Posted on: March 27, 2008
Take Five
Make sure the kitchen pulls its weight with five space-saving ideas
By Emerson Nagel
CTW Features
Do your kitchen countertops feel hopelessly cluttered? Do you have to paw through drawers to find the whisk?
Don’t despair. Your kitchen has more usefulness and practicality in its future. Make your kitchen work for you by employing some space-considerate tips from two of the creative minds behind kitchen design – Ellen Dickson, of Bailey Edward Design in Chicago, and Barry Tuttle, who owns Absolute Kitchen and Bath Marketplace in Surry, Maine.
1
A knife/utensil-drawer insert keeps knives sharper and the whole drawer better organized. Access cutlery more easily with a two-layered cutlery drawer, where the top layer slides back to reveal less commonly used items, Tuttle suggests. Or use a hanging magnetic utensil tool for easy access.
2
Rather than hanging dish towels on the oven handle, Dickson recommends putting a towel rod around the island. Towels then become easy to grab from any place in the kitchen, saving you steps and time when your hands are dripping or someone spills a glass of wine.
3
Save your countertops by installing a stove surface next to the range, Tuttle says. Granite, slate and some marbles work well and have another advantage: Apply ice to the surface before rolling out dough so it won’t stick.
4
Mount your garbage can on a roll-out drawer under the sink. Take the swinging door and retro-fit it as a full-height drawer face, Dickson says.
5
Make your hood more attractive and less noisy, Tuttle says. Instead of using standard metal, install a metal liner with a custom outer shell, and mount a remote blower to make it quieter.