Mosby Building Arts Assistant Designer, Michelle Bridgewater, specializes in designing cabinet configurations for St. Louis kitchen remodeling projects. “I’m endlessly fascinated with cabinet design because it’s like putting together a puzzle that improves people’s daily lives.” Michelle shares one of her favorite aspects of kitchen cabinet design.
Like a sunset or a sleeping baby, a beautiful kitchen is a pleasing sight to behold. As someone who helps design kitchens, I also know that surface beauty can hide deeper levels of satisfaction. The secret of a great kitchen is storage. To work in an organized, clutter-free, stress-free kitchen is to know true bliss. These are some of my favorite hidden secrets of kitchen storage.
Tilt-Out Tray
The quickest way to ruin the beauty of a new sink and countertop is to have scrub brushes, sponges and scrapers lying about. Keep your sink and counter clutter free with sink bases that have the option for a tilt-out tray (shown above) instead of the standard false drawer. This also appeals to my need to use every inch of space to make our lives easier.
Spice Storage
Imagine how much more delicious your dishes could be if you have easy access to all your spices. A 2-sided pull-out spice rack in wall cabinets (above) quickly displays all the spices, with no bottles hiding behind another for the shelves are one-bottle deep.
Or there’s the option of a spice drawer in base cabinets, which is shown above, along with a bonus storage idea: drawers under the cooktop for easier access to pots and pans. No more rattle and clatter to grab the exact pot you need.
Toe-Kick Drawer
So you’re not constantly stubbing your toes while working in the kitchen, we design a hollow space between the floor and the bottom of the base cabinets. But let’s not waste that space! The toe kick drawer is a fun and creative way to add additional storage. This is a great place for serving trays, place mats and party plates.
Trash Drawer
Garbage cans need to be nearby, but who wants to see (or walk around) that? Pull-out trash drawers (shown above) in the base cabinets near the sink may be the greatest kitchen innovation since the microwave. They typically have two wells for holding receptacles, so you can divide between trash and recycling. And to the left in this photo, there is also the bonus corner drawers we love to add so every square inch of space is being utilized.
Mixer Stand
When small appliances are not in use, it’s nice to hide them away for a clutter-free kitchen. But they also need to be easy to access. The “hide a mixer” cabinet (shown above) allows bakers to store large mixers away under the base cabinet and easily pull it out and up to be flush with the countertop. This also keeps you unnecessarily lifting heavy appliances.
These are just a few of the clever storage solutions available in semi-custom and custom cabinet lines. Although the cost will rise depending on the amount of storage personalization chosen, these are changes that make your kitchen stress-free and enjoyable to use, so they are worth every penny.
And this is where collaborating with a Mosby kitchen designer comes in handy. We work with your budget to balance your storage and beauty needs. Here are examples of some of our kitchen remodeling projects, and you can bet there’s secret storage hiding behind those gorgeous cabinets. We can do the same for you when you call the Mosby office at 314.909.1800 or contact us here.