Kitchen Accessories
01. The corner bottom unit of L- or U-shaped kitchens is awkward. You have to bend down and, especially for older people, this is uncomfortable. One way to make the best use of this space is to use a door-mounted, semi-circular storage tray that folds into the space when you close the door of the unit next to it.
02. On page 7, I spoke of cupboard ‘fillers’ to fill an awkward spaces. One useful filler is a cupboard door no more than 300 mm wide onto which is mounted a bottle rail. The door slides out horizontally and you can store all your herb bottles, tomato ketchup, oil and vinegar bottles in one place. Another cupboard filler is the towel rack unit. Towel racks need a minimum width of just 120 mm for two rods and can be as wide as you need.
03. Wine racks are also a good way to maximise space. Nowadays they blend in with the kitchen layout and can be in either a honeycomb configuration or in straightforward box layout.
04. Ensure your drawers do actually open “full extension”. This gives good visibility to the internal of your drawers (to confirm you have full extension, when you open your drawer, the back of the drawer must be in line with the kitchen top).
05. Your cutlery drawer nowadays can come with a premoulded base that fits instead of the normal base. That way, you don’t need to have cutlery running all over the place or fit in added separators into your drawers.
06. Clients are often at a loose end about what to put in the unit directly below the kitchen sink. One handy attachment that will save a lot of potential headaches should there ever be any overflows or leakages is a plastic tray with a back splash that fits at the base of this unit. You can also mount an everyday rubbish bin on the back of the door of the unit, which would still leave space for any water purification equipment you may want to put in as well.
07. A light strip fitted below the top cupboards is a nice way to create warmth and ambience in a kitchen. Apart from the practicality of adding more light to the work space, giving you the option even to switch off the main light, this accessory adds a touch of class.
08. If you have a classic kitchen, a popular feature is the open vegetable rack that consists of a pair of wicker baskets one on top of the other. Your vegetables will always be at hand, apart from keeping them aired and not cooped up.
09. In the rare instance when the kitchen does not have a window – or you don’t have much of a view from your window anyway and want to maximise the space above the kitchen sink – you can attach a drip rack between one top unit and the other. It also saves a lot of clutter on the draining board.
10. The back splash attached to the rear part of the work top unit is a handy way to prevent all sorts of debris and liquids from getting to the back of the unit. It also helps to create a neat, uniform finish that is soothing to the eye all round.