MUST-HAVE: My New Kitchen's Best Organizational Features!

So I’ve spent a little more time at home during the holidays, and we’ve really gotten to use our kitchen we remodeled last fall.

Here’s the plan we started with, and here’s the one we ended up doing.

I’m a firm believer in flexibility in design.

If you’re designing something for the long-term, you need to build in ways to change the functionality of a space as your needs change. For that reason I didn’t go too terribly custom with storage needs.

However, I’ve had some clients that do. They want tiny niches and crannies, divided drawers, and special features for their specific needs.

Personally, I’ve lived long enough to see how my needs have changed over the years.

That’s why I wanted to build my kitchen with some flexibility in mind. I find large, wide drawers, tall trash drawers, adjustable shelving, and vertical, divided storage tends to work well, as they offer plenty of flexibility.

For example: This beautiful drawer with all the specifically designed niches for each kitchen tool looks amazing. But what if you find you don’t really use that particular tool and then get a new one that doesn’t fit the mold... Then what do you do — get a new drawer insert?

Specialty drawer | Image source: Remodelista

Sometimes getting too specific can be limiting. There is a fine balance between customization and sinking all your money into something designed for the moment and not the long-term.

One of the items that I wanted to have as large and spacious as possible was my sink. I have wanted a single bowl sink since we stayed in this rental in California. You could fit any large pot or pan in there and hide a lot of dirty dishes!

I chose the Blanco Quatrus R15 for it’s geometric shape, yet slightly rounded corners, for ease of cleaning. I went with the Blanco Meridian Semi-Professional faucet and love how the sprayer works with the faucet and its industrial look. It’s just big and gutsy enough to handle anything a cook could throw in there.

We had finished up the remodel right before Thanksgiving; and with family coming for Thanksgiving dinner, we hit the ground cooking. My husband does the big turkey, and he really enjoyed using that sink and faucet during preparation.

I love my pantry! I built it out into the garage. Before, we had a tiny pantry that was stuck back in that little hallway on the other side of the door to the garage. It was terribly inconvenient, too small, and impractical. But this one is super convenient, as it’s located right in the kitchen, has plenty of storage for me, and it includes some adjustable and fixed shelving.

I painted it indigo blue (my favorite color) so you could get a little glimpse of color. (The rest of the kitchen is basically white and black/brown.) My oven is indigo blue inside, and I wanted to sort of mimic that as well as give a nod to my personal taste.

Before - Old pantry

Blue pantry

I love the vertical storage we built into the cabinets above the frig and ovens. These work beautifully, providing access to all my platters, baking sheets, and pans. I’ve had little dividers purchased from a store, but they always tipped over or things got stuck in them. I’m telling you... These are 100% better than any type of organizational device you can buy in a store.

I love my trash drawer. We built it the depth of the island. (Our trash can used to sit right there in that spot.) It has a soft close glide and a big frig handle from Top Knobs on the drawer. I made it big enough to handle a tall trash can, along with enough room for the trash bags below; or perhaps two trash cans, if I ever want to bring the recycling into the house.

I have fabulous, wide, deep drawers that hold kitchen tools, towels, and our large collection of plasticware. :-( Well, if you have to have all that plastic stuff, a large, deep, wide drawer is perfect for that.

I did pull-outs for some of my mixing bowls, large pans, and small appliances. I love having this wide, accessible space to put these bulky items.

Now I’ll show you my real luxury, and the #1 reason for remodeling my kitchen: I installed a nugget ice machine. I have wanted one of these forever, ever since one of my clients had one installed in their new kitchen. :-)

Now I crunch on ice to my heart’s content!

I’ll be sharing the finished pics of my kitchen at a later date.

I’m getting a custom table done for the breakfast room, and I need to get the window film for my pantry door. When all is complete we’ll do a big reveal!