Drawers!

Cupboards with pullout shelves require two motions to get at your pots & pans, and the cupboard front is always in the way.

Had the cupboards with pullout shelves in our former kitchen. Drawers are so much better.

Thanks gizmonike! I have a question though, when you reach down into your drawers, doesn't it seem like a big REACH to go IN, rather than pulling OUT toward you with a pull-out shelf?

Get the full extension slides and the drawer will pull out all the way so you can see all your pots and pans.

I have 4 wide drawers for pots and pans.

I also have a special lower cabinet. This is for pasta pots and casserole dishes, but I can see everything at once since it's only "one deep" across the shelves. (It's in my island, so the microwave is on the opposite side on a deep shelf.)

I also have a lower cabinet with tray dividers for my cookie sheets, pizza pans, etc.

Then, I have a double lower cabinet with shelves for roasting pans, the slow cooker and other extra large or odd-shaped items.

Hi, me again! Funny.

I have 2 drawers below the cooktop. Love them. Best pot storage yet. For the biggest stuff there are open pantry shelves.

The only alternative I would consider if I was doing a new kitchen would be open pull-out shelves with lips but no fronts but I'm not sure I'd do that since I like the drawers a lot. It would be a style consideration as I like open shelving a lot and don't worry about mess or dust.

What I definitely do NOT miss is opening doors and pulling out or opening doors and bending down. If you left it to me I would have very few trad cabinets below the counter. I'd do open, drawers or open pull outs.

IÂm in the drawer camp as well. I had cupboards with pull out shelves in my last house but thanks to this forum, I went with all drawers in this kitchen and love them.

Can you hang the ones with long handles? In my current house we have them hanging. I find it much more convienent then going into a cabinet to find them or digging through a stack of them. OF course some pans need to be in a cabinet like a dutch oven.

On a pot rack, you mean? I'm not really into the hanging pot racks...

Thanks Rococogurl! As you can see I'm taking advantage of this forum!!! Love the advice and the wine storage link too!

I guess I'm a boring one here - in a lower cabinet on shelves. I have a lid rack for all the lids. But then again - I'm more for using my microwave and small electrical appliances than the stove top. My husband figures that if it were up to me, our stove top would never wear out from use - it would die from lack of use! I think I got in the habit of using small appliances instead of a stove top when the last range was horrible to clean and the burners almost worn out.

DonnaR/CA

I installed a hanging pot rack INSIDE one of my upper cabinets for fry pans and saucepans. We LOVE IT!! Even dh who was sceptical at first thinks it's great now. We're both pretty tall so it's easy for us to get to them. We keep mixing bowls and lids below. If we remember, we hang the lid from the handle.

Stockpots, braisers, dutch ovens and anything with short handles or too heavy to hang is in one large drawer under the cooktop. The big drawer below that holds cake pans, molds, springforms etc.

I had two drawers under my cooktop last kitchen and did the same thing with this one. I love having all my pots and pans so comveniently located. Last kitchen, we had a doored cab with two pull-out shelves to store the dishes on and I hated it after the first month! After 13 years like that I swore I'd never do it again. This kitchen I went with drawers for those,too. In my opinion, doors with P/O shelves are just a big PIA.

If I had purchased the Wolf rangetop I would have had two drawers underneath. Everyone I know who has that configuration loves it, and it looks great, too.

But I purchased the Wolf range so I have my pots/pans in drawers of varying depth on each side. Works great but that's the key - don't make them all the same depth if you don't need to. Measure your pans and see what depth of drawers you need before you order.

I had some pullouts in my last two kitchens but I can honestly say I don't miss them in the remodel. If you have side mount slides, they tend to nick and mar the inside of the doors if you don't open the doors all the way, which is prone to happen when we get in a hurry. Maybe undermount slides would work? I have those on my drawers and love them.

We have a hanging pot rack in our current kitchen and are planning a hanging pot rack in a kitchen in a condo that we are remodeling the kitchen. No doors or drawers to open, just reach. The hanging rack is easier access if you don't mind the look.

Could you provide more info about how you hang your pots in an upper cabinet? How deep are your upper cabinets? This sounds like the perfect solution for me but I am having trouble visualizing it. If you have a photo you could post I would appreciate it!

My upper cabinets are 15" deep, inside is 14" deep so my biggest AC 6qt saute pan is just a tad to large so it's in a drawer under the cooktop.

The pot rack is bolted to a shelf which slides in on shelf supports so if we ever decide we're not cooking LOL, or if a future owner prefers, the pot rack can be removed and extra shelves put in to increase storage capacity.

We have a lot of storage in our kitchen so this was planned this way. I have seen something similar in another kitchen here. IIRC it was in the "Somethings gotta Give" kitchen that susanandmarkw has. I am TERRIBLE with movie names so I may have the name wrong LOL. If someone else has a better memory feel free to correct me.

As I look at the picture I realize that had we wanted to, we could have hung the rack from the top of the cabinet and had even more room at the bottom, maybe even been able to fit some of the pots in. But this works for us just as well.

Please excuse the mess on the counters. We're still moving in and we're waiting on handles which should have already been here. See that big white box. It contains 60 of the WRONG handles!! They sent knobs instead of pulls.

And when I went to add the link below I see that the pot rack is now HALF the price we paid. Dang it and I can't find the reciept.

Here is a link that might be useful: The pot rack we used

Thank You for the explanation and the photo! I love that idea and hope to use it. My upper cabs are only 12" deep but I measured my pans and all but my 3 largest should fit. Thanks for the idea!

I'm certainly out-numbered, but I love having my pots and pans in pullouts behind cabinet doors. From all that I had read here, I planned to put them in the drawers next to my range, but when I starting filling my cabinets and drawers, I found (a) that the drawers weren't big enough for all my pots and pans; and (b) that I like the way I can better "see" all the pot and pan choices in the pullout behind cabinet door arragement. I thought I had better access in the pullout versus the drawers. And, really, how much more effort is it to open the doors and pullout the shelves? I mean, really? At least I get to burn extra calories when I open the doors then pull out the shelves versus just pull open a drawer. Kidding aside, I also don't find that I'm inconvenienced by having the door open or that the doors are in the way when opened. But, it all probably depends on your layout and your objective. Best of luck in your decision!

That's OK, soonermagic. I'm with you.

I know in a commercial kitchen things are all out on open shelves. Works for them  they need everything NOW. I don't. What I need is not to look at chaos and I have the luxury of 4 extra seconds to open a cabinet door then pull out a roll-out. ...plus the serenity of looking at lovely cabinet faces. ;>

soonermagic (go OU!) and imrainey, I also have the pots and pans in pull out shelves behind cabinet doors below the cooktop. If I had found this forum earlier in the remodel, I would have probably put deep drawers there instead. Almost everyone here advises it. However, because I have granite tile countertops, I use a baking marble slab for dough, etc. I store it in the bottom pull out shelf under about four small sauce pans. The lower lip on that pull out shelf versus higher drawer sides does make it easier to lift the marble out of it's storage space. Everyone has different needs and priorities. Either option works.

loves2cook4six- Thanks for the link to that pot rack. I may want to add that.

What a creative idea to hang them up inside a cabinet! Did you come up with that solution? Genious!

Loves2Cook:
Sorry to highjack this thread but I have another pot rack question for you.
I ordered the container store rack you linked. Then this morning I went over to my house and measured the cabinet I want to put it in and discovered that it is only 30" wide. Do you think the pot rack can be cut down to fit in a smaller space? I feel foolish for not measuring first- I can be impulsive about this stuff!

Another threadjacker here-- what are your drawers and their boxes made of--plywood or mdf or particleboard? And how thick are the sides and bottoms of the drawers?
I'm doing all drawers,no upper cabs and I know they need to be strong to hold pots, pans, dishes, etc.
Any recommendations as I'm confused talking to different cabinet people and hearing them tell me opposite things!

I'm among the heretics that prefer pullouts.

Drawers make you access your stuff from straight overhead, but pullouts give some access from the front and sides as well. Much better for heavy items like a cast grill pan.

It also allows you to add an extra pullout or re-arrange them if you like. I'll have a 30 inch cab on each side of the range. I'll be able to have 3 or 4 pullouts on one side for skillets and saucepans, 2 on the other side for taller pots. But they'll be behind the same size doors, so the look will be symetrical.

Gunter, Blum makes some great drawer systems with metal sides. I think they give you a little more room than wood boxes, open and close beautifully, and are very sturdy.

I am wondering the same thing as Gunter. Are all the pots and pans drawers better if its plywood?

Also what about heavier pots like the cast iron ones? Anyone store them in deep drawers?