10 Great Kitchen Space Planning Ideas

Is there ever a kitchen with too much storage space? Probably not. That means it is important to make the most of every inch of your kitchen space planning, leaving nothing wasted. There are lots of great cabinet options that can help you keep your kitchen organized and efficient in its use of limited space. Here are 10 that you may or may not have seen in use:

1. Pop-up Shelf. If you’re a serious cook, you’re likely to own a large standup mixer. It may even be one your prize possessions. Unfortunately, they do take up a lot of space and can be cumbersome to retrieve from their storage in a kitchen cabinet. The solution for this important item in the kitchen is to include a pop-up shelf that has your mixer attached to it. Not only does it make your mixer easy to retrieve and put away, it creates additional workspace as well.
2. Pocket Doors. Pocket doors are often used in homes to save space, they can accomplish the same task in your kitchen cabinetry. An appliance garage is an excellent area to utilize pocket doors that smoothly slide into the cabinetry and out of the way.
3. Corner Drawers. The corner cabinets in kitchens have always been an issue. Lazy-susans have long been the primary means of making this space more accessible; however, there are other options; corner drawers are one of them. These drawers have V-d fronts to fit the corner. Being able to pull the contents out into the light makes them more visible and also eliminates the need to squat down to see what is in the cabinet.
4. Rollout Shelving. Just like the corner drawers, rollout shelving brings the entire contents of a shelf out into view and makes it easy to access even the items at the back of the shelf.
5. Rollout Trash. No one likes to take up valuable floor space in the kitchen with a trashcan. A rollout trash center saves floor space and usually has room for two bins, one for trash and one for recyclables.
6. Ceiling Height Cabinets. One of the big space wasters in kitchens are wall cabinets that do not extend to the full height of the ceiling. Although those upper cabinets are more difficult to access, they can be the perfect storage area for those seldom used items like holiday dishes. Adding glass doors and lighting to these upper cabinets can also make them a beautiful display area.
7. Swing-Out Shelves. This is another option for corner cabinets or other deep cabinets. Swing-out shelves are attached to the door and swing out when the door is opened for easy viewing and access.
8. Slotted Storage. Vertical dividers can better organize the storage area of baking pans, trays and even place mats. The dividers keep all the pieces from sliding together.
9. Divided Drawers. Horizontal dividers in drawers can accomplish a similar purpose. Deep drawers can be divided to provide a cubby hole for each different size kettle, for different sized storage containers and lids or whatever items you have that tend to turn into a jumbled mess inside of a drawer.
10. Narrow Pull Outs. Often, kitchen designs will have narrow spaces that can be covered with decorative vertical panels. There is no need to waste this space either. The decorative panel can be attached to narrow pull out shelves for spices or canned goods to make use of that space.

If you have limited space in the kitchen of your Washington DC condo, you may want to consider adding some of these options when designing your kitchen remodel. You will be amazed how much more organized and spacious a kitchen can seem when every inch of space is planned out for functional use.