[All photos by BUILD LLC]
Having just completed a thorough residential remodel, we’ve got a new batch of cabinet ideas and innovations recently implemented by our SPD cabinet shop. You can check out the exterior package here and a comprehensive BUILDblog post on the interior package is in the works.
An important characteristic of modern architecture is having a place for everything to be put away. Accommodations for all of life’s “stuff” should be designed into the home and innovative storage techniques should maximize the use of space. This couldn’t be more true than in the kitchen, where a variety of tools and utensils are required for a contemporary lifestyle, yet at the end of the day, the kitchen should be orderly and presentable.
Today’s post covers 4 important kitchen cabinet ideas that are clean, functional and meet the modern aesthetic.
Garbage + recycle drawer
As an alternative to the disparate containers that too often clog up a kitchen’s ergonomics, these bins are designed into the cabinet boxes themselves. A large pull out drawer, built with top and bottom drawer slides for rigidity, allows the entire cabinet bay to slide out giving access to both garbage and recycling bins.
The bins are easily lifted out of their frames and come equipped with lids to keep the odors contained. At the back of the slide out panel is a space for a roll of standard garbage bags. Everything you need for garbage management is right there and when you’re done, the panel slides shut and integrates perfectly with the cabinet bank
Pantry wall
Cooking well requires a wide spectrum of supplies, and good chefs (amateur or professional) always have a healthy stash of ingredients on hand. While pantries seem to go in and out of fashion, we find them to be a necessary component of a well designed kitchen. Open cubby bins for bulk storage are always useful in a kitchen, regardless of what the trends are doing.
We’ve designed a wall-pantry system that allows easy access and at the same time the storage can be conveniently concealed by a pair of Raumplus S720 series sliding doors. The doors are made of clear anodized aluminum and the laminated panels are polar white glass so that they can be backlit for a nice glowing affect. The sleek Raumplus S34 bottom track is let into the floor for a super minimal profile. We like the look of these doors because they compliment the dark walnut of the adjacent cabinets and they lighten up the composition of the room. Typically, we like to create a consistent geometry by lining up the pantry doors with the top of the adjacent appliances –this keeps the design deliberate and modern.
The cabinet bays inside are constructed of 3/4” apple-ply with exposed edges and adjustable shelves. Apple-ply has a nice, tight edge profile that looks good exposed and it’s cost effective to eliminate the edge banding at areas that are not always visible.
Blind cabinet corner storage
Figuring out how to best use the space at inside cabinet corners is always a challenge. We’ve been using a twin corner base cabinet and blind corner pull-out system made by Fulterer, and we’ve been quite happy with it. It has a capacity of 100 pounds and, from what we’ve seen on the market, it’s the best way to maximize the storage capacity at such areas and still be able to get to it easily. Although we don’t use many curves in our work, we like that the kidney bean shaped panels are derived directly from a functional geometry – pretty dang modern.
Stainless steel lift-up door
Despite the wide range of appliance geometries on any given project, we like to square up the cabinet banks so that appliances and cabinets line up and look intentional. In this kitchen the top of the wall ovens are about 20” shorter than the top of the Sub-Zero refrigerator. To keep the composition intentional and visually organized we used a stainless steel cabinet face to flush out with the stainless steel appliances. The face was custom fabricated by the fine folks over at Metal Masters and attached with the Blum Aventos HL lift-up system to keep the door out of the way when open. The cabinet box provides one large bay for bulk storage and the facade blends right in with the appliances.
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Cheers from team BUILD and SPD