Wire Baskets and Drawers

One of the key ideas of good kitchen design, going back to the early days of kitchen research can be summed up in one word: drawers.

Drawer cabinets in base cabinets hold much more than door cabinets, and it's much easier to find and retrieve what you need without strain. But drawer cabinets do cost more than door cabinets to buy or build.

We use a lot of wire baskets. The picture shows a stack of Elfa baskets installed in a run of cabinets. We get them from The Container Store, which has a great online utility for pickout out what you need (Elfa Drawer Planner). The frames come in various heights and widths, and have a slide on a four inch interval. You can then insert 4”, 8”, or 12” baskets as needed. It takes just a minute or two to put the whole thing together.

What you get is a set of interesting drawers for about $150. They can be used to store most anything, but we use them a lot for produce that can benefit from a little air flow.