kitchen

ookie sheets and cutting boards. These pieces are shallow but hard to find a good spot for. If you don’t have the aforementioned toe-kick drawers, they wind up toppling over pots and pans or getting buried beneath them. A narrow cabinet takes up very little room and can house cutting boards and baking sheets. And check out how well-organized the spices are in the adjacent drawer.

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Toe-kick drawers. This is such a clever solution, as if someone was looking at a kitchen and saying, ‘"Hmm, there simply must be more inches around here somewhere,” then looked down at their feet and had a light-bulb-over-the-head moment. There’s valuable space lurking beneath those lower cabinets.

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Color-coordinate the outlets. Local building codes often state that there must be an electrical outlet every 4 feet in the kitchen. White outlets are seemingly the color of choice for electricians — and therein lies the bane of my design existence. With their glaring contrast, white outlets in a nonwhite backsplash detract from the beauty of the tile. Fortunately, you can avoid this dilemma by coordinating your outlets and wall plates with the color of your backsplash tile, as shown in this photo. Colored outlets and wall plates are available from your local lighting and big-box stores, as well as on Houzz.

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Turn the outlet sideways. If wall outlets are your desired solution, install them sideways and closer to the counter for a less obtrusive profile than the common vertical orientation.

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Clear the decks. Don’t forget to add accessories like a soap dispenser and an air switch to keep clutter off the counters and backsplash

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Account for lid storage

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Hide the dishwasher with paneling

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