30 Ways to Store More in Your Kitchen: Part 1

By Better Homes & Gardens

So much stuff, so little room. Stuff you need, such as food and pots and pans. Stuff you collect, such as pottery and cookbooks. Stuff that seems to multiply overnight, such as bills, recyclables, and rubber bands. Fortunately, there are plenty of solutions to help you store your stuff -- and quickly retrieve it. Check out the following custom cabinetry ideas, easy-to-install products, no-install containers, and tips about organizing that will help whip your kitchen into shape.

1. Bring the pantry closer to you. A pullout pantry system has wire shelf sides that prevent items from falling out and allow easy viewing of the contents. Pullout pantry systems, especially those that extend into toe-kick space near the floor, must be installed perfectly level and plumb to operate smoothly.

2. Take cabinets to the top. If you're planning for new cabinetry, choose designs that reach the ceiling rather than those topped by a soffit. Although high-rise storage is more difficult to reach, it can conveniently conceal infrequently used items.

3. Specify upper cabinets that rest on the countertop. Shelves positioned between your shoulders and waist require no reaching to store stacks of dinnerware.

4. Shift dry goods into airtight, stackable containers. Often, packaged food products can be stored more compactly when transferred from their packaging into stacking containers.

5. Install a wire wall grid to keep kitchen tools handy. Turn a bare section of wall into a hook-and-hang center. For more storage, add accessories, such as spice racks and cookbook holders.

6. Store spice bottles one deep, on their sides with labels visible, in shallow drawers, instead of stacking them, says organization consultant Ginny Scott of California Closets in Portland, Oregon. The best location for spice storage is below a cook-top or to the side of your range. The flavor of spices stored above a cooking surface may be adversely affected by the heat.

7. Claim shallow storage spaces. It's easier to see what's on hand when items aren't hidden behind each other.

8. Divide your drawer space. Adjustable inserts help organize flatware and other items inside your drawers. When designing custom drawer space, specify shallow drawers to store utensils one deep for easy viewing.

9. Choose full-extension pullouts. Drawers and trays that extend fully allow the use of back corners without having to reach deep into cabinets to retrieve a pot or small appliance. You may prefer drawers because they save having to first open a set of doors.

10. Attach racks to the inside of cabinet doors to boost storage options. Be sure to allow enough clearance within your cabinets for racks that tidily stow paper products.

Organizing Your Kitchen –
                         Cabinet Shelving Accessories

With a little planning now, you won’t have to think twice about where to find the ice tongs or the corkscrew. Consider everything that’s in your kitchen now and where you would put it in your newly configured space. Note on your new-kitchen blueprint what you plan to store in each cabinet and drawer.

Don’t be content with just adding rollout shelves in your base cabinets. Check out the growing number of options for how to make drawers give you more storage space. They’re being used now to store plates, pots and pans, and snacks—not to mention all the appliances, including refrigerators, wine chillers, and dishwashers, that now come as drawer units.

You can also gain storage space with the narrow, 4-inch-to-10-inch wide slide-in shelves that look like posts when they’re pushed in. They can give you extra room without taking up whole sections of the cabinets. They can hold spices or soups by the range, cleaning supplies by the sink, or wine bottles by the glassware.

And remember that the standard dimensions for cabinets are becoming less and less so. Find out from your designer or cabinetmaker how much you can push it. Maybe you can add 6 inches of storage to your base cabinets, making them 30 inches instead of the standard 24 inches deep. Or you could make your upper cabinets a foot taller and add 3 to 4 inches to their standard 12- to 13-inch depth.

Your options for storage solutions include:

• Shelves

  • Rollout shelves

  • Foldout banks of shelves

  • Swing-out shelves

• Baskets

  • Pullout wire baskets

  • Under-the-sink pullout wire baskets

• Bins

  • Pullout trash and recycling bins

  • Trash receptacles under butcher blocks with cutout holes

  • Grain storage bins

• Drawer dividers

  • Cutlery compartments

  • Spice drawers

  • Utensil dividers

• Other

  • Tilt-out panel in front of sink

  • Lazy Susan shelving

  • Corner wall cabinet with open shelving

  • Diagonal wall cabinet with rotary shelves

  • A spice door rack

  • Vertical slots for trays and baking sheets

  • Open shelving for decorative or commonly used items

  • Under-cabinet wine rack

  • Plate rack over sink

FROM:
http://www.startremodeling.com/cabinets_accessories.htm

Adding Tile Accents

Decorative tile accents like bullnoses, raised patterns, trim bands, and borders can add just enough detail to make a ho-hum bathroom a designer showcase. But before falling in love with the brightest sea blue bullnose or an intricate raised motif mural, remember that holding a single sample will not give you a clear vision of the finished results in a full shower. Certain colors and finishes pick up light differently. If possible, take samples home with you and examine them in the room where they will be installed. Work with your supplier to find a location where that same material can be seen in full. And, prepare yourself for some variation. Tile manufacture (especially custom designs) is equal parts art and science. The tiles that arrive for installation may not be picture perfect replicas of a showroom’s display.

It is also important to pick a style and finish that you will be happy with in the future. A tile with a high glaze and one-eighth-inch grout lines is easy to keep clean and free of mildew. An intricate and irregular pattern will be hard to keep clean. In a bathroom, any small void will harbor mold and mildew.

Planning and Design
Like doors and windows, tile should be ordered as soon as the job starts. Most custom-ordered tiles are priced by the lineal foot or by the piece, and take anywhere from one to six months for delivery. Something as simple as tile ordered too late can throw a job off schedule. When it comes to ordering, don't skimp. Purchase enough material to do the job plus ten to fifteen percent extra. Tiles can be damaged in shipping, while being installed, or five years down the road. Having extras on hand can prevent unnecessary hold-ups.

Behind the Tile
In new construction, the walls should be framed in straight, kiln-dried lumber. If the wood is too green (wet) it will shrink. As the wood dries and contracts, cracks can appear along the grout lines. In humid bathrooms, metal studs work very well. There is no shrinkage and the walls supporting the tile are laser straight. Metal studs may cost a little more, but the finished results will be obvious once the job is done.

FROM:
http://kitchens.bobvila.com/Article/559.html