10 of the Best Kitchen Storage Solutions in 2016
If you're fitting a new kitchen or aiming for an upgrade, be inspired by these clever design ideas for essential storage
The beautiful spaces featured in the Kitchen Tours on Houzz are a rich source of inspiration. Often, awkward nooks, tight angles or blank walls have been transformed into crucial storage, helping the room to work well and look gorgeous, too.
To celebrate all that’s ingenious in the world of kitchen storage, here’s a round-up of highlights from some of the clever and elegant rooms featured this year.
To celebrate all that’s ingenious in the world of kitchen storage, here’s a round-up of highlights from some of the clever and elegant rooms featured this year.
Leave space for a freestanding piece
Rather than fit cabinets throughout your kitchen, leave room for some freestanding furniture. A dresser is a kitchen favourite, and it can create a very stylish counterpoint to contemporary units. A glass-fronted cupboard, like this vintage piece, is also a great display alternative to open shelving if dusting isn’t your forte.
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Rather than fit cabinets throughout your kitchen, leave room for some freestanding furniture. A dresser is a kitchen favourite, and it can create a very stylish counterpoint to contemporary units. A glass-fronted cupboard, like this vintage piece, is also a great display alternative to open shelving if dusting isn’t your forte.
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Celebrate an angle
Stairs create an angled ceiling line in one corner of this kitchen, but it’s been worked to the room’s advantage. Open shelves have been cleverly tucked beneath it to perfectly fit the gradient of the staircase above.
These are a beautiful focal point, the wood warming up the painted Shaker cabinetry, and serve as a great place to display a collection of china.
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Stairs create an angled ceiling line in one corner of this kitchen, but it’s been worked to the room’s advantage. Open shelves have been cleverly tucked beneath it to perfectly fit the gradient of the staircase above.
These are a beautiful focal point, the wood warming up the painted Shaker cabinetry, and serve as a great place to display a collection of china.
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Create walk-in storage under the stairs
This kitchen also makes great use of an awkward section of wall tucked under the stairs. Rather than hiding the shelving behind a flat door, open shelves provide lots of larder-style storage for ingredients. The design also helps to bring depth and detail to a small-scale kitchen.
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This kitchen also makes great use of an awkward section of wall tucked under the stairs. Rather than hiding the shelving behind a flat door, open shelves provide lots of larder-style storage for ingredients. The design also helps to bring depth and detail to a small-scale kitchen.
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Take the doors off
This kitchen steers away from the traditional in favour of a lighter look. Exposed legs, open shelves and handleless doors help the cabinets to feel more like pieces of furniture than a standard kitchen.
Two shallow cupboards are left without doors so their wooden interiors and contents are visible, adding a flash of interest and pace to this neat kitchen.
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This kitchen steers away from the traditional in favour of a lighter look. Exposed legs, open shelves and handleless doors help the cabinets to feel more like pieces of furniture than a standard kitchen.
Two shallow cupboards are left without doors so their wooden interiors and contents are visible, adding a flash of interest and pace to this neat kitchen.
See the rest of this kitchen
Build around the architecture
A thumping great support pillar stands fairly prominently in this beautiful extension, but the kitchen simply flows around it. It means the cabinet created around its base isn’t full-size, but it’s been cleverly designed to include a wine rack and narrow shelves, just wide enough for bottles, alongside.
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A thumping great support pillar stands fairly prominently in this beautiful extension, but the kitchen simply flows around it. It means the cabinet created around its base isn’t full-size, but it’s been cleverly designed to include a wine rack and narrow shelves, just wide enough for bottles, alongside.
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Go for something flexible
The structural column to the right of this alcove has walls of different depths on either side. To the right, there’s room for standard cabinets; to the left is this shallow niche.
Rather than try to fit shallow cabinets into here, the designer went for a more decorative mix of open shelves and rails. These provide space for display, hanging pictures and suspending a book stand, softening the look of the space.
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The structural column to the right of this alcove has walls of different depths on either side. To the right, there’s room for standard cabinets; to the left is this shallow niche.
Rather than try to fit shallow cabinets into here, the designer went for a more decorative mix of open shelves and rails. These provide space for display, hanging pictures and suspending a book stand, softening the look of the space.
See the rest of this kitchen
Exploit a sliver of space
Forget a clunky wine rack and marvel at this discreet niche above the fridge-freezer instead. It’s a brilliant use of dead space and a great way to keep bottles tidy.
And what about that folding larder door? It’s an ingenious way to access this storage, and the neat panels won’t obscure as much of the fridge when open as a conventional door would.
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Forget a clunky wine rack and marvel at this discreet niche above the fridge-freezer instead. It’s a brilliant use of dead space and a great way to keep bottles tidy.
And what about that folding larder door? It’s an ingenious way to access this storage, and the neat panels won’t obscure as much of the fridge when open as a conventional door would.
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Try a skinny shelf
Something as simple as a slim wooden shelf can brilliantly punctuate a pale kitchen. Here, floating oak shelves run around the room, drawing the eye through it and adding a place to display colourful china.
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Something as simple as a slim wooden shelf can brilliantly punctuate a pale kitchen. Here, floating oak shelves run around the room, drawing the eye through it and adding a place to display colourful china.
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Divide and quarter
This is a simple but effective way to make a regular kitchen cupboard work harder. A vertical divide and two little shelves turn one storage area into four neat compartments, each just the right size for chopping boards, baking sheets and trays.
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Got a brilliant kitchen storage tip? Share it in the Comments below.
This is a simple but effective way to make a regular kitchen cupboard work harder. A vertical divide and two little shelves turn one storage area into four neat compartments, each just the right size for chopping boards, baking sheets and trays.
See the rest of this kitchen
Got a brilliant kitchen storage tip? Share it in the Comments below.
Tall rooms present scope for fitting in lots of storage, stretching all the way up to the ceiling, but how to reach those uppermost cupboards? This kitchen has the answer. A library-style ladder on a rail makes the high storage accessible and creates quite a talking point, too.
The top cabinets are also fitted with mirrored panels to create reflections and a strip of brightness up high, which softens the ‘bulk’ of these tall cupboards.
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