Random thoughts on the spices:

- How many spices do you have? I am sure I have about 90-100 jars. Don't guess -- go count; be sure of what you're planning.

- Note that the owner of this inspiration drawer is using all the same pretty jars -- this drawer was built with this size in mind. Are you a person who will decant spices into these jars, or are you going to want to store multiple sizes /shapes?

- Though my spice storage looks nothing like this example, I do have all matching jars, and I don't mind decanting the contents. This leads to a unforeseen problem: You also need a storage spot for the not-quite-empty plastic paprika jar and the baggie of Chinese 5-spice. I personally have a bitty-small laundry basket in my pantry that stores the "can't fit" spices.

- Spices next to a heat source will go bad faster.

- If you don't store spices here, where can they go? Do you have a wall where you could have a spice rack?

- Could you build in a small rack under your upper cabinets?

Random thoughts on the knives and utensils:

- More than the spices, these things NEED to be next to the stovetop -- well, the spatulas, etc. need to be next to the stovetop.

- You seem to be short on space -- you could use a magnetic knife strip UNDER a cabinet. It would keep your most-used knives hidden from view.

- I don't like the utensils-in-a-cup concept. Lots of wasted space in that pull-out. Could you have a long, narrow container /no wasted middles built in instead?

- You probably need pot holders in this area too, and they're space hogs.

Is there a way to have ONE pullout but both spices and spoons / knives behind it? Any ideas or examples?

- Yes, how many inches do you have to use?

- Consider that one large pull-out will give you more storage than two smalls. Why? Because you won't be wasting inches on edges /hardware.

What about something like this, would it be more functional? I have a LOT of spices. At our current home, they hang on the back of a door in our kitchen which I love. However that's not an option at the new home (no door long enough to hang them on) so I need some type of storage solution. Your storage is very nice but unfortunately would only hold about 1/5 of my spices :-( Would something like this be better? One concern I have is that I don't plan on switching to matching spice containers. I have all sizes and brands. So I'm not sure this method would work, but I'm not sure what else to do.

We do have vertical storage for cookie sheets etc planned (but on the island). That's a great thought regarding the fact that knives aren't used at the stove. However the spoons / ladles are which is why I thought next to the stove would be good. Maybe I should just move it all to the island? Originally, there are 4 drawers next to the fridge. However since we are adding drawers under the cooktop and pullout drawers in the corner, I was worried it would be too many drawers in a row.

I have a narrow spice pullout. I appreciate having it. It has 2 adjustable height shelves and a stationary bottom shelf. It does not have solid sides, just 2 horizontal rails to keep the spices in, and I can see all the spice labels from the side (don’t need to bend over) where I stand to prep. My spice rack is between the sink and cooktop -not next to the cooktop - because I add spices while standing in the prep zone by the sink. Mine is 3” wide and was created instead of using spacers. 2 of the shelves have adjustable heights and the bottom shelf is stationary. I keep cooking utensils in a top drawer under the cooktop with drawers under that for pots and pans (I don’t have a range). I keep knives in a top drawer (in drawer organizer) in the prep area. I hope this helps.

I have my knives in an 18-inch drawer stack with one of these organizers.

I have my spices in a different drawer stack with an organizer like anj_p shows.

Anj_p's comment about prep space items vs. cooking area items applies to knives, too. I use knives almost exclusively with a cutting board, and that's a prep area activity for me. I'm usually chopping vegetables that had to be washed first, so I'm in the prep area between the sink and the range. Or I'm cutting on trimming meat, and then I really want to be close to the sink because it is messy.

I have my cooking utensils in a jar on the counter, so no cabinet storage suggestions from me on that front.

I had the narrow spice pullout on each side of my range in my last house.

i hated both of them. impossible to find anything.

i have a drawer now like anj above….i love it.

put your most used utensils on your counter in a utensil holder, next to your cooking area. put the rest in a drawer.

What you can do for spice storage really depends on your entire kitchen. The best storage solution I had for spices was actually a spice cupboard I had in a 1920s era duplex. If you have any wall space at all - or the end of a cabinet/end of the oven stack, you can install a spice cupboard. Something like this:

Mueller Kitchen Renovation · More Info

Mine was framed into the wall and held everything including oils & vinegars.

Do you USE 100 spices regularly? If so you must be quite a chef! I cook daily, lots of different cuisines - and what I show in my drawer covers 95% of what I cook. There are a few things I don't use often enough to justify having it at all - my jar of Chinese 5 spice is well past its prime, for example. My point is that immediate access to ALL of your spices may not be what you need, and you can have different storage options for the ones you use weekly vs. the ones that get used once a month (my spice overflow is in the pantry).

I agree with @Mrs Pete that the pullouts for utensils do take up a bit of space, but if you want them off the counter and don't want them laid in a drawer, they are a good option.

The nested drawers are also a good option. I'm not sure how much more functional it would be than a pullout though?

I can't comment on location in your kitchen for best place to store things (island vs next to stove vs ?) without actually seeing your kitchen.

What about putting your cooking sheets above your ovens?you can put oversized cutting boards there too.

Just adding another repetition to what everyone else here has said. If you have room for two pullouts, why not make it one set of drawers? Much more flexible. And with good drawer organizer inserts, much more functional. Your pictured pullout with with rolling drawers inside is certainly much better than two standard pullouts. But regular drawers would be even more convenient.

Love, love love my spice drawer. If you have the drawer space for it, it's amazing. Personally recommend skipping the raised spice-drawer inserts and using 1/2-cup wide mouth canning jars. Love them because every kind of measuring spoon fits straight into the jar for scooping.

anj_p… ohhh I love that spice cabinet on the end!!! I’m wondering if I could add it to the end of our new pantry (pink arrow below?)

I’m wondering if the spoon and knife drawer would end up being a waste of space now. Mainly worried what if one is too long to fit in there. Maybe returning those to drawers next to the fridge and doing horizontal storage would be smarter…drawn in photo below. Or I could make the 2 bottom drawers a double deep drawer with one drawer front (designed to look like 2) and keep the vertical knife and spoon storage. Thoughts?

Would it help if I posted photos of the actual kitchen?

Or - if we don’t have room for spices at the end of the new pantry due to the French doors, what about a similar spice storage as an end cap to the island? 🤔

Ilovered: yes! I do hope to use the space above the oven for upright storage of baking pans and cookie sheets.

Spice cupboards only need about 3 or 4" or so. I wouldn't think it would be an issue with your french doors. I wouldn't add it to the island because it would all be too low. You could always do 2 storage locations - one drawer in your prep space and the spice cupboard for the rest.

Unless you are prepping right next to your stove, your knives would be best served in your prep space. Where that is depends on you. If you have a prep sink it would be your island. It might be your island anyway as it looks like your sink & stove are pretty close. My often used utensils are in a holder on my counter and is my preference, but how you want to do that is up to you. Knives and cooking utensils don't belong together IMO. A drawer stack instead of 2 pullouts would be better in that space.

I have an excessive spice collection in a drawer. Putting it on cute little tiers doesn't help because they don't fit and are all different sizes. I once tried separating "baking" spices from "cooking" but there is too much overlap. So I have a basket for baggies and a black Sharpie for light lids and a metallic Sharpie for dark lids.

I think I might prefer that pullout in your first post. It looks like it can handle different sizes just fine, as well as baggies. I'd probably end up hating it though.

Similar to the one Anj-P posted, I had a good one once in an old house that was a converted fold-out ironing board cabinet. (The ironing board also would have been cool to have. It was a small house.)

Knives are easy. Drawer. I have a couple of these (apparently discontinued) lined up with some bins for peelers and such (I do not care if my knives are placed in the same slot each time):

What about combining that space into one section with drawers? I've ordered pieces from Drawer Essentials and LOVE them. They have standard pieces but also offer customization. Their prices are great also. https://draweressentials.com/collections/knife-blocks-cutlery-organizers

In our last house, my spices lived in a shallow 36” drawer just under our convection cooktop. No inserts, just bottles and tins on their sides. Hope to do similar in the new kitchen. I do add herbs and spices while I cook, so having them right there helps.

@Lindsey Brady, you are going to dent the hell out of that fridge door eventually with it so close to the oven doors. Can you separate them a little? Or use a fridge with doors that swing away fron the ovens?

What you pictured in the OP are "pull-outs" not "drawers". Detest the spice pull-outs. Don't do them. I even wonder about the expertise of your designer for suggesting them. I don't like a wall oven next to a fridge either. When you pull something like a roast, turkey, or lasagna out of the wall oven, where are you setting it down? You don't want to have to walk with those things.

I have the knife insert that @cawaps pictured above. Love it. I also love a spice drawer where the drawer is right under the counter, and is shallow, and has the Rev-a-Shelf Spice Inserts. Note that Rev-a-Shelf inserts are expensive; you can find cheaper ones with a little online research.

(These pics are not mine)

@spagano Thank you for sharing the knife option - I was just looking at similar products on amazon and wondered if they worked well. I'm thinking perhaps keeping the drawers would give me more flexibility for moving things around in the future. Thank you for the suggestion!

I love my knife drawer. i have three good knives. the rest of my knives are junk. im an average (at best) cook, so im not very particular about my knives.

my son-in-law is an excellent cook with excellent knives. he sharpens his knives after each use. he hates that i keep my knives in the drawer because he thinks its hard on them.

Those inserts--especially in those shallow drawers--don't allow for larger jars. Which is fine! But one must also plan for those additional jars. And baggies.

@theotherjaye We are remodeling the kitchen without moving any major appliances, so unfortunately moving them around is not an option. After carefully looking at the plans with our contractor there really is no where to move the oven other than next to the fridge. We don't love it, but really we open the oven maybe 1-2 times a week max (I use the stove and crockpot primarily) so I think it won't prove to be a major issue. Fingers crossed anyway.

@Fori Thank you so much, that was great feedback! I'm loving the full side cupboard for spices and I've reached out to our designer to see if there is space.

@ILoveRed where does he keep his?

I am a good cook (if I say so myself). I have 3 knives for cooking. Period. Eventually I will probably add another chef's knife and possibly a larger cleaver, and maybe a tomato knife...but I'm not in a hurry. More knives doesn't mean better cook :)

I would think a wood knife block would be a perfectly acceptable way to store knives in a drawer (what I use). I have used a magnetic knife strip before as well but I didn't want that on my wall in this house.

Adding to my post above: I had so many bottles of spices, and really only used about 6 of them. A few months ago, I went through my spices and was upset at how old the dates were on the bottles, and how they'd been sitting around unused. Money out the window too. I now am more careful about buying spices willy-nilly, which means I don't need so much space for them in my drawer because I have so fewer than I did before, and am happy about that. Your cooking needs may be different, but I just wanted to mention this.

@anj_p I agree with your feedback and I appreciate it. I think it provides me with more flexibility for rearranging in the future if I keep those as 3 drawers next to the fridge. I'm less worried about a work triangle than everything being completely out of sight (I like clear countertops) and the drawers being very organized. But I would like the flexibility of reorganizing in the future and designing the vertical storage might prevent me from having that flexibility. Thank you for your feedback!

I have a tall pantry pullout used as a filler between my fridge and a doorway. If it were 4-5" wide instead of 15" or whatever it is, it would be great for spices and oils and stuff. It doesn't really look like you have room for a filler/pullout between your oven and fridge, but if you do, it might save the fridge. (I actually don't think the fridge is in much danger, to be honest.)

In a previous kitchen I had a knife block that mounted under the cabinets and swiveled out. This: https://www.amazon.com/Wusthof-8001-Under-Cabinet-Swinger-Knife-Storage/dp/B0000631ZH/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

It worked fine as a knife block and should make any knife-block user happy. Apparently I'm not one of those. :)

Also, just be aware:

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6264541/another-design-flaw

The comment on the oven/fridge proximity is a good one.

@Lindsey Brady If you give them your dimensions and tell them what you want to do they can come up with something. I put everything I wanted into the drawers and sent photos to Dave at Drawer Essentials. We must have gone back-and-forth 5 or more times. Everything came out perfect and I was amazed at how economical it was. I like the utensil pull-out but they are so expensive. Also, I've had that kind of knife storage in the past and it gets kind of gross even with risnsing every so often. If you're worried about too many drawers you could put pull out shelves behind a door. Happy designing!

@anj_p unfortunately moving the oven is not an option - we aren't moving appliances and no where for it to go :-( It's not in an ideal location and would love to move it, but there is no where for it to go.

A……he uses a knife block. i cant remember if he uses a special type. he gaurds his knives with his life, lol lol. meaning (lovingly) he takes care of them.

@M Miller

Our designer didn’t suggest the pullouts, I asked for them but then have started to question it. She drew what I designed. Appliance placement is based on what is already there - we can’t move anything around.

We use a magnetic knife rack, which I love because it's beautiful -- I struggle with finding things that "decorate" the kitchen walls, so I really love the way it looks. We bought this one in walnut, which is excellent quality and comes in tons of different sizes and types of wood. (Don't get these in metal, they are bad for your knives.)

Just make sure if you are keeping the ovens there that you have adequate filler next to it in between the fridge and ovens to open the fridge door all the way without hitting the oven handle.

I think you will be happier in the long run with the drawers instead of pull outs.

I use these spice organizers in a drawer and they work well.

https://www.containerstore.com/s/idesign-linus-in_drawer-spice-rack/d?q=spice%20organizer&p=0&ps=32&productId=10024293

Ok, I'm old fashioned. I have my spices on rubbermaid lazy susans in an upper cabinet. I can spin them and find what I need. Works for me and it is a cheap solution!

I am tall and would not want them down in a lower cabinet where I had to bend to find what I wanted.

I love the shallow side-of-the-fridge cabinet that Anj_P shared, but I assume that'd be custom and fairly expensive. If anyone has such a thing, I'd love to hear what it cost.

We use a magnetic knife rack, which I love because it's beautiful

I love the magnetic knife racks. If you don't particularly find them beautiful (I personally find them functional), consider that you can mount a rack on the BOTTOM SIDE of the cabinet so the knives are hidden.

Ok, I'm old fashioned. I have my spices on rubbermaid lazy susans in an upper cabinet. I can spin them and find what I need. Works for me and it is a cheap solution!

Me too. I have great little stainless steel triangle-shaped containers that stack /lock together. Each of my Lazy Susans holds 32 containers. Love them -- but the company who made them went out of business.

If you don't have enough space for your spices, consider getting rid of "mixes". For example, if you have Garlic and Salt, you don't really need a container for Garlic Salt. Lots of spice mixes can be mixed up in about a minute: Pumpkin Pie Spice, Italian Spice, Taco Seasoning, Garam Masala, etc. Maybe post your favorites inside your cabinet so you'll be ready to mix at a moment's notice.

In general spices have a very short freshness life…most of us keep way too many … way too long…

I love my spice pull out and the utensils. I feel they are 100% functional.
Why can’t they put on each side of stove ?

@Jmo Ortega unfortunately to the left of the stove is a lazy susan and to the right is a set of drawers (not that wide). Adding the pull outs to the left and right of the stove would mean we would lose the use of the corner where the lazy susan is and would make the remaining drawer space so small it would not be usable. That would have been my first choice if the space wasn't such that it doesn't allow for it. Your kitchen is beautiful!

@Mrs Pete Thank you for your response! The shallow spice cabinet is also my favorite of all of the ideas shown and thankfully we do have space to add it. Our contractor is also a custom cabinet-maker so he can build anything we need him to - we've added that option to our list.

@anj_p thank you for sharing that photo. My favorite thing about it is that it will also accommodate our cooking wines, sauces, etc. We are having to downsize from a 48" pantry to a 36" pantry which I was worried about. However with this addition, I feel much more confident we will have room in the pantry. How deep is/was that cabinet?

@cubby14 Thank you for your thoughts. After a lot of reflection and reading everyone's input, I've decided to abandon the pull-outs and keep the drawer stack. We are also moving the fridge to the opposite wall and putting the new pantry where the fridge was. This will improve my work triangle and hopefully prevent our fridge from getting damaged by the oven door (I rarely use an oven but still good to consider the possibility of it getting banged up).

Instead of the pull-outs for spices we will add a new spice cabinet like @anj_p posted. And instead of a pull-out for knives I'll use a horizontal knife tray like several people posted above. I think that gives us more flexibility in the future.

If I'm missing anything else please let me know!

I was told spices shouldn’t be stored near the stove

Momof4: sorry, I have not yet read each and every comment here but wanted to add my 2 cents’ worth, as we’re going through the same thing and discussed all the same topics. Here’s what I ultimately decided to do: we’re doing the canister pull-out (I wanted to get utensil holders off my counters)…..I did not think crawling around on the floor (ok, I’m exaggerating a bit here) to find a small spice jar was what I wanted to do. We are going to have 3 upper cabs (one double, one single) to the right of the hood, so the double cabinet’s doors will house spice racks (which will hold my most important spices; the rest will sit on shelves along with oils, vinegars, Daddy’s all-important array of hot sauces etc). This, at least for me, was the most practical solution….all they have to do is cut the shelves back a bit. Inside my 3rd cabinet we will affix 2 10” magnetic knife strips to hold our chef’s knives etc, so this way they’ll be off the counter (no more knife block!) and out of the way of small children. Again, as we ordered the cabs this way, the manufacturer will cut the shelves back a bit. Happy planning!

@Lindsey Brady Please post a photo of it when you're done! As I mentioned, the only time I've seen one was in my old 1920s apartment - stuff built back then tends to have lots of awesome built ins, etc that are hard to find these days. good luck!

This is a great thread! Lots of good ideas. My current plan for an upcoming build is to use a spice rack pullout inside an upper next to the stove. Knives and utensils in a drawer bank next to the range. I haven't tried these Vertical Spice racks personally but they have great reviews from what I've seen. I like that they pull out but keep everything organized. I imagine myself having one row for warm/sweet spices, one for savory, and maybe one for hot/cajun/curry. I want them to be within reach from the stove and don't want to bend down to try to find them.

Just organized my spices…were all different sizes previously and had seen these jars online. Drawer next to cooktop.

@Molly D. Zone4B I just did the same thing! I had them laid down in taller jars but didn't get enough storage that way, so I bought the 4 oz Ball jars and some labels on etsy and did this. Mine are next to my sink in my prep zone, as that's where I typically use spices (I cook mise en place). I haven't finished adding spices - need to buy a few more jars!

Standing up is the way to go…saves so much room.

Since we're playing show & tell :). My current "drawer" is a couple of quarter-sheet pans, because I'm packing up for the kitchen demo. I'm loving Molly D and anj_p's nice printed labels. That's something I'll think about after the remodel.

I would not put a spice pull-out next to any kitchen appliance….the motor of the fridge may generate some warmth and you don’t want your spices to be ruined. If you place the roll-out there, be sure there is very good insulation in place between the roll-out and the fridge.
I would prefer to have my spices adjacent to my prep zone in order to be readily available as I need them. That would seem more logical than next to the fridge. I do like the design of your spice pull-out because you can identify the spices by the name on the lids. I keep my cooking utensils in a cookie jar (with no lid) on the counter near the range where I will need them.