6 Expert Tips for Banishing Kitchen Clutter
Storage is an essential element of a well-functioning kitchen, but it can be tricky to get it just right. Knowing how to create spaces that feel calm and organized is a skill these designers all share. Find out how they’ve brought order to these rooms with ideas small and large.
1. Create a Family Hub
The kitchen is often the heart of a busy family home, and all kinds of unrelated items can drift onto surfaces and the floor.
Designer Mia Spencer of House by Mia had the perfect solution for this family kitchen redesign: a slim storage unit topped with a cork noticeboard. “The corkboard is for paintings, the family calendar, messages from school and stuff so they’re available to them but tucked away. You can’t see it from the dining table and don’t have to have bits on the fridge,” Spencer says.
Below this, she designed a custom cabinet with a basket for each member of the family to store their items. The idea is that things like swimming goggles, keys and pens can go into the baskets instead of cluttering the countertops, she says.
This storage unit, only 10 inches deep, also made great use of otherwise unused space.
2. Squeeze In Under-Bench Drawers
In addition to adding upper, lower and full-height cabinets into this compact space, designer Jo Llogarajah of Studio JKL packed in even more storage: the area under the window seat has deep drawers all the way around.
If you want to try something similar in your own kitchen, aim to make the window seat as deep as possible to allow for maximum comfort as well as maximum storage.
For a window seat to be comfortable, go for a 20-inch to 22-inch depth, Llogarajah says. “This one is a little deeper because of the window being a bit set in.”
This will allow plenty of room for stashing shoes, garden items, toys or anything else that tends to accumulate in a busy kitchen space.
3. Zone Your Storage
It can be tempting to pack in as many cabinets as possible, but thinking carefully about how you plan to use the space can help to ensure the design is perfectly tailored to your daily routine.
The initial design for this kitchen by PlaceDesign Kitchens and Interiors had all the cabinets running down the long wall, until designer John Place suggested zoning the storage space to have a bank of appliances to the left of the doorway.
This meant he could keep the main cooking area light and open, with just two tall cabinets on either end. Each of these is designed to store the items that will be used in that part of the kitchen.
The left-hand tall cupboard on the sink run, situated closest to the appliances, is a pantry with reduced-depth shelves to accommodate spice racks on the doors. “This also holds appliances such as the toaster,” Place says, which keeps the countertops free.
Meanwhile, the cabinet on the right, closest to the dining table, contains just shelves and is designed for dishes.
4. Make the Most of Unusual Angles
Thinking creatively can sometimes be the key to maximizing storage in a small space. In this clever design by Wise Owl Interiors, an awkward sloping ceiling is turned into a design feature thanks to the custom wall cabinets. These were designed to fit flush to the ceiling, giving a clean, streamlined look and ensuring every inch of space is utilized.
Custom doesn’t have to mean super-expensive. The kitchen furniture shown here is a combination of custom plywood fronts and shop-bought boxes to save money.
“Using off-the-shelf boxes shaved about [$6,800] off the overall bill, so it was worth it,” says designer Nicole Burnett, who used Houzz Pro tools to upload and share each new detail with the owners.
5. Build a Storage Wall
If you’re planning a full kitchen renovation, take inspiration from this thoughtful kitchen design by Studio Fabbri. Designer Gemma Fabbri had a run of floor-to-ceiling cabinets designed to hide appliances, food supplies, the boiler and everyday clutter that might otherwise drift onto work surfaces.
“I wanted to get things off the [countertop] as it’s mostly on the island and I didn’t want much on there,” Fabbri says.
The wall of cabinets has two standard Ikea cabinets on the left, one of which contains the refrigerator, two wider, 32-inch ones, which were custom made. One is a double-door pantry cabinet containing a coffee machine and toaster.
Every member of the family has been considered too. When Fabbri was left with a slim space next to the boiler cupboard, she decided to make a cat tunnel. “The panel pops off so you can get in there to clean it, and there’s a piece of carpet in there so their feet dry a little,” she says.
6. Choose Storage Drawers
With a growing family, the owners of this home in Lewes, East Sussex, had a list of essentials for their new kitchen. One of their top requests was lots of storage.
The owners were also happy to invest in a kitchen that would stand the test of time. “They wanted a quality kitchen with solid oak drawers and dovetail joints,” says designer Robert Nye of Herringbone Kitchens. It was these storage drawers in the large central island that were key to the design.
The deep drawers feature interior drawers to subdivide the space and ensure everything has a home, from plates and cups to pots and pans. There’s even a dedicated drawer just for spice jars, ensuring nothing gets lost at the back of a cabinet.
Source: https://www.houzz.com/magazine/6-expert-tips-for-banishing-kitchen-clutter-stsetivw-vs~181459151