Raise your hand if coffee is a big part of your morning. Do you find that coffee is a main ingredient to a successful and productive morning or even day? If the answer is yes, you are definitely not alone. So many people rely on and enjoy coffee on a daily basis which is why coffee storage and integration into your kitchen is a topic worth exploring. Long gone are the days when you just throw a Mr. Coffee, coffee maker in the corner and call it a day. Today, there are so many features and options on the market designed to make your coffee drinking life easier, more efficient and more organized, let’s dig in…
1. Kurig Nespresso Behind Avento
A few years ago the world of coffee preparation got a lot easier with the introduction of the Keurig. If you are unfamiliar, the Keurig is a coffee maker that can make one cup of coffee at a time. This concept was especially helpful for households where a full pot of coffee was not always necessary and often became wasteful. The concept of the one-cup-coffee maker became so popular, that before you knew it almost every kitchen on the street was enjoying a Keurig or like machine (Nespresso, etc.)
With these small appliances adorning kitchen countertops everywhere it comes as no surprise that while planning for new kitchens many a family is constantly on the hunt for a storage solution that will allow their beloved machines to be within reach, but not necessarily, front and center on their countertops. While there are several options when it comes to appliance garages, my personal favorite is the Avento lift hardware by Blum.
This hardware was installed in the kitchen photographed here. As you can see it allows the door to be opened and suspended above the cabinet while the cavity of the cabinet is being utilized. The hardware is smooth and sleek and allows the door to be completely untouched during operation unlike other options which involve the door itself pocketing and or sliding up inside the cabinet itself which often times causes wear and tear over time.
2. Kurig Cup Storage Options
Now that you have a plan for where to keep your coffee maker, what are the options for storing the important part…the actual coffee AKA the K-Cups?! As you probably know Keurig actually has little metal “trees” that sit right on your countertop to hold your various k-cups. While this approach definitely works, you run into the whole “having too much stuff on your countertops” scenario again which more and more people are trying to avoid. Up until recently my suggestion, and the advice I actually use for my own kitchen, is just to store your k-cups in a basket in the cabinet and or throw them in a drawer somewhere near the coffee maker. However, Rev-A-Shelf recently came out with a wooden drawer accessory specifically designed to hold k-cups! I used this accessory in this year’s Atlanta Homes and Lifestyles Magazine’s Luxury Living Show Kitchen in Phipps Plaza I designed with Bell Kitchen and Bath Studios and it was a huge hit. Now your k-cups can be stored behind a drawer in a way that makes them both accessible and organized.
3. Miele & Wolf Coffee System
And finally, if you are a serious coffee drinker/snob and want something more heavy duty than a Keurig you are in luck; there are several high-end appliance manufacturers that have created built-in coffee makers as good (or better) than a live in barista! Wolf and Miele have coffee systems that can be can make anything from a cup of black coffee to a cappuccino or latte with frothed milk. There are some options that can be plumbed into the wall so no water reservoir is necessary and there are others that do not require any plumbing meaning they can be incorporated anywhere in the kitchen with ease.
Planning for Coffee in your Kitchen
Coffee is a big (and necessary!) part of many of our daily routines so it is important to really consider your options for storage, organization and function when it comes to planning for your kitchen.
Corners can be a beast in the kitchen and quite tricky to outfit with cabinetry. However, like it or not, most kitchens have a corner or two, so coming up with some viable solutions is a definite must.
In the past corner cabinet solutions included:
- Blocking off the corner and incorporating no cabinets.
- A blind corner cabinet that provides a giant cave that is open for storage but virtually impossible to organize or utilize.
- A lazy susan that allows some organizational opportunity, but essentially only offers access to the front of the cabinet, but not the back.
While the options above all technically work and all three are still very much used today, none of them are ideal for full storage optimization. Each year the National Kitchen & Bath Industry (NKBA) has a Kitchen & Bath Industry Show (KBIS) where new products and ideas are debuted. I’ve seen a lot of great ideas and incorporated several different products into my designs and my all time favorite blind corner cabinet solution is the LeMans corner pullout from Hafele(pictured above).
The LeMans pullout is as smooth as butter. The top and bottom shelves pivot independently and extend completely out of the blind corner cabinet for complete accessibility. Each shelf can hold up to 65 pounds making this unit the perfect space to store anything from pots and pans to large countertop appliances like crockpots, toaster ovens or a waffle maker.
The LeMans pullout can work in framed or frameless cabinetry and comes in several different sizes to accommodate most corner spaces.
A few year’s ago I helped my grandparents with their kitchen remodel. Their house was built in the 1950’s and like so many people they had a large blind corner cabinet with no pullout. Just one big open hole. Up until the kitchen renovation my Grandmother used this cabinet regularly, storing various kitchen essentials inside. More times than not she would have to get down on her hands and knees and actually remove certain items in order to get to the specific piece she was looking for. She used the space, yes, but doing so was anything but simple or convenient. As we discussed the plans for their new kitchen design I made sure to incorporate a Le Mans pullout into the corner cabinet. I told my grandparents about this new feature but it wasn’t until their new cabinetry was installed and they actually began moving their stuff back in and utilizing the space, that they fully understood the beauty of the LeMans. Like so many of my clients, they find themselves wondering what they did before this feature every time they use it. The LeMans is just so smooth and easy and truly allows you to discover and utilize a space in your kitchen so many people never get to.
Today there are so many organizational cabinetry components available, allowing any amount of your space to go completely or marginally un-utilized, no matter how big or how small ,is just not acceptable. If you are in the market for a new kitchen and will have a blind corner cabinet, be sure to research and inquire about the many blind corner options available to ensure you capture as much storage space as possible. A great kitchen is a considered one that works for you and your family and makes the very best of the space you have. Products like the LeMans pullout will help you do just that and will turn a once void space into something functional and useable.
