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6 Ways to Maximize Storage Space in Your Kitchen

If there’s one thing that nearly all homeowners can agree on, it’s that there’s never enough storage space in your kitchen. After all, today’s kitchens often need much more space for all the electronic gadgets and appliances that weren’t available in generations before. (Hello, electronic rice makers and stand mixers!) But designers and contractors don’t seem to have gotten that memo. As a result, many homeowners face constant frustration with the lack of space in their kitchens.

Fortunately, there are things you can do to get the additional storage space you need. Start by trying these six ways to maximize storage space in your kitchen.

1. Remove Unnecessary Items

The first way to maximize storage space in your kitchen is by removing unnecessary items. That’s because kitchens often become a catch-all for whatever we need to set down. From school papers to mail and files, it all seems to end up in the kitchen. So if your kitchen is feeling cluttered, go through and remove anything that doesn’t truly belong there. That way, you have more space for the things that do.

2. Find Another Place for Seasonal Items

If you have holiday-themed cookie cutters, platters, cookbooks, or other seasonal items, it doesn’t make sense to store them in your kitchen all year long. Instead, keep your valuable kitchen storage space for regularly used items. Anything seasonal is better off stored with your holiday decorations and only brought into your kitchen for the time period you are actually using it.

3. Utilize Your Wall Space

Often, kitchens have large areas of empty wall space. And that translates to a wasted opportunity. Just imagine if all that empty wall space could be turned into storage space instead. Fortunately, it can! And one of the best ways to do that is by installing custom kitchen cabinets. That’s because custom kitchen cabinets are built to fit your room, so you get usable storage space from floor to ceiling. And there’s no better way to maximize storage space in your kitchen.

4. Add Organizers

Add organizers to your kitchen to instantly create more storage space. Drawer inserts, lazy Susans, spice racks, and wine racks all help you store more items without making a jumbled mess in your cabinets or on your counters. Choose knife racks, lid organizers, and racks for pots and pans to store awkward items. And don’t forget about corner and base cabinet organizers! They’re perfect for corralling the inevitable mess of plastic containers and lids that too frequently take over cabinets. And they’re great for storing large appliances, too!

5. Get a Kitchen Island

A custom kitchen island is one of the best purchases you can make for your kitchen. After all, a new kitchen island instantly gives you more counterspace and storage space. Plus, today’s kitchen islands often include cooktops or home bars, so it’s easy to make them into exactly what you need for your kitchen. And because they’re customizable, all the storage and organization options available for cabinets are also available for kitchen islands. Wine racks? Spice racks? Drawer inserts for all your utensils? Done, done, and done.

6. Use Pull-Outs and Pull-Downs

Are you tired of seeing unsightly trash cans and recycling bins in your kitchen? Or is it hard to move around in your limited space because of them? Then, use pull-outs and pull-downs to discretely store your garbage and recycling out of sight. Pull-outs are also excellent for making better use of large or awkwardly shaped cabinets. That’s because they allow you to pull items forward instead of reaching (or climbing!) into the back of your cabinet and fishing around for what you need.

Your kitchen is the heart of your home, so it should feel warm, welcoming, and inviting. But it’s hard to feel a sense of peace when there’s clutter all over your countertops and table. Fortunately, gaining storage space in your kitchen is easier than you might think. Just try the above six ways to maximize storage space in your kitchen. And when you’re ready for some professional help, let us know! We’d love to help you design your dream kitchen and maximize your storage space!

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The Ultimate Kitchen Storage Solutions For 2020

The Ultimate Kitchen Storage Solutions For 2020

The right kitchen storage solutions make your entire kitchen easier to use. You’ll even be able to forget about rummaging around looking for that perfect pot or pan. Some storage solutions are as simple as adding a shelf or organizer. Others might require custom-built cabinets for your specific storage needs. The best part about choosing storage options for your kitchen is you can customize them the way you want. After all, you should always have the kitchen of your dreams.

Roll-Out Island Storage

The Ultimate Kitchen Storage Solutions For 2020Are you making the most of your kitchen island? Add roll-out shelves behind cabinet doors to easily reach larger countertop appliances, baskets of root vegetables and anything else you need easy access to. With fold-down legs built into one of the shelves, you can even convert it to a small desk for kids to help out. If you don’t have an island, you can always custom build a portable kitchen island to fit your space better.

Open Shelves For Easy Access

Who has time to deal with doors and drawers? One of the top kitchen storage solutions for 2020 is open shelving.  These provide easy access to your most-used pots, pans, utensils, plates and more. Plus, it adds a bit of decoration to your kitchen, as long as you keep everything stacked and stored neatly. Use hooks under shelves to hang utensils and potholders. You can even add a shelf over any windows for more storage.

Cabinet Slots

Home Kitchen Makeover On A BudgetIt’s never fun trying to get the right baking pans, cutting boards and serving trays when they’re usually stacked on top of each other. They might even be underneath a stack of pots in the back of the cabinet. Customize your kitchen storage by adding vertical slots for your more slender items to slip into. Then, you’re able to reach what you want without dealing with any stacks.

Sink Storage

The faux drawer at your sink doesn’t have to be fake. In fact, turn into storage for sponges and small cleaning brushes. A small, slanted drawer pulls out just enough to fit a few small items. While it might not seem like much, it keeps at least a few more items off of your countertops.

Miniature Pull Out Pantry

While a walk-in pantry is always wonderful to have, you might not always have room. Or, maybe you need even more kitchen storage space. Either way, opt for a miniature pull out pantry. These are small custom pantries that slide between two cabinets. They’re usually wide enough to store spices, cans of foods, cleaning supplies and other smaller kitchen supplies.

Pantry Doors Inside Cabinets

Miniature pantry not quite enough? Try pantry doors inside cabinets. While you’ll need to reinforce the cabinet doors to prevent sagging, add several inches of extra space inside your cabinet doors. This is a great addition to cabinets that typically store larger items, but don’t completely fill the cabinet.

Pot And Plate Drawers

A popular kitchen storage trend for 2020 is skipping cabinets when it comes to pots and plates. Instead, store it all in drawers. Instead of having to reach up to into cabinets for your breakable plates, you reach down into a drawer. Instead of trying to dig out pots in the back of cabinets, you simply pull out a drawer. Consider using pegs to create custom dividers for your plates and even bowls to stack between.

Custom Wine Storage

Your options are wide open when it comes to wine storage in your kitchen. As long as it’s a cool, darker place, you’re all set. Kitchen islands with custom wine racks built in work extremely well. You might also consider adding a wine rack under open shelves that connect the shelves to the countertop.

Corner Drawers

What are you supposed to do with that awkward corner space? A Lazy Susan doesn’t have to be the only answer. Instead, try corner drawers. They look a little weird when you pull them out, but they offer a far deeper storage space and it makes getting to things much easier.

If you’re ready to customize your kitchen storage, contact us today to find out how Edgewood Cabinetry can help make your kitchen easier to use.

Image: Cooktime

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Spice Storage Solutions

The Best Ways to Store Your Spices

As a homeowner, you are always looking for new and better ways to improve your home, small changes can have big long term effects. The main focus of this article is the kitchen, and specifically how you store your spices and herbs. How do you store your spices? Most of us just place them on a single shelf and push things to the front as we use them, meaning older or lesser-used spices are going to populate the back. Other people prefer to have them better organized and grouped up so they can be found and used easier. There are many ways you can improve your spice cabinet, and we’re going to go into some of those!

Three Nifty Ideas for Storing Spices

  1. Custom cabinets for spice rack drawers: The beauty about this option is you can dictate exact size and parameters according to what you think you need. You also have the luxury of building it where you want it instead of trying to fit it in somewhere. You even get to decide what material and look you want overall. This could help your storage space blend with the entire home if your home has a theme. Just having complete control over your storage solution is fantastic, you can get exactly what you want and you don’t have to settle for whatever pre-made thing fits in your kitchen. It makes being organized fun!
  2. Open shelving: This is the most common means of storing spice. It simply requires a flat open base area for you to put and access all of your spices from. It is the most economical way and is common in most homes. The beauty of it is that you are able to see all the spices at once. You are also able to reach out and grab anything that you want as you cook without having to open a drawer of shelf door. You can also tell when you’re running low on something with ease. So make use of that free wall and stack some shelves for your spices.
  3. Pull out spice rack doors and spice racks: This is a good option for people who value privacy and uniformity. People that prefer this tend to be fans of more organized things, not wanting all their spices to just be out in the open. The pull out drawer both reduces the risk of accident of breakage and adds a certain degree of class as you don’t have to look at a bunch of unorganized spices at all times. This can go a long way towards making your kitchen look better and making your life easier.

Don’t just settle for keeping your spices in a cabinet where you can barely access them, or on a counter where they look bad and out of place. Get a nice but simple storage option and you’ll never have to worry about it again. Having all the things you need organized and arranged just makes your life that much easier. We create some of the finest custom cabinets and storage options around, if you need it built we can do it.

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edgewood custom cabinetry

Five Qualities of a Successful Gourmet Kitchen

At heart, are you a master chef? Is cooking one of your serious passions, and do you have high standards for the food you make and eat?

If you’re devoted to high-quality food and take pleasure in its preparation and consumption, you might want to look into designing a gourmet kitchen for your home.

The following are five qualities of a successful gourmet kitchen:

1) Easy-to-clean surfaces

If you’re using your kitchen frequently to make delicious food, it would need to have surfaces that are difficult to damage and easy to clean. For example, a hardwood floor would need to be sealed to protect against spills. Granite is a popular choice for counters, not least because they look elegant, but quartz is even hardier and more resistant to damage. You would want to have a beautiful and sturdy backsplash on the wall behind the stove; maybe it would be made of stainless steel or plate glass.

2) Professional appliances

If you’re doing heavy-duty cooking, for example, you may want a double oven and also a warming drawer; your range should also be top-notch and possibly come with extra features such as a grilling surface. In addition to your central fridge and freezer, you may opt to have a smaller refrigerator drawer built into the cabinetry, where you can store wine or other items that need to be kept cool.

Regardless of what you decide on, functionality is the primary objective; your appliances need to work well and help you produce excellent results. After you’ve decided on the appliances you need, you would then have to figure out how to make them fit in beautifully with the overall look of your kitchen.

3) Sensible Layout

You want the overall layout of your kitchen to make sense and suit your needs. For example, let’s say you love to bake. You might want to have one of your counters a little bit lower to use as a place for kneading and rolling dough.

You would also want to have certain appliances grouped together so you wouldn’t have to keep trotting back-and-forth across the kitchen, possibly spilling things along the way, during a critical stage in your cooking.

Dividing up your kitchen into different areas, including having an area devoted to food prep, makes sense. For instance, consider installing an island. Not only could it be used for extra storage space and also food preparation; it also serves as a place for your family, friends and other admirers to sit around and savor what you’re making (and help out, if you want them to).

4) Impeccable organization

You want the organization of all of your appliances, utensils, and ingredients to be impeccable. In the middle of cooking, you should know where everything is and be able to access it easily.

Especially if your kitchen is on the smaller side, you’ll need to get creative about maximizing the use of your space. But even for larger kitchens, efficient cabinetry and drawers are essential. When planning your kitchen, think about where you would want to put everything. Would you want a built-in spice rack, maybe one that rolls out from the wall and can be tucked out of sight when it isn’t in use? Where and how would you organize your knives? Consider what kinds of objects you’d want to keep out of reach of children, while still being within your reach.

5) Personal style

If you’re going to be in your kitchen a lot, you want to enjoy your time there. The kitchen is your personal domain. You’re the chef. It needs to look the way you want it to look. So consider, for example, what kinds of moldings you want on your cabinetry. Think about what color scheme you favor. You can also be eclectic, seamlessly combining different styles; you can have a kitchen that has a gentle, traditional look overall, but with some cutting-edge appliances or stainless steel fixtures that show you mean serious business.

Don’t hesitate to contact us to further discuss creating a gourmet kitchen. Investing in a gourmet kitchen can give you years of personal enjoyment and memorable culinary creations, along with the possibility of increasing the value of your home.

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