Building a new home or remodeling requires a lot of decision making, especially in the areas of the kitchen and bath cabinetry. More and more clients are requesting cabinetry that is not only beautiful, but that also helps them to stay organized. Whether it’s adding a simple removable organizer to a drawer, or designing something more complex like a custom drying cabinet for the laundry, there are many solutions available to simplify the lives of busy homeowners.
Here are a few favorite solutions that have added function and organization for my clients’ cabinetry in the past. Perhaps you can incorporate a few of these ideas into your next project, or better yet, be inspired to invent your own personal organizing ideas.
A Tall, Shallow Organization Cabinet
With only four inches of depth available for this tall cabinet, we had to get creative. The homeowner expressed her desire to have a place to keep her son’s school calendar, car keys, mail, and a collection of cookbooks. Inside the top portion of the cabinet, we incorporated a bulletin board, pegs for car keys and envelope slots for organizing mail. On the bottom, we made room for the clients’ cookbook collection. We utilized every inch of space to create a clever solution for common kitchen clutter.
A Functional Corner Cabinet Pullout
Blind corner cabinets leave you stretching your arm into the dark corner as far as you can and wondering what you will pull out. This corner space is so deep, that it’s not truly functional. Lazy susans are one solution, but they are not desirable for every client. So, A more updated solution is this clever corner pullout. It pulls out in two sections and then folds back up into the corner to make use of that unreachable space. It’s especially useful for storing small kitchen appliances such as toasters and crock pots.
Free Up Counter Space
When a client requested to keep her countertops free of clutter, I came up with two solutions. First, we incorporated a built-in paper towel rack into an upper cabinet. There is a slot in the bottom of the cabinet for her paper towels to pull through. It’s a simple idea that keeps them off of the countertop and easily accessible at the same time. Second, we created a custom knife drawer to eliminate her knife blocks and free up valuable countertop space.
A Clever Laundry Drying Cabinet
A busy client with two children wanted to maintain a clutter-free laundry area that didn’t always look like an explosion of clothes. However, she loved to air dry much of their clothing. So, we developed a special laundry drying cabinet for the family with a hanging rod and pullout drying racks. She can now dry clothes neatly out of sight until she’s ready to fold them and put them away. This has become her new favorite feature in the house.
By Jana Valdez, Principal Interior Designer/Kitchen & Bath Specialist, Haven Design & Construction
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