There are never enough kitchen drawers in any kitchen. Kitchen cabinet designs have made many innovative adjustments that allow for cookie sheet cabinets, cabinets with built-in lazy susans and cabinets with shelves to be used as pantries. These designs allow for one drawer on the top of the cabinet closest to the kitchen counter. While these drawers are usually wide and can be ordered with drawer dividers to separate silverware or other kitchen items, most people like the idea of having a stack of drawers to replace a cabinet as one of the options in their kitchen design.
A stack of kitchen cabinet drawers is very useful to store items like wax paper, aluminum foils and storage bags. A useful adaptation of a stack of usually four drawers is to have a top drawer and a divided cabinet underneath with a top open shelf for added height to store kitchen utensils and a bottom cabinet that can be used for things like large bottles and kitchen supplies. Newer kitchen designs have come up with ways of actually using what used to be wasted space in large bottom kitchen cabinets. There are reasons for needing a stack of drawers besides just keeping kitchen supplies needed for cooking like cooking bags and foils.
Smaller kitchen items that can get lost in large top of the counter cabinets can be easily accessed if stored in a kitchen drawer that can take many smaller cooking products as well as things that don’t require refrigeration but would be difficult to reach in a top cabinet that is usually used for larger cans and boxes of foods. The typical kitchen usually has two mandatory cabinets underneath the counter. One is to be used for silverware and the other for kitchen towels. The drawer closest to the sink is usually the drawer that is used for keeping kitchen towels. The drawer closest to the kitchen table is usually the one that is divided or can be installed with a silverware divider to hold silverware.
But many households do not like their large cooking utensils like ladles and metal food turners, potato mashers and the like displayed on hooks underneath their top kitchen cabinets. A stack of drawers lets the cook know where her cooking utensils are easily and can be kept out of the clutter that usually accumulates on counter tops. Benjamin Franklin wrote “a place for everything and everything in its place”. That saying could very easily be the motto for choosing a stack of drawers to replace one bottom cabinet.
Another reason is one of aesthetics. Kitchen drawers are visually appealing. The break or contrast from the cabinet to the counter and the addition of drawers to utilize space that would be wasted in long bottom cabinets is functional and also practical. The usual addition of a space shelf inside bottom cabinets can be annoying for taller kitchen items. Keeping most of the length of the bottom cabinet but including the top kitchen drawers even on top of narrow bottom cabinets is visually appealing and allows for extra storage that is always welcome in anybody’s kitchen.
