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Many kitchen remodels are prompted by a desire for more storage, but there are plenty of reasons to want an upgrade. Whether your complaint is crowded counters, out-of-date appliances, or spending too much time cleaning up after a meal, there are ways to add functionality without sacrificing your aesthetic when you renovate your kitchen.
Storage
If you’re tired of finding expired food at the back of your lower cabinets or needing a step stool to reach items in the upper ones, roll-out cabinets and pantry shelves are a necessity. A roll-out garbage cabinet will keep trash and recycling cans out of sight (and smell). Be sure to use heavy-duty, reinforced hinges that can bear the weight of two, full cans.
Toasters, coffee makers, blenders, and air fryers can easily overcrowd kitchen counters. Appliance garages that hide away commonly used kitchen appliances now come in just about every configuration you can think of. If you love baking, you probably love your stand-up mixer even more. But moving it around can be a pain. Fortunately, installing a mixer riser into a lower cabinet is relatively simple and will put your favorite appliance right where you need it, only when you need it.
Cooking
Though some passionate cooks still swear by their gas ranges, induction cooktops have become all the rage for several good reasons. In addition to being easier to clean than gas stoves, induction cooktops are more efficient because all the heat they produce goes directly to your cookware rather than into the atmosphere of your home. And with inductor stoves, you never have to worry about dangerous fumes or open flames.
You don’t have to be an avid entertainer or the one who hosts Thanksgiving every year to reap the benefits from a double oven. Even cooking dinner for one or two people can be a challenge when you need to roast or bake things for different times or at different temperatures. A double oven fixes that, and it can improve efficiency if you prepare a dish using only the smaller oven since it takes less energy to heat up a smaller space. For extra user-friendliness, install the oven at counter height so you don’t have to bend over to pull out heavy dishes
Speaking of heavy… if your sink and cooktop are a bit distant from each other, a pot filler installed on the wall behind your stove could be a game changer. Say goodbye to heaving large pots of sloshing water across the kitchen!
For as long as microwaves have been around, people have wondered how to get them off their counters or make them appear more attractive. These days, microwave drawers are the new must-have kitchen upgrade. Instead of a door that swings open, the microwave is the entire drawer that slides out, and it can go in your kitchen island or along any cabinet wall.
Cleaning
Kitchen floors are notoriously difficult to keep clean. Between meal prep, quick snacks in front of the fridge, and near-constant traffic, crumbs and dust pile up quickly. If your home already has a central vacuum system, putting a vacuum slot in the kitchen makes clean ups a breeze. Simply sweep scraps into the slot—no more bending over with the dustpan. If you don’t have a central vacuum system, there are vacuum slot inserts on the market that use a traditional replaceable bag to collect what you sweep up.
If you’ve ever watched a mixologist or bartender shake up your cocktail and then place the shaker on top of a device that shoots up warm water to clean it, you’ve seen a glass rinser in action. Installing one in your own sink adds a touch of sophistication to your kitchen and makes cleaning glasses easier and more efficient, especially for those glasses that can’t go in the dishwasher or don’t fit on the top shelf.
It seems that a modern kitchen renovation isn’t complete until you’ve installed a large, single basin sink. There’s good reason for their increased popularity: more room to soak large dishes, easier to clean, etc. To really boost the usability of a single basin sink, consider adding hardware that makes it an efficient workstation. Drying racks, cutting boards, and colanders are readily available, easy to install, and will make your extra-large sink extra handy.
9/17/2024 Windermere Blog article here
