tips helpful when thinking about your kitchen and how you might use these ideas to maximize your storage space. The best way I know of to go about reorganizing your kitchen (or any space) is to use the space and really try to figure out where you need to de-clutter, reorganize, or relocate certain things – then, I write those ideas down and brainstorm some possible solutions. Remember kitchen design is fun, and any steps you take to improve the functionality of your space will feel so rewarding. Happy designing!