The secret to a clean kitchen? It lays on your countertops.
A cluttered kitchen = too many items on the countertops. Here is one solution…As part of our Before and After Series: Revealing our Stunning Kitchen Remodel, we added two appliance garages and oh my are they one of my favorite things in our new kitchen. This hidden storage keeps our kitchen clean and tidy and I want to share all about them and give you 4 tips on how to create your own flawless appliance garage. Read on!
The Modern Day Appliance Garage
The modern day appliance garage is both practical and beautiful. It stores things out of sight but makes them easily accessible (PRACTICAL). It looks seamless and visually appealing when designed appropriately for your space (BEAUTIFUL). From our Revealing our Stunning Kitchen Remodel post:
Organic design is … optimizing for simple clean lines with functionality in mind – everything is designed with a purpose – just how nature intended.
Moments with Karen
HOWEVER, the appliance garage DOES NOT make sense for every space. Here are 2 reasons why it may not make sense:
- Limited Counterspace – If you have limited counter space, adding an appliance garage will cut into your prep area – the opposite of functional.
- Not ideal kitchen layout/flow – Think about your kitchen layout and flow. Is the only area that you could put an appliance garage even convenient? If it makes it harder to use the appliance because you have to walk farther away, then you’re better off not having one. For example, if the appliance garage holds your toaster and blender but is far away from the fridge.
BUT if those are not your conditions, then I would highly recommend it. Like I said, it’s literally my favorite thing in the kitchen!
If you’re thinking, ‘I don’t want to tear out my cabinets to make an appliance garage – it will be so much work and cost!’ – Don’t worry – I got you! I figured out how to do it without ripping out ANY of your cabinets…keep reading.
4 tips on How to Design a Flawless Appliance Garage
1. Ensure the Right Size
Measure Measure Measure and measure again! The worst feeling is building an appliance garage and realizing that none of your appliances actually fit in there! This almost happened to us actually – the sinking feeling as they installed the appliance garage and realizing it was not wide enough to fit ANY of the items we wanted. I think I died a little that day.
BUT in the end it turned out better – I re-designed the appliance garage with an extended slope – the overall look reminiscent of an antique secretary’s desk – just modernized. The slope provided more clearance for our larger appliances (PRACTICAL) and the overall design was seamless and BEAUTIFUL.
When measuring your appliances to fit into your garage, give an additional 1 – 2 inches of space on all sides. You need 2″ for the back to fit the plug/cord and 1″ in the front so the appliance doesn’t bump the door. 2″ on the sides for air flow.
Tip: Don’t add a cabinet wall to the back of your appliance garage. It will take about an inch away from your interior space. We don’t even have a tile backsplash there – it’s just a painted black wall. This gives us more space for our appliances!
If you want to fit multiple appliances – make sure there is sufficient space between them. If you’re going to put a toaster oven in there, make sure the other item is far enough so that it won’t get too hot when the toaster is in use. You also want to measure the appliance handles as part of the overall size of the appliance.
I Iove how our sloped appliance garage adds character and dimension to our kitchen.
When I made that measurement error I was pretty devastated. But sometimes the worst situation can become the best as I’ve learned many many times over (see floor transformation for another example of something terrible turning into something beautiful).
2. Ensure Enough Edge Counterspace
Similar to measuring accurately, think about how much countertop clearance you’d like when the appliance garage is closed. I made sure that I could still fit my cups, bowls, small plates – which comes in handy when I’m unloading the dishwasher. It’s not absolutely necessary but I find it practical that I can still use some of the countertop despite having the garage there.
3. Use High Quality Hardware
Your appliance garage is going to be heavily used so you have to get the best hardware to ensure that it stays functional for years to come. There are many types of doors and related hardware that you could use to open and shut the appliance garage. We used the Blum hydraulic soft close lift system which allows the door to be open from below and slide up parallel. The door opens and closes softly so you can basically just let go and it will close automatically and softly – no loud banging!
I prefer the lift style because the door won’t jut out like it would if you had two regular cabinet doors. But it does mean that when the garage is open, you’re unable to open the upper cabinet doors. That’s not a big problem though because you can quickly close the appliance garage door to open the other doors.
Also, it’s an incentive to always keep the garage closed (except of course when you’re actually using an appliance).
In terms of the door hardware, you want it to be an appropriate length and durable. It will fit near the bottom of the door for better leverage so getting a pull type handle is best. It’s also got to feel good when you touch it. I love opening and closing my garage due to the cool lift system and the smooth honey bronze cabinet pull.
4. Make it Seamless
The appliance garage should feel like it belongs in the kitchen. It doesn’t have to be the same color as the rest of the kitchen but the overall style should be the same. If you have Shaker Cabinets, make sure the appliance garage is also either a Shaker style or a complimentary style (flat).
If you’re building your appliance garage under your existing cabinetry (like we did), here are some tips:
- Make sure you get the entire cabinet repainted so that the painters can hide the seam so that the cabinet looks like one full piece
- Make sure any upper cabinet trim pieces are replicated down on your appliance garage.
This is much easier if your cabinets are painted, but if your cabinets are stained, you’ll need to re-stain which could be very hard to match the existing stain or you may have to paint your cabinets to get that seamless look — which is definitely a higher expense. You have to weigh the costs of demoing and building whole new cabinets or building just the appliance garage and doing a complete paint job or re-finish/stain.
The main point is that you don’t want it to look like you hacked it together and it was an afterthought. See how we added the garage under our existing cabinetry and kept the trim the same all the way down:
Here’s a recap:
If an appliance garage sounds cool, first ask yourself if it really works in your space?
If it’s a green light, make sure you measure precisely, consider your countertop edge requirements, get great hardware, and make it seamless.
What did we end up putting in our appliance garage?
- Appliance Garage I: Convection Toaster Oven / Air Fryer Combo (One of our 2022 essential kitchen buys because it’s compact but can fit large items and does everything!)
- Appliance Garage II: Ninja Air Fryer and InstaPot
How has using the appliances in your garage been?
Great! The appliance garage is primarily used to STORE items, not necessarily for you to use them while they are in there. But we do keep our convection toaster oven plugged in at all times and use it while it’s in the garage. The other items like the Instapot and Air Fryer we take out to use – but just like we would if they were placed under our cabinets.
If we had to take our appliances and move them to a prep area that was farther away in our kitchen, then I could see it being kinda annoying. That’s why I said the first step is to really think about if an appliance garage will work based on your kitchen size, counter space and layout.
I hope you found this post helpful. If you have any questions at all about the appliance garage, kitchen design, or general design please reach out. I’m happy to provide tips and guidance
See the progression of our appliance garage below:
Need help getting out of analysis paralysis to make your dream kitchen a reality? Let me help you!
Stay tuned..Next time, I’ll be covering these topics..
- Hardware – Knobs, Pulls, Cups? Oh my!
- Faucets and Sinks – Break the Rules and Mix and Match
- Paint – Getting Dual Tones Right
- Kitchen Storage and Organization – How to Create a System for a Clean and Tidy kitchen
Want to read our 10 week kitchen remodeling journey from the very beginning? See how it all began:
MOMents with Karen
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