Renovations, The Buffalo Burrow7 Tips for Cabinet Storage July 3, 2020 This is a sponsored post by Lowe’s Home Improvement. All opinions are 100% my own. I hope you guys are hanging in there with this crazy time we’re in. I know it’s affecting all of us in so many different ways and I appreciate y’all’s patience in getting you updates on our new house. It has been the craziest season for sure. While I’ve had much less time to write and share posts, at times, it’s also felt a little strange to share lighthearted things with everything going on. But like I said in a recent post, I think it’s BOTH/AND, and I want to continue spreading light and inspiration however I can. Thank y’all so much for all the love on our kitchen! We are loving it. As y’all know, we put so much thought into this space long before we started building. I planned out where every single thing in this kitchen would go as we designed the cabinet layout so that I knew for sure we’d have a place for all the things. You can check out the post on Planning our Cabinet Layout here. Once you’re actually living in a space, some of those pre-conceived ideas about how it will function shift. But for the most part, that plan was spot on for how we use our kitchen! Today, I want to walk you guys through and show you the inside of some of these cabinets and talk about my 7 MUST-HAVES FOR CABINET LAYOUT after designing so many kitchens. A lot of everyday items found their home on my beloved shelves. If you missed the post and video on how I styled these shelves with beauty and function in mind, check that out! Now onto the cabinets! Before I talk about storage, these cabinets are Lowe’s Diamond Intrigue Line. We loved them for a lot of reasons, but mainly because they’re a fairly custom option that gave us a ton of options for layout, sizes, and inserts. We also love that they come in so many custom colors. You can read more about this Diamond cabinet line here. Our cabinets are where we store all the things you may not want displayed. Let’s dive in! I feel like this first one is pretty obvious, but still needs to be mentioned. I love having a big crock by my stove with spatulas, whisks, and wooden spoons handy to grab while cooking. But there are always other utensils you need nearby that don’t fit there. I love having a wide, but shallow drawer right by the stove for these! After designing a good many kitchens, I’ve realized you need a deep drawer for some things, but for most, you need shallow. Deep drawers create wasted space and mess. Shallow drawers let you organize your things so they’re easy to see in one layer instead of piling a lot of things on top of each other. In some kitchens we’ve stored pots and pans on shelves in lower cabinets. Then, two kitchens ago, we discovered the magical pot drawer. Our cabinet guy suggested us having a wide and deep pull out drawer for pots and pans beside the stove and it was a game-changer! This is one of those times you want a deep drawer! We have two of these. They slide right out, grab what you need. It’s so handy! Another obvious one: keep your spices by the stove. But I love having them in a small drawer instead of in with the huge utensil drawer like we’ve had in the past! In this kitchen, we ended up with these narrow drawers on each side of our stove to keep the stove and hood centered on this wall. I have ended up LOVING them. It’s the same reason I love shallow drawers. Small drawers are much easier to keep organized! I knew we’d do our baking sheets in that tall drawer on the left and that we’d do spices in the top drawer on each side. In the left drawer, I store all of my baking spices: cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, baking soda, etc. In the right, I store my savory spices. I love how these tiny drawers keep my spices handy and organized. Corner cabinets are never my favorite for easy, useful storage. They’re a little hard to access, but most kitchens require one for layout purposes! Make sure you get a lazy susan that turns inside. That makes the most out of the space, for sure! I store miscellaneous cups like our smoothie blender cups, bowls, and a large pot or two that don’t fit in the pot drawers here. I feel like this one should have a bunch of stars by it! This is my number one must-have for kitchen cabinets. We’ve had it in kitchens before and haven’t been able to fit it in some. And it is a GAME-CHANGER! Ours is right between our stove and sink, so it’s really handy from our hardest working areas. The Diamond line of cabinets is fairly custom, which pays off in so many areas. This trash pull out was the perfect size to fit two trash cans: one for trash and one for recycling. It came with the right size trash cans, as well. Okay, for the next few, let’s talk about these four shallow drawers by the dishwasher. I told you, I have a thing for those shallow drawers! In the top, we store our silverware. It’s so handy right by the dishwasher and I love how the shallow drawer fits a silverware tray perfectly without having a lot of wasted depth. This isn’t really a must-have point for me, but I’ll show you what’s in the next drawer as well. We keep our stack of place mats handy so the kids can help set the table. And we also store our foil, parchment paper, etc. here. Look how perfect that shallow depth is! It’s the little things, y’all. Again with those shallow drawers! They’re magic, I tell you. I like storing my Tupperware by the dishwasher. In the past, we’ve stored these in deep drawers and I hated it! You stack a bunch of it and despite your best efforts, it stays a mess! Shallow drawers let you spread it out and keep it organized. We have a bit more in the bottom drawer too. It’s slightly deeper, so it stores our larger lidded bowls and things. We have mainly glass Tupperware, but do have a few plastic ones with sections for the kids. I really want to change those our for stainless in our quest for eliminating plastic in this house. A few more notes about storage in this kitchen: You guys know we have our dry pantry area over here. In the cabinets below, we have our utility drawer (pens, hardware, etc.). Below, we have our crock pot and a handful of other larger items like that. Above the fridge, we have holiday things and mainly, items that won’t come down often. I have to give one more plug for these cabinets. We’ve had custom cabinets in the past made by a local carpenter and these are just as good quality and the finish is even better! I can’t recommend these Diamond cabinets enough if you’re in the market for new cabinets! I also don’t think I’ve shown y’all our pantry! Remember, it is in the pass through between the dining room and kitchen. We’d planned to build one in and changed our plans when we found this big antique cabinet at a favorite salvage spot of ours. We have all of our kids’ snacks in the bottom section and the rest of our canned goods and pantry storage in the upper shelves. It fits everything we need just right! I want to organize it more with baskets in time and will feature this area more then. There’s a look at our kitchen storage and how it functions for our family! If you have any questions about where certain things are, leave them in the comments below and I’m happy to answer!
Dina says July 3, 2020 at 4:38 pm The antique cabinet for pantry items is SO special as is, of course, the entire space! Congratulations on a job well done! Reply
Bethany says July 3, 2020 at 5:21 pm Amen on shallow cabinets!! They are so much better for organizing. Love how intentional you were in this kitchen ?? Reply