We had one in our last kitchen and it was used nearly daily. We got a 9" one as well for our new kitchen. I'd get one if you have the opportunity.

DIY_Mike

We're getting one too, even though our oven already has one built in---I'd argue that it's even more important in a small kitchen, since there are fewer places to stash trays if you don't have one!

I think you should get one if you have the space, especially since you already know that you like it. I'd like to add a follow up question, though, if you don't mind--A cookie sheet cabinet is on my must have list also...my original plan is to have it over the refrigerator, thinking that the way the cabinet is organized I could grab the things I need by the end and it would be a good use of space. I could put things I don't use that often there also, but then I'm climbing on a stepstool to get to them. Does anyone else have cookie sheet, etc., storage over the fridge? I am 5'4" so not really tall, fridge is 65" tall.

Thanks!

I love a tray cabinet too. I'm trying to decide if/what kind of dividers/pull-out I'd like to use.

IMO storing that stuff above the fridge wouldn't work for me. It would be too high to be practical.

Consider having shelf in the middle of your tray cabinet. You can not only store more but the things you use the most can be accessed more easily if they are stored on the top shelf (no bending or squatting).

I had one in my last kitchen and I liked it so much that I have 2 in this kitchen. I don't have a shelf in mine. The cabinet door is a full door with no drawer on the top of the cabinet. I use it to store my cookie trays and my large cutting boards.

We currently store cookie sheets in a cabinet that's over-the-fridge height, and it's frustrating. It's just too tall for me (@ 5'4"). We will probably do some baking pan storage over our fridge, but only for once-in-a-while pans---not for everyday pans. FWIW, our current shelf is 66" high and I can sort of reach it---the shelf above is 78" high and I can't reach it at all unless I'm on tiptoe. In the new kitchen we will probably split the cabinets at 72" (so the last lower shelf will be around 60") and anything in the top cabinets will need a step stool.

I have mine stored above my wall oven, standing up with metal dividers. I only need to grab the bottom corner of it to pull it out. I am very happy to finally have enough storage space for my baking sheets, cooling racks, and trays. That used to be such a nightmare, stacked in a lower cabinet, usually with glass baking dishes on top. Ugh.

I say get the cabinet--you won't be sorry.

Wow, sounds like I am not alone.

It's now in the plans.

I have a similar one to Shelayne...it's over my ovens. It's one of the best things we did to change how we stored things in the new kitchen. I do have to agree w/those who put them over the refrigerator that that would be too high for most people. Even @ 5'10" I might find it too high... But by putting it over our ovens it's quite a few inches lower. Here's a pic:

My tray cabinet is in the top cabinet...

Do you think 9" is wide enough? Ours is 31.5" and I find it a great width. I store all my cookie sheets, cooling racks, pizza pans, muffin tins, roast/broil pans, etc. in it...basically, anything that's not too thick. I also store my griddle & platters on the "shelf" beneath the trays.

Have you considered using the entire 27" for yours? If it's in a base cabinet, you could even store your cutting boards in it...assuming the location works for them. I wouldn't, though, store cutting boards over your head as they are rather heavy & they're not something you want to hit you in the head if you dropped them. For that reason, my cutting boards are stored under my prep sink in a corner sink cabinet (they utilize the deep storage on the side.)

In this corner sink cabinet....

Thanks, everyone, for the input. Very helpful. Buehl, I love your nice wide tray cabinet. I have a lot of cookie sheets, etc. and I think I may need to plan for a wider space. It's good to see one in action, not just the one in the catalogs with only two or three trays.

But, anything would be an improvement over what I have now! : )

This is a small kitchen, in a small house. I doubt it will need the full 27". Also the stack of drawers is necessary.

I have a 9" tray base cabinet at home, and yes it is full, but I am overdue to throw away (recycle) some older ones that are shot.

This is in a house we are going to sell, so I am trying to make the kitchen to suit anybody.

I have this- I have a 12 in tray cabinet with 18 inch stack of drawers. I use every inch of both. The tray cabinet was one of my big wishlist items, as my last one had a shelf in the back, and was more narrow, so it was hard to get cupcake tins, and wider things in and out. Love this cabinet! Good luck with the sale!!

For those with this baking/tray storage, how far apart would you suggest the dividers be, and do you prefer wire or wood?

Ours is 16" with a divider. We just moved in and have not quite figured out what we will put in it - the real problem is we need more vertical space for more things. I would love to put platters in it, but we are shy one pan drawer (I did not find GW soon enough :) so the fry pans are in there for now.

Buehl - Your cabinet is fantastic - especially smart to include a small shelf below the vertical racks (my griddle is sitting on my stove right now - silly stove doesn't have a drawer on the bottom to keep it in) for those heavy flat things. Where did you get those dividers? I think I might allocated some space above my refrigerator for the less frequently used/lighter weight stuff and could use a similar divider, though not as wide.

Getting a 9" tray cab in the new kitchen. Very excited about it. Used to stack sheet pans in between the unfitted range and refrigerator! So sloppy looking. Also getting above the fridge cabs with 4 dividers.

We added a cabinet above the fridge and I love it! Both my husband and I are tall (I'm 5'10"), so that hasn't caused any issues for us. It's one of my favorite new things. We have cookie sheets, cutting boards, large serving platters all stored up there. We just bought some dividers from The Container Store and they have worked great so far. I can also put a few things in the way back that don't get used often, like the x-mas cookie jar.

We used to have a 9" base cabinet that we used for cookie sheets and other pans standing on end. It didn't need a tray divider since it was only 9" wide. IMO the tray divider in such a narrow cabinet would have just taken up needed space. It did have a drawer on top which got used for pens, tape, etc.

In our new kitchen I have my cookie sheets and roasting pans, etc. in a drawer. It is a pain to remove stuff to get to the pan that's being sought after. However, when my cookie sheets and pans were in the 9" wide cabinet it was still a pain because in order to fit everything in such a narrow cabinet . . . I had to "jam" stuff in and when I went to take whatever was needed out, it was a clanking, noisy "process".

I love Buehl's solution!!!! I've considered doing that, Buehl, over my fridge but I'm afraid that some speedy man in the kitchen will bash the front of my SS fridge while carelessly taking down a pan. Yours is a good height, good width and very organized!

I guess the question would be;
How many cookie sheets do we really need?

Mine get used for french fries or chicken nuggets more often than cookes :)

we have one ordered for our smallish kitchen..9". but our kd advised us not to put in a vertical divider...at 9" wide, we need all the space and mostly, the cutting board i use the most will always be at the 'top' of the vertical pile.

Buehl, I'd also like to hear more about where you found your dividers. I love how they fit so nicely. I'm thinking of eliminating my 9" tray base and getting an open base cabinet and doing what you've done here.

Barbcollins...if you don't need much room or don't have the room to spare, then 9" is at least something. I agree, though, that dividers would not be practical in so narrow a cabinet.

As for my dividers...I got them at Walmart for $6 or $7 each (there are 3 of them up there). Each one has four "slots". I was originally going to get the Rev-A-Shelf ones but when these worked out so well, I decided to stick with them. They're vinyl-coated. They can be either screwed in or just placed on the shelf...I didn't want to put screws in my shelves or cabinet, so I just placed them there. B/w the weight of the items and the "stickiness" of the vinyl, the dividers don't move much at all.

The Rev-A-Shelf dividers were $15 for two dividers and to have the same # of slots I would have needed 11 dividers, which would have been around $90 plus I would have had to screw holes in the shelf or cabinet.

I ended up buying two additional dividers...one for my cutting boards under my prep sink and one for my pizza stones (on the other side of the prep sink cabinet). [I've removed all cleaning solutions from that cabinet b/c of the presence of the cutting boards & pizza stones. The pizza stones aren't in the pic above b/c they're a fairly recent addition.]

Mine are also above the wall ovens.

My oven is pulled out to match the depth of the fridge, so the cabinet is actually 30" deep. I have a panel at the back making it more like 25" so things don't go all the way back. It is deep enough that my extra oven racks fit too.

I bought dividers at Menards, got two sets of three, and they mount where ever you put the brackets. Don't know how Rev-a-shelf works, but these have no set width. They are stainless.

I have another one at the other end of the kitchen. It was made into a end cabinet and the doors on the face are narrower. This holds the cutting boards and rolling pins that I use at the (future) baking center.

my favorite way to store cookie sheets, baking pans, cutting boards etc - not that I have it yet.

Buehl: I like your arrangement. Could you tell me the height fromthe shelf to the top--and I guess from the shelf to the bottom as well.

Thanks

Thanks, Buehl. I'm so relieved to hear they were a cheap, easy addition!

desertsteph posted the photo I was going to post. Whose kitchen is that?

I had a 9" cookie sheet cab in my MN kitchen and I loved it. In my current kitchen I also have one. They were/are both located near the ovens. While I love the vertical storage, and it's easy to toss them in when they're clean, it really is a pain to find something in there and usually when I pull one sheet out, others (or my cooling racks) come tumbling out behind it. DH hates this cab for this reason.

Which is why in my next kitchen I will have a pull-out drawer like the one pictured above for trays. To me, it seems a much more logical solution. I also would never be able to reach anything over the fridge/double ovens so that would be impractical for me, but it works for others who are perhaps taller. :-) I personally love the vertical-storage drawer idea.

leel...
The height of the entire opening is 18-1/2" and it's 70" off the floor.
The bottom "space" (b/w the cab floor & shelf) is 4-1/4" tall.
The shelf is 3/4" thick.
The top "space" (b/w the shelf and the cab ceiling) is 13-1/2".

The drawer is nice enough, I suppose, but I wouldn't like it. First, it's too narrow to fit everything neatly and separately; there will be a lot of overlapping and pawing through things to get what you want. Honestly, I don't know anyone who has so few cooling racks, cookie sheets, roasting pans, muffin tins, etc. that would fit in a drawer that size. So, it would have to be much wider...which leads to...

Second, it takes up prime real estate for more often used items that I would rather have closer at-hand and be easier to get to. The nice thing about the cabinet over the ovens is that it's near the point-of-use for the majority of items stored there, it's not prime real estate for items used more often, and the items stored there can easily be reached by grasping the bottom corner and pulling out...you don't need to grab the whole thing b/c of weight or b/c of the way they're stored (upright as opposed to flat, etc.)

If you're just storing cutting boards, then you don't need a wide cabinet so you aren't taking up that much room and I can see using something like the drawer. But, it does eliminate the ability to store the cutting boards lengthwise and providing room for a shelf above (or below) for additional storage.