Rethinking the Spice Rack: 5 Smart Takes on Storage

When cooking at home, a spice organizer within reach is a recipe’s best friend

If you’re like most cooks, you have a medley of spice containers in your kitchen, including some duplicates because it’s easy to forget what you already own when out food shopping. Spice storage is becoming a frequent request—wall niches or built-in cabinetry—to house these valuable ingredients. Those renovating have a prime opportunity to factor this into planning their kitchen layouts because the last thing you want to do is fumble around for the paprika with a hot pan on the stove. To kick your spice game up a notch, here are 5 creative ideas from Sweeten homeowners.

(Above) Sweeten homeowner’s Fabio and Melina’s renovated kitchen

After dealing with past kitchens that lacked storage, Fabio and Melina wanted their new kitchen to have plenty of it, especially since they both love to cook. Concealed pantry storage was built around the fridge and a pull-out drawer was added for storing spices. The spice drawer lives inside the upper lip of a much deeper drawer filled with baking essentials, maximizing the storage potential of the space.

(Above) Open shelving in Erica and Joshua’s Sweeten kitchen

Erica and Joshua’s kitchen, once small and cramped, needed to fit two cooks working side by side. The old kitchen was filled with unexpected nooks and crannies, a design dilemma that would be best served by custom cabinetry. To mix it up, open shelving was added, presenting the perfect solution for storing spices and cookbooks near the stove.

(Above) Sweeten homeowner’s Jessica and David’s spice storage niche

Jessica and David decided to build a new closet along the wall separating their dining room from the kitchen so that they could use the dining room space as a bedroom in the future. Although the placement of the closet cut a chunk out of the kitchen, they were able to take back some of the lost space by carving out a niche with plenty of shelves for storing spices. As a bonus, the convenient storage also makes it easy for them to keep track of what they have in stock.

(Above) Custom cabinet in Ketrina’s Sweeten kitchen

In building out Ketrina’s formerly tiny kitchen with new custom cabinets, bonus upper and lower units were added to the design to make better use of the space and hide some pipes. One such cabinet placed between the stove and the window was the perfect size to store spices, proving that every inch counts when it comes to boosting storage.

(Above) Pull-out spice rack in Amanda’s Sweeten kitchen

Work-from-home writers Amanda and her husband cook often and wanted a kitchen in which they’d feel comfortable working in together. With a sizable collection of seasonings, a pull-out spice rack was added next to the stove and cleverly concealed as cabinetry, making it easy for both cooks to have what they need when the recipe calls for it.

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Love to cook and entertain? Check out these tips for renovating a kitchen designed for entertaining.

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