Before we remodeled, we had racks above the stove. Not great for the spices, but it functioned well. We do have one long shelf to put on the wall next to the stove for the tall stuff (salt and pepper grinders, oil, etc).

I will say that I would not want to mix it in a utensil drawer (in part because my 15" utensil drawer is really, really full).

I wouldn't want to mix spices and utensils either -- but IU do have a full drawer of each. There is a recent thread with ideas for storing lots of spices and there are some others that may also still be among the living --so to speak. Have you tried a search?

Will you have wall cabinets next to your stove/cooktop? If so, you could mount spice racks inside one or more of those doors. You will probably have to cut the shelves down somewhat to allow the door to close, but it may not affect storage in that cabinet that much. Someone else on the Forum did that, but I can't remember who right now.

HTH!

I love this idea: http://vaughnaustin.com/2008/01/09/spice-rack/

I have something similar to raenjapan's link. However, they are hung on one of the short sides of my island. My cooktop is on my island and the island is also my main work area, so they are very handy whenever I'm preparing food. Probably not as protected from light as they would be inside a cabinet, but handy.