Kitchen Appliance Cabinet Storage: 3 “Hidden” Benefits!

Everyone these days seems to be about transparency and “getting things out in the open”—but we’re not convinced that’s always a good idea! We’re huge fans of kitchen appliance cabinet storage and believe this is one of the most brilliant solutions ever!

Why?

We’re sharing three of our favorite reasons here (plus the cabinet style we did, not the garage style!). We’ll also tell you how to plan out the exact details of your own kitchen appliance cabinets.

Kitchen Appliance Cabinet Storage

Benefit #1: Looks better.

Visually, appliance cabinets simply look better. Not only do they hide the appliances usually kept on countertops, but they can also provide much-needed visual balance to a kitchen. How?

door slides | drawer guide

BALANCES UPPER KITCHEN CABINETS

Think of a typical kitchen with upper cabinets. The space below those uppers is usually left empty, with open countertop.

When you support that upper cabinet with a lower cabinet, no longer does that countertop below look like such a void. And no longer does the upper cabinet look like it’s “hanging” suspended on the wall.

(We chose to do a slide-back cabinet style instead of a “garage door” style for ours. You can see more of what our kitchen appliance storage cabinets look like in our post including before & afters of our kitchen remodel!)

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THEY HIDE KITCHEN APPLIANCES

Question: Thinking back to that typical kitchen with upper cabinets, what does the countertop underneath usually get filled up by?

Answer: Appliances.

Kitchen appliances aren’t usually gorgeous pieces of artwork that we enjoy gazing at every day. They’re highly functional, yes, but we all like to hide them away somehow.

Which brings us to the second benefit…

door slides | We also made drawers to store kitchen appliances in!

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KITCHEN APPLIANCE CABINET STORAGE

Benefit #2: Keeps appliances handy.

With most people agreeing that countertop kitchen appliances are better hidden, we’re all left in a conundrum. Some people deal with that by hiding their appliances away in another cabinet, drawer, or pantry.

The problem with keeping appliances somewhere else is that you have to pull them out every time you want to use them. That may be fine for your infrequently-used appliances, but what about the ones you use everyday? The coffee machine? The toaster? Do you reeeeeally want to keep those in the pantry and pull out every morning? (We’ve seen many people who do this to keep a minimal look in their kitchens!)

This is where kitchen appliance cabinet storage makes a HUGE difference, making life both easier and more beautiful. Instead of keeping your most-used appliances in the pantry or another spot, why not keep them right on the countertop—right where they’re used?

Kitchen appliance cabinet storage: open vs. closed

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We only have our most-used appliances in our appliance cabinets. You can see more about those here.

KITCHEN APPLIANCE CABINET STORAGE

Benefit #3: Extends the life of your appliances.

By keeping your kitchen appliances in a cabinet, you’re keeping them cleaner than if they’re left out on a countertop.

Protected within the cabinet, your appliances will be free from dust and other kitchen messes. They’re kept cleaner and tidier. Plus, when you don’t have to move them around from the countertop to their more “permanent” storage spot, they’re less likely to be jolted around or dropped, resulting in broken appliances or internal pieces.

See a quick video of ours in action!

KITCHEN APPLIANCE CABINET STORAGE

How to Plan for Your Own Appliance Garage Cabinets!

So now you’re convinced you need these appliance storage cabinets in your kitchen life! You’re brilliant! So what’s next? 

Step #1: Determine your most-used kitchen appliances.

Think about your typical day. Which appliances are you using daily?

➥ TIP: It can be helpful to first make a list of ALL your kitchen appliances. Then, create a new list, putting them in order from your #1 most-used down to the least-used.

door slides | Kitchen Organization & Design Bundles

Step #2: Measure kitchen appliance cabinet storage space.

• Measure what space you have available for the cabinets.
• Include the height, width, and depth.
• Be sure to take into account the thickness of your side walls as well as the doors.

Step #3: Calculate kitchen appliance cabinet space & decide on the finalists.

Based on your available space from Step 2, take your measurements of your most-used appliances and determine how many you can fit into the space you have. Those are your winning machines that will go into your “hidden” kitchen appliance cabinets.

For us, we decided we only needed (and could fit) two appliances in these hidden cabinets: the espresso machine (or, I should really say MY espresso machine because Matt doesn’t drink coffee) and the toaster oven. (I should say MATT’S toaster oven because I never had one of these until we got married, and now I’m converted and give him full credit for its handiness. Handy like him.)

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Step #4: Decide exact placement.

Consider the location of each kitchen appliance cabinet and what it’s near.

For example, in our kitchen remodel, we had both left and right “hidden” cabinets available for these two appliances: which should go where?

I decided this by looking at what I’d need when using those appliances. For the espresso machine, I occasionally need to toss extra coffee grounds into the garbage. I also (before I went to my amazing fully-automatic espresso machine you see in these pictures) had a manual espresso machine that made a lot more of a mess. So because our trash can was going to be stored to the left of the sink, I decided to place my espresso machine in the left cabinet.

door slides | Should you do a double kitchen island in your kitchen?

Our kitchen appliance cabinet to the right of the sink houses the toaster oven, which also works well because it’s right by the fridge. (We use it often to quickly heat up food, such as leftover pancakes or sweet potato fries from the weekend for breakfast. And yes, we typically have fries for breakfast alongside our eggs. We make them super healthy because we bake them in the oven. Try it! Our kids think having sweet potato fries for breakfast is totally normal.)

Bonus Reminder: Don’t forget the cabinet power!

Plan for including outlets in your appliance cabinets! This is a key step. You can then plug your appliances in right there and have no cords showing.

➥ TIP: Place your outlets to the side, if you have extra-deep appliances. We learned this by making the mistake ourselves. Our espresso machine outlet was fine for the smaller manual machine we used to have, but when I transitioned to the larger automatic, it was deeper. So we can’t place the machine right in the middle because the outlet is in the middle, and the plugged-in cord base would hit the back of the machine. So we needed to move it to the side. Not a big deal, but something we learned from and wanted to share that tip with you!

Curious where we hide the rest of our appliances? See our Bonus Appliance Drawer storage tips & tricks HERE!

Need immediate kitchen help? Get our Kitchen Design Bundle!👈

To read our kitchen story & get free kitchen tips, click below!

• Why we ripped out our new kitchen.
• The 3 cabinet storage ideas every kitchen needs.
• How we made our kitchen look bigger!
• 5 kitchen organization ideas that make life easier.
• Why we installed kitchen drawers instead of cabinets.
• 3 perks of removing the wall between the kitchen & dining room.

Or, you can see all our completed house projects here!