Special Kitchen Cabinets

[forHISglory]

Before we built our house, we had a little starter home, very basic. The kitchen had a sink base with about 2 foot of cabinet space on either side. The base included a silverware drawer, and doors that opened to reveal one shelf. The top cabinets had 2 shelves behind the doors. That was it.

When we built, I pored over the kitchen cabinet catalogs, trying to stay realistic about our budget, but really drooling over some items. Here's what we put in:

1. A pantry that is 3 foot wide, floor to celing, with doors that have shelves, and then like a second set of doors inside with shelves, and then shelves behind it. I love it!
2. A narrow base cabinet with dividers to separate cake pans, cookie sheets, and the like.
3. A large lazy susan with separate turning trays.
4. Two appliance garages, one in a corner and one along a run of cabinets, and they have outlets inside of them!
5. A bakers base cabinet with pull out shelves, a built in bread box, a built in carving board, and two utensil drawers.
6. A built in bookcase for holding my cook books.
7. A base cabinet covered with real butcher block.

I really love my kitchen! But my favorite is the pantry. I would give up the rest to keep that one.

The cabinet with the dividers turned out to not be too handy for me. I think it's because I try to stuff too many things in there. Then when I am trying to get out the muffin tin, the pizza pan rolls out.......

So.... how about you? Do you have any speciaity cabinets? Which ones do you really enjoy or use the most? Which ones were not as good as what you thought? If you don't have specialty cabinets, what do you dream of having?

[Darlene]

Your kitchen sounds so nice. My favorite cabinet is to the right and above the counter. it has a double lazy susan in it and that is where I keep my spices & I use a lot of them. It's so handy having them all in one spot and with a quick spin and knowing my alphabet I get what I am looking for quickly. In the same cabinet there is space below for containers of salt, baking soda, molasses, soup base...

On the other side of the stove is another cabinet that holds my oils & vinegars, another easy reach while cooking.

My least fav cabinet is a corner one that you have to get on hands & knees for & contort your body to get way into.

[lacyj]

I'd love to see pictures of your pantry. We're still working on ours. I have an Alaska cellar that I love. It's about 1/3 into the ground. I keep my seasonal and rarely used stuff out there.

[FrugalMomof3]

I love my pantry too! It's so big and it holds so much. Oh! and it's pretty too!

lacyj - I love this cellar... how does one go about making one of these?

[forHISglory]

Lacy,
Can you tell me more about your cellar? I'm not familiar with the term at all.

[stinkbug]

We have a huge pantry/closet that was listed as a *bakers pantry*? Basically, it's a huge closet with bi-fold doors on the kitchen wall opposite the island. It has one large counter with plug-ins across the back. I keep my toaster oven, blender and KA mixer there. Then there are two shelves above it and two shelves below. On the upper most shelves, I keep vases, thermos, larger stuff. The next shelf is baking pans, serving platters and one side is cookbooks and recipe boxes.
Below is an extra set of dishes, and larger kitchen appliances, griddle, etc. It's a huge catch all....which is why I don't think I'll post a photo!