Making the Most of Those Hard to Reach Spaces in Your Kitchen
Making the Most of Those Hard to Reach Spaces in Your Kitchen
No matter how well your kitchen is designed you are likely to have at least one cupboard that is a blind corner or a hard to reach storage space.
In the past this was just a fact of life and there was nothing you could do about it. But now there are lots of options!
Some better than others, but here we will explore a few, and look at some of the advantages and disadvantages.
There are quite a few reasons why a cupboard could be hard to reach, for example, it might be going into a corner (known as a Blind corner) or it might be under a breakfast bar or it could just be really high up.
The most common hard to reach cupboard is the Blind corner – This is a cupboard that has one access point and goes deep into a corner.
Traditionally this would have a shelf and would provide a good amount of storage, but as you fill it things get pushed deeper and deeper into the corner and getting or finding that one item can get harder and harder.
If you feel you need a “gadget” to help make this space more accessible there are two main types – a LeMans (a kidney bean shaped shelf) that wiggles it way out of the corner bringing its contents with it, or a “Magic Corner” or “Corner Optimiser” this is a shelved option that tends to have two sets of shelves, the first pulls out and then the second pulls over to be more accessible.
Both can be retro fitted to most cabinets so it isn’t something you HAVE to decide on when you order your new kitchen.
The LeMans version is practical and easy to use, the only drawback is that you actually only get to use a fraction of the available space, as the shelf itself will have lots of cut outs enabling it to wiggle out of the corner.
The Corner Optimiser version again is fairly easy to use, but tends to be a bit more expensive than the LeMans, it uses a lot more of the available space and is a good option.
The other type of base corner that can be a little challenging for access is an L shaped base – again traditionally this would come with a shelf, but these days you can fit lots of gadgets and accessories to them. These tend to be ¾ circle carousels and again if you look at the space they use you do lose quite a bit of storage space. But they are very easy to use and again can be retro fitted – so don’t stress about having to decide now on it you need one or not!
Then you have other cabinets such as those under breakfast bars which have a worktop overhanging them, In all honesty these will never be 100% accessible as often you need to move stools and climb under to access them, if you have this sort of set up we would quite often recommend having them as decorative open shelves without doors as this makes them contents a lot more accessible, the only drawback of this is you need to keep them tidy!
Then we come to high up cabinets, whether that is a wall mounted or just a tall cabinet, there are gadgets you can get for wall mounted cupboards that fold down , these can also be retro fitted but they come in very specific sizes so may not fit all cabinets.
The best option we think here is having a small fold up set of steps somewhere hidden in the kitchen, you can even get them where they are hidden under the plinth.
Overall we have mixed feelings about the gadgets and aids available, every kitchen will have its own demands and quirks and we feel every kitchen will have that one space that isn’t quite so accessible as the rest, but we do all have the items we only use once a year or less often so perhaps we just bite the bullet and store these items there!
The advice we give our customers is “You really don’t know where you are going to end up storing items in your new kitchen, things will move as you get used to your kitchen and spaces will get reallocated, so don’t worry too much about spending extra money on these gadgets now, all of them can be retro fitted quite easily, so give it six months living with your kitchen and then decide f you need them”
