5 Overlooked Kitchen Design Details
When designing a kitchen, one of the first things people think of is appliances. After all, they take up a big chunk of the budget. Their next big consideration is cabinetry and the colors they’ll use. But there are some other key, overlooked kitchen design details that help you maximize space and set your kitchen up for being organized and easy to work in and enjoy.
Tip-Out Tray
A lot of traditional kitchen sinks have a little cabinet front below them. Sometimes it’s a false front, but if you’re lucky, you’ll find a tip-out tray behind it. What’s a tip-out tray you ask? It’s a little ledge below the sink where you can store sponges and scrubbers out of sight and handy.
Island Outlets
Many older kitchens have outlets confined to the periphery of the room. That placement made sense when all you had were appliances like the refrigerator and the range. But today when we do so much work on the kitchen island, you’ll want to add outlets there. These kitchen island outlets power everything from small appliances to computers and you’ll need thankful they’re there every time you use one.
Under-Sink Storage
Growing up, the space under the sink was this huge no man’s land, and anything could wind up lost forever in the back of those pipes. When I’m designing custom kitchen cabinetry, I include dividers and pullouts that make it easy to organize the cleaning supplies, bags, and other items under the sink, and to see them without having to get on your hands and knees.
Food Storage Containers & Lids
Whether you have plastic or glass food storage containers in your kitchen, you know how challenging it can be to corral these neatly. They seem to slip and slide all over the place in a cabinet, tumbling out at will. We really like drawers with dividers for storing these. It keeps the mess controlled, and makes it less likely you’ll lose lids if there’s a dedicated storage drawer.
Step Ladder Storage
A well-designed kitchen is about maximizing all the square footage. And that often means using those tip-top areas above the cabinetry. Or if you take your cabinets all the way to the ceiling, you have high shelves that can be hard to reach. Having a kitchen step ladder when you need it is wise; so is building a little cubby between an appliance and the cabinets or into the island or pantry for sliding the step ladder out of sight when you don’t need it. Just imagine converting these cubbies for a cutting board and a dish drains into a larger one for a stepladder. Wouldn’t that be convenient?
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