Kitchen Remodeler Design: Smart Storage Solutions You’ll Use Daily

Posted on 2026-01-23 16:35:36

Remodeling a kitchen is part art, part logistics. The finishes and fixtures get the spotlight, but the storage plan makes the room work. After two decades walking clients through tear-outs and rebuilds, I can say this with confidence: the biggest difference between a kitchen that looks good and a kitchen that lives well is storage that anticipates your habits. Not theoretical capacity, but reach, rhythm, and access. How fast can you grab the skillet? Where does the air fryer live when it’s not showing off? Can you unload a grocery haul without playing cabinet Tetris?

A thoughtful kitchen remodeler treats storage like infrastructure. That means taking the time to measure, map, and model the way you actually use the room. The result is a kitchen that feels bigger and calmer without adding a single square remodeling foot. The following strategies are the ones that clients use every day, months and years after we hand back the keys. They draw on practical carpentry, real constraints of plumbing and electrical, and the small adjustments that a good remodeler or carpenter makes on site to fit your life.

Start with your daily routes, not a catalog

Before we talk about rollouts or inserts, we sketch how you cook and clean. In practice, I stand in the space with homeowners and walk through a weekday dinner. Where do you set down the grocery bags? How often do you bake? Which side of the sink do you naturally use to stack plates? The answers drive the layout and storage hierarchy.

A construction company that treats kitchens like cabinet puzzles will cram in boxes until the walls disappear. A kitchen remodeler approaches it like a series of work zones: prep, cook, clean, store. A remodel that respects zones will put storage closest to the action, even if it sacrifices a bit of symmetry. That trade-off is worth it. Your back and your patience will thank you.

Logistically, we measure common items that will live in the kitchen. Sheet pans are usually 18 by 13 inches. Dutch ovens can be 7 to 9 inches tall with lid. Stand mixers run 14 to 17 inches high. With those numbers, we plan interior clearances and shelf increments. Standard cabinet modules rarely account for the mix of tall and short items you own, so we specify custom drilling patterns or extra shelf pin holes to fine-tune after move-in.

Drawers beat doors below the counter

If you change one thing in a kitchen, swap most base cabinets with doors for full-extension drawers. The reason is simple: drawers bring the contents to you. No kneeling. No knocking over towers of pots to reach the back.

You’ll see the difference immediately in three places. First, the pot and pan bank next to the range. I like a three-drawer stack: 10 inches high at the top for lids and tools, then two 12 to 14 inch deep drawers for cookware. If a client owns a stockpot taller than that, we adjust to a two-drawer stack and allow 15 inches clear. Second, the dish drawer near the dishwasher, which lets kids help set the table safely. Third, pantry drawers that hold breakfast staples within reach, especially helpful when mornings are a scramble.

It takes a carpenter’s eye to set up drawer dividers that don’t rattle or warp. We install adjustable pegs or wood dividers for plates, then a false back to keep stacks tight. Think of each drawer as a shallow bin with a purpose, not a catchall. A good remodeler will dry-fit your bowls and trays during installation to dial in the width of dividers.

One caution: heavy drawers need robust slides, rated 100 pounds or more. Cheap slides sag over time and turn a crisp motion into a sticky mess. I’d rather specify one fewer drawer and invest in quality hardware than spread the budget thin across mediocre components.

The pantry that actually feeds you

Walk-in pantries look generous on paper. In real life, a tight U-shaped walk-in is full of stale crackers and unreachable appliances. The best pantries I’ve built are either a shallow walk-in with only perimeter shelves and a 36-inch clear aisle, or a wall of full-height cabinets with rollouts. The second option almost always performs better in modest kitchens.

If you go with a cabinet pantry, favor 18 to 24 inch wide sections. That width lets you dedicate one rollout per category without losing small items to the shadows. Rollouts at 6 to 8 inches high work for cans and jars; 10 to 12 inches for cereal and pasta; a tall bay for bottles. Install one fixed shelf at eye level for a “quick grab” zone, which becomes your coffee, tea, and vitamins station. Lighting matters, too. A slim LED strip down the face frame or a door-activated light takes the guesswork out of labels.

For a family that meal preps on Sundays, we built a two-cabinet pantry with 24 inch deep rollouts and a stainless counter tucked between the cabinets behind pocket doors. The counter hides the dehydrator and vacuum sealer. When they prep, the doors slide away; on weekdays, the space reads clean. That small change cut their Sunday project time by a third because everything lived in place, plugged in, and ready.

Corners don’t have to be black holes

Everyone has an opinion about corner cabinets. Most people hate them because they’ve lived with bad ones. Lazy Susans wobble, blind corners swallow gear, and no one can reach the back. There are better options now, and choosing the right one depends on what you plan to store.

If you want pots in the corner, a heavy-duty kidney-shaped carousel with metal shelves will spin them out gently. If you prefer keeping bulky small appliances off the counter, a blind corner with a two-part pullout that extracts and swings into the opening works well. It’s not cheap hardware, but the daily ease is real. We set the shelf height to match your tallest appliance, usually the stand mixer bowl.

Sometimes the simplest answer wins: a dead corner. We frame a clean L-shape, block off the internal void, and keep the money for places you touch more often, like drawers. A construction company that chases every cubic inch will fight for that corner. A remodeler focused on daily life might let it go if the rest of the plan carries the load.

Upper cabinets that earn their keep

Upper cabinets can either make a room feel top heavy or float comfortably above the counter. The difference lies in proportion, doors, and interior planning. Two rules guide my hand. First, keep uppers shallow enough to see everything at a glance. Standard 12 inch depth is fine for plates and glasses. If you stretch to 14 inches, commit to it across a run and account for hood clearance. Second, keep the bottom shelf at a reachable height for the shortest person who uses the space regularly.

Glass doors near the sink elevate everyday objects, but they need discipline. I limit glass to one or two sections and place an LED strip at the face frame. Behind solid doors, we use a mix of fixed and adjustable shelves so that tall items like pitchers don’t force wasted space above everyday cups. For spices, I prefer a narrow pullout near the cooktop over a rack on the door, which often hits shelves and binds.

If you are tall or have a high ceiling, consider a two-tier upper with a small stacked unit for infrequent items. The top tier needs lift-up doors or magnetic catches to avoid the ladder dance. A simple hook-on library ladder is fun, but in most homes it gets old fast. I’d rather set one cabinet as a seasonal bin so you climb once a quarter instead of twice a week.

The sink base that never turns into a swamp

The sink base is notorious for chaos: cleaners, sponges, trash bags, and a maze of plumbing. We solve it with a few simple moves. First, a tilt-out tray in the false drawer front for sponges and brushes. It keeps wet items ventilated and off the counter. Second, a U-shaped rollout that wraps the drain and garbage disposal. That tray holds cleaners and dishwasher pods in a caddy you can lift out. Third, a trash and recycling pullout adjacent to, not under, the sink. The pullout under the sink seems efficient until a leak turns it into a mess. With a separate pullout, we can include a drip tray and small water sensor in the sink base to catch problems early.

On new builds, we center the drain toward the rear wall and run the water lines low and tight to maximize usable space. An experienced carpenter or plumber sweats these details, literally in some cases, because an extra inch matters when you’re trying to fit a rollout.

The quiet power of appliance garages

Small appliances cause countertop creep. The fix is not a bigger counter. The fix is a place for them to live, plugged in, within arm’s reach. An appliance garage can be a full-height cabinet on the counter or a niche tucked under the uppers. The key is door style. Tambour doors look tidy but can jam. Flip-up doors with soft-close stays work well, and bifold pocket doors disappear entirely when open.

Clearances matter. A standard toaster needs 8 to 9 inches of height, a blender 16 to 18, and a stand mixer 17 to 18 depending on model. We order doors that open to at least that height and set a finished counter or pullout shelf inside the garage. That shelf slides out 10 to 12 inches so you can use the appliance without lifting. If you bake often, we wire a dedicated 20 amp circuit here. Good remodelers coordinate this early so the electrician stubs power in the right spot and the fabricator drills a tidy cord grommet.

Islands and peninsulas that carry weight

An island is more than a landing pad. It’s the primary prep station in many kitchens, and it should store the tools you reach for every day. On the working side, I like two deep drawers for mixing bowls and prep containers, a shallow knife drawer with a fitted wood block, and a towel bar tucked inside a door with a rollout for linens. On the seating side, I often include a shallow cabinet, 12 inches deep, for board games or school supplies. Families actually use that storage daily, and it keeps clutter off the surface.

Overhang and seating are not afterthoughts. If the island hosts breakfast, your knees need 12 to 15 inches of overhang. That means adding steel brackets or a hidden subtop to support stone. I have seen too many cracked counters because a builder set a 14 inch overhang on two decorative corbels. A construction company that does structural work understands the load paths and will insist on proper reinforcement. It’s not glamorous, but it protects your investment.

Drawers inside doors, and other hybrid tricks

Sometimes you want the clean face of a door with the function of drawers. Drawer-in-door systems do that. We install a door that opens to reveal two or three interior drawers. It sounds fussy, but it serves three purposes. It keeps the look calm on longer runs. It lets you fully open the door before sliding a heavy interior drawer, which keeps hardware strain low. It also lets you convert to full drawers later if your needs change.

Another hybrid is the toe-kick drawer. In a tight galley, adding two inches of storage height across a run can yield a hidden spot for baking sheets, cooling racks, or pet dishes. Toe drawers are not for daily use items, but when we need to squeeze capacity without crowding the upper space, they help. The carpenter’s trick is to raise the cabinet box slightly and build a sturdy toe with smooth slides, so it doesn’t feel flimsy.

The 30-second reset test

A beautiful kitchen is one that resets quickly. I measure our storage design by how fast a client can clear the counters after a hearty meal. If it takes longer than 30 seconds per square foot of counter to put things away, we missed something. Usually the culprit is a mismatch between item and home. The blender carafe lives across the room. The sauté pan competes with a roasting pan in the same drawer. The junk drawer eats everything.

We fix this by designing a few obvious, magnetic homes:

A “hot zone” drawer set right of the cooktop holding spatulas, tongs, thermometers, and two go-to knives in a fitted block. Nothing else lives there. A landing drawer next to the fridge with a charging station and a shallow tray for keys, pens, and a notepad, so daily clutter doesn’t spread. A tray divider cabinet for sheet pans and cutting boards, ideally 9 to 12 inches wide, near the oven. Vertical dividers mean you never stack.

Those three moves shave minutes off cleanup, and they stick because they reflect real behavior rather than wishful thinking.

Lighting and visibility are storage multipliers

You cannot use what you cannot see. Good lighting multiplies effective storage without adding volume. Under-cabinet lighting turns every counter into a workspace. Inside-cabinet lights make deep shelves functional. I specify warm white LEDs at 2700 to 3000K for cozy tones, and high CRI strips so food looks appetizing. Motion sensors in pantries and deep drawers feel luxurious, but they also keep you from fumbling for switches with wet hands.

Glazing adds visibility, but it’s not all or nothing. Reeded or fluted glass softens the view while keeping you honest about clutter. For clients who fear the maintenance of glass, a narrow framed metal door with mesh inserts achieves airflow for produce or linens and signals what’s inside.

Materials and hardware that hold up

The best layout fails if drawers rack or finishes peel. Materials matter, and so does climate. In dry, high-altitude regions like Kanab, Utah, solid wood panels can shrink if not sealed on all sides. A construction company in Kanab familiar with the local environment will spec stable veneers over furniture-grade plywood for large door panels, then finish with a conversion varnish or a catalyzed lacquer that resists moisture around sinks. In humid coastal zones, we adjust clearances to avoid binding in summer.

For shelves, I favor 3/4 inch plywood over particleboard. Load a shelf with cookbooks and you’ll see why. For drawer boxes, 5/8 or 3/4 inch solid maple or birch with dovetail joinery wears well. Side-mount slides have their place, but soft-close undermounts keep the motion clean and hide dust rails. Handles should suit the hand. We bring a sample board and ask clients to grasp pulls the way they do when cooking, often with damp fingertips. You learn quickly which finishes and shapes slip.

Ventilation and storage need to coexist

One of the easiest mistakes to make is boxing the hood with cabinets until there’s no breathing room. If you cook often, give the hood space and duct it properly. Grease-laden air chews through finishes and gums up interior shelves. I’d rather lose a foot of upper storage near the range and gain reliable capture and easy cleaning. A remodeler with real-world experience will coordinate the hood’s blower size and duct path with the cabinet plan early, then line nearby shelves with removable mats for easy wipe-downs.

The role of a skilled team

A smooth remodel depends on the carpenter and the installer as much as the designer. Case in point: out-of-square walls. They exist in almost every house. A seasoned carpenter scribes filler strips and end panels so doors clear and drawers glide without rubbing. A handyman might patch around problems, but the fine adjustments at installation make or break the feel every time you open a cabinet. The difference shows up in even reveals, doors that don’t drift, and crown that finishes tight to the ceiling.

If you’re hiring a remodeler or a construction company, ask who handles site measurements and how they adjust for uneven floors, bowed walls, and odd plumbing. If you’re in southern Utah, look for a construction company in Kanab or nearby that coordinates in-house carpentry with cabinet fabrication. Local installers know which stone yards do precise cutouts for cooktops and how winter dryness affects wood joinery. That local knowledge saves time and callbacks.

A note for small kitchens and galley layouts

In apartments and older homes, the footprint is fixed. Storage needs to be surgical. We’ll often trade one shallow base cabinet for a 24 inch wide trash pullout, then go to the ceiling with uppers and include a rail or ladder only if the top zone stores seasonal items. Under-sink rollouts are trimmed carefully to clear plumbing, and the microwave moves to a shelf or wall cabinet to free counter. For corner issues, we might skip complex hardware and run clean drawers with a dead corner, then use a narrow utility cabinet at the end of a run for brooms and a charging vacuum dock.

In these kitchens, the pantry often becomes a freestanding hutch outside the work triangle. We build it 15 to 18 inches deep to keep aisles comfortable, and we use glass doors to prevent it from feeling like a wall. The result reads like furniture instead of another boxy cabinet, and it stores a week’s worth of groceries in an arm’s reach.

Bathroom lessons that help the kitchen

Oddly enough, bathroom remodeling teaches a few storage tricks that transfer well. In bathrooms, we obsess over vertical organization: shallow medicine cabinets with integrated lights, tilt-out hampers, and drawer organizers that keep makeup and razors tidy. In the kitchen, the same discipline helps. Shallow vertical spaces near outlets become coffee stations. Narrow pullouts become oil and vinegar homes. Hidden hampers become pullout towel bins near the sink. A bathroom remodeler’s respect for moisture control also informs sink base choices, where we use drip trays and sealed finishes.

Deck builder thinking for durability at the messy edge

If you’ve ever seen how a deck builder details the edges to shed water and resist weather, you recognize the value of transitions. Apply that mind-set to the kitchen edge cases. The dishwasher returns need moisture-resistant panels. The toe-kick near the sink benefits from a water-resistant substrate. The back edge of a trash pullout gets a wipeable finish because spills happen. Good detailing at every seam extends the life of your storage and keeps swelling and delamination at bay.

When to go custom, when to use stock

Custom cabinetry solves odd spaces and lets you control every inch. It also costs more and takes longer. Stock or semi-custom lines have improved. Many now offer deeper drawers, tray dividers, and spice pullouts off the shelf. The rule of thumb I use: go custom where alignment is mission critical, like long wall runs with integrated panels, and where unique features pay daily dividends, like an appliance garage that fits your exact mixer. Use semi-custom for standard banks of drawers and simple uppers. A balanced approach hits budget and performance.

A remodeler who isn’t tied to one brand will price both options and build a hybrid. For example, we used semi-custom boxes for most of a recent kitchen, then had a local carpenter build one custom hutch and a pantry with pocket doors. The client saved about 18 percent compared to full custom and got the two unique pieces that made the room sing.

Maintenance and the six-month tune-up

Even the best kitchens settle. Drawers need a quarter turn on a cam, doors need a hinge tweak, rollouts benefit from a tiny shim. Plan a six-month tune-up with your remodeler. We bring felt pads, hinge tools, and spare shelf pins. It’s a thirty to sixty minute visit that keeps everything square and silent. While we’re there, we often reassign one or two drawers after watching how the family really uses the space. That calibration turns thoughtful design into a tailored suit.

Budget checkpoints that protect storage

When budgets get tight, storage features are first on the chopping block. That’s backwards. You’ll interact with drawers and pullouts dozens of times a day. Trims and decorative panels look nice, but they don’t move. If you need to trim costs, focus on finishes and postpone noncritical items. Choose a simpler door profile, skip glass inserts for now, or hold the fancy crown. Keep the full-extension drawers, heavy-duty slides, and the dedicated trash pullout. Those decisions show up in daily comfort.

A construction company that communicates well will phase work if needed. Install the core cabinets and storage features first, then circle back for a feature wall or floating shelves when the budget breathes. Phasing takes coordination, but it keeps your high-impact storage intact.

A few real-world case notes

A retiree who loved canning needed heavy, stable storage. We built a 30 inch wide pantry cabinet with five rollouts rated 150 pounds each. The bottom two hold cases of jars, the top three hold dry goods. We added a shallow drawer above for lids and rings. She can load and unload without lifting above shoulder height, and the doors still close smoothly.

A young family with a narrow galley wanted breakfast on autopilot. We carved a 24 inch section near the fridge for a coffee and toaster garage with a pullout counter. Inside, we ran two duplex outlets, a small drawer for filters and tea, and a narrow pullout for bread and spreads. Mornings no longer jam the work triangle because the setup is self-contained.

A serious home cook with a compact kitchen asked for an island that carried knives, spices, and oils like a chef’s station. We built a 42 by 72 inch island with a sink offset to one side, then tucked a 9 inch spice pullout next to a 24 inch drawer stack. On the seating side, we added a shallow bookcase for cookbooks. She preps, cooks, and plates without moving more than a step or two.

What to ask your remodeler before work starts

How will you map our daily routines to the storage plan, and can we test that with tape on the floor and cardboard mockups? Which hardware lines do you use for heavy drawers and blind-corner pullouts, and what are their weight ratings and warranties? Can we adjust shelf pin spacing on site, and will you dry-fit our actual cookware before fixing dividers? How do you scribe filler panels and deal with out-of-square walls so doors and drawers align cleanly? What is your six-month tune-up process, and do you include minor adjustments and hardware tweaks?

Those answers reveal the team’s priorities. A remodeler who lights up talking about slides, hinge settings, and scribing is the person who will make your kitchen feel effortless.

The daily payoff

Smart storage doesn’t shout. It just works. It lets you cook on a busy weeknight without searching. It clears the counters in minutes. It keeps heavy items at hip height, not on your toes or your knees. When a carpenter sets a divider to fit your favorite sheet pan, or a kitchen remodeler tucks an outlet into your appliance garage at the right height, they are not chasing perfection for its own sake. They’re banking earned minutes into your day.

If you’re planning a project, bring your real life to the table. Set your Dutch oven in a mockup drawer. Stack your plates where you think they’ll live. Ask the construction company bidding the job to show you a trash pullout and the slides they use. If you’re near Kanab, talk to a construction company in Kanab that knows the local climate and vendors. Whether your project is a full kitchen or part of a larger home refresh that also touches bathroom remodeling, the trades you choose matter. A good remodeler listens, a skilled carpenter executes, and a detail-minded team turns storage from an afterthought into the everyday backbone of your kitchen.

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Zion National Park — World-famous hikes, canyon views, and scenic drives (easy day trip from Kanab). GEO | LANDMARK
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Peek-A-Boo Slot Canyon (BLM) — A stunning slot-canyon hike and photo spot near Kanab. GEO | LANDMARK
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Gunsmoke Movie Set (Johnson Canyon) — A classic Western-film location near Kanab. GEO | LANDMARK