Dream Home Kitchen & Pantry Organization

My team and I were able to unpack and organize this expansive custom kitchen in record time for two reasons… #1 because we paired down and purged so much at their old house and #2 because of the thoughtful attention to detail from the designer and our clients when creating the space.  When we setup organized kitchen systems we use a common sense approach that is mixed with the needs and goals of the users.  In this space everything made sense when it came to the location of the cabinets for appliances, the distance from the dishwasher to the cabinets for dishes, the custom utensil drawer inserts, the list goes on.

One of my favorite features is what I call an appliance garage.  I love the look and feel of clean countertops and having a dedicated area to store everything that plugs in whether it be a large vertical cabinet like this or a counter top compartment will do the trick.  This space has nice pullout shelves that make it easy to see everything at a glance.  We put heavy/bulky items and items used most frequently down low and lighter items used less frequently up high…

It kind of reminds me of the small appliance section at Crate and Barrel, right?

The custom drawer inserts are my next favorite.  They smartly separate and organize the items with ease.  Having a cabinet maker add an accessory like this isn’t much more than buying dozens of drawer dividers so if you are in the middle of a kitchen remodel add this small project to your punch list.

Our client asked about adding shelf liner and I told her we could get around it (because installing it is a pain and when you’ve got new cabinets it’s not necessary) by using small lazy Susan’s to contain any liquid spillover from sauces and oils.  I love this little trick because you can easily get a fresh start by running the lazy Susan through the dishwasher when it’s time to do a deep clean.

Take a close look under the cabinet and notice what you DON’T see.  Any ideas?

Electrical outlets! Yep, all of the electrical outlets are mounted under the cabinets so they are hidden from sight.  Very clever!

And with the appliance garage keeping everything up and off the beautiful marble countertops this kitchen looks that much bigger!

Another favorite feature is this little tea station that Taylor setup.  I can’t find this clever tea organizer that we always use from The Container Store on their website mostly because I think it’s something that is supposed to be used for something else.  We always use it for tea and it works great but if you are looking for it I think it’s in the makeup storage section.

Our clients started over with new glassware and dishes and stuck with a simple but classic palette.  It’s smart to start over when you are moving especially when color schemes and decor styles have changed.

Okay, now on to the amazing walk in pantry.  The builder originally installed the smaller pantry that you saw last week in the mudroom as the one and only pantry but my clients wanted something bigger.  They were working with the design plan and decided to convert this space that was originally meant to be for an elevator into a dream walk-in pantry. Finding the perfect products for this space was a bit tricky because we wanted to find containment that would be family friendly, not breakable, tie in with the colors and design of the home all while keeping the zones of the space defined and organized. Originally I was thinking all white but after a few trials we decided to bring in some gray and it really warms it up.

I love the Loft woven bins that we used on the bottom shelves.  Online they look like they are black and beige but in person they are gray and beige.  I didn’t label them because the contents will often change and that’s the point.  This entire space is consumable and will have a change over on the regular but won’t change is the organized system created by using products to define the zones.

This family of 6 eats the same 4 cereals regularly so utilizing cereal storage canisters is a smart way to go. Visibility was very important to this client and I think we achieved that here for sure!

To avoid sticky shelves and shelf liner I used my lazy Susan trick here as well…

These Montauk open-front bins are one of my all time favorite products to use in the pantry.  The design and color are just perfect and it really gives this pantry the feel of a boutique grocery store.  I used them to contain and organize snack bars, sauce mixes, and packaged snacks.

I wanted to use a candy store style canister for this project but then my senses came to me and I realized I had to use these Good Grips storage canisters.  Little hands can grab them off the shelf and they won’t break or crack, they are easy to wash, and they are very visual. We originally purchased half of the amount we used but our client loved them so much she wanted everything to go into one.  Let’s just say we visited every Container Store in the area to get this project done, ha!

There are lots of different baking flours and products in this space so we opted to label most of them so there would be no confusion.  Chalk labels are handy because they can easily we rinsed off and relabled and if you decide you want to remove them all together they won’t leave a terrible residue on the containers. I am a lefty all day long so I’m always amazed when I can write these little labels and not smear them.

Okay, one last look of the right side…

And one last look of the left side…

Thanks for stopping by for a closer look of this luxury kitchen and pantry! This home was such a treat to organize and next up I’ll be sharing a closer look at the children’s closets.