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How to maximise storage in your kitchen

Are you concerned you won’t have enough storage in your new kitchen?

Planning storage can be a daunting task when designing a new kitchen.

Here Richard Davonport, Director at Davonport goes through some storage options.

What do you need to think about when planning your storage options?
It’s difficult to say how much storage you need. Before briefing a kitchen designer, it’s useful to write down the storage issues of your current kitchen.

You should also keep in mind that increasing the number of appliances (such as a micro-wave combi, coffee maker or steam oven) will reduce the number of storage cabinets available.

Lastly, consider who uses the kitchen. Do you need to keep certain items stored away from curious children? Internal storage options in drawers can be ideal.

Will your range cooker take up too much storage space?
Of course a range cooker will take up more space than a single 60cm oven. However, range cookers can offer extra storage space. Most of Britannia’s double oven range cookers have a full width drawer on telescopic runners. These are great for storing baking trays. Look for the Sigma, Dynasty and Classic range cookers without a separate grill compartment. Moreover, if you use a plinth kit, you can store items behind the plinth.

What about other storage drawers?
Kitchen drawers are great for storing smaller items such as cutlery. Drawers placed above or below cupboards can be a good way of keeping related items together. In smaller kitchens - where space is limited - kick space drawers can be a real space saver. Kick space drawers are located in the plinth right at the bottom of units.

Hidden internal drawers work well in kitchens of any size. They provide easily-accessible storage without disturbing the overall kitchen layout. Specialised cutlery, utensil and spice inserts are useful in larger kitchens. They help store items in an organised and accessible manner. We quite often place peg board inserts in deeper drawers located near to the dishwasher for crockery storage. They can be adjusted to suit any size or shape plate.

What about cupboards and interior solutions?
Cupboards often take up the majority of space in a kitchen. Be careful, though: What looks pretty may not actually be practical or work well with the overall kitchen.

Angled corner cabinets can provide valued additional worktop and storage space. They also work well as wall cabinets. If you don’t need additional worktop space, then magic corners or a ‘Le-mans‘ pullout storage are a possibility. These look like a standard cabinet door front. However, they don’t have nasty corners to crawl inside of. Everything in the corner comes out to you instead.

Larder style cabinets can provide flexible storage. They are great for housing any awkward or unusual shaped items. In particular they can work well when teamed with wooden vegetable crates, pull-out wirework baskets, internal dovetailed drawers or even bottle rack/back of door storage for bottles and oils.

High quality pull-out larder systems and internal wirework drawers can provide much valued and efficient storage for heavy items such as tins and cans. Some can even take the weight of larger items such as food processors.

How to ensure your work top looks uncluttered
The typical home now has lots of gadgets, and the worktop is often the place to store items such as toasters and food processors - all of which eats into space for preparing food items.

“Appliance garages” can be used in larger kitchens. They house frequently-used items, which can still be easily accessed but are hidden behind bi-folded double or shutter doors.

When this isn’t an option, hydraulic appliance lifts can prove beneficial as it removes items from the worktop, making an area previously lost by an appliance have purpose again.

There’s a lot to think about when planning your dream kitchen. A few well-thought out storage devices can make the difference in enjoying your kitchen and reducing clutter.

What are your top tips for creating additional storage space in the kitchen?

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