Refined MidcenturyTransitional Kitchen, Seattle

You can see how the kitchen relates to the dining area, above. Weihs located the pantry strategically so that when they come in with groceries, they can place them on the peninsula and put them away right here. Deep pullouts blend in with the home’s architecture on the side facing the dining room. On the refrigerator side, the cabinets and drawers are shallow — no digging to find things. The lower drawers are filled with snacks for the kids so that they can help themselves.

This one has no quotable line, because a group of photos told me the story. The group is the latest roundup of the 10 most popular photos on Houzz. I was so fascinated to see that half of them were of storage, mostly in kitchens, and in all of the photos, the cabinets, doors and/or drawers were open to show us just how much they hold and the clever ways they hold it. To me this says that the overwhelming interest is in building smarter, not larger, and figuring out the best ways to make the most of what we have. And that makes me happy. The full list: Best of Houzz 2015 — U.S.

But things like smart storage are universal. And while you’ll see a lot of fresh, new spaces among the most popular photos of last year, like the Seattle kitchen shown here, you’ll also see a lot of spaces that have earned multiple badges over the years — which is a somewhat poignant statement on the power of good design. It doesn’t matter when something was created; good design will always have the ability to gain new fans time and time again.

thin drawer for plastic wrap, bags, ect