How many people have appliances that sit out on the counter? Useful items such as toasters, rice cookers, juicers, and who can forget the espresso machine? Many of these items are used on a daily basis, so keeping them on the counter is a matter of convenience. But, let me ask you this, how many of you LIKE the look of those appliances on your counter? Let’s go through your options:

a) Purchase appliances that coordinate with the colors and finishes of your kitchen

b) Allocate a ‘special area’ for them where they can co-mingle with other accessories, creating the ‘coffee station’ or the ‘breakfast station’ This gives them a ‘home’

c) Create a lowered counter with electrical outlets specifically for this appliance. Typically, this is done on the back side of an island effectively hiding the appliance from view.

d) Incorporate a ‘lift up shelf’ within an existing base cabinet. This is a shelf that lives within your base cabinet and can swing up with your mixer/juicer etc, already on the shelf. This is good for appliances that will be used in small amounts of time, such as a mixer. It is not good for appliances that use a long time such as rice cookers or crock pots. This is because the shelf sits out in your walkway space in front of your cabinets.

e) Utilize an appliance ‘garage’. This is a cabinetry unit that has a door that hides your appliances. This is almost always on the counter level. Options for appliance garages are as follows:

Standard counter level, swing open door style, 12” deep – you loose counter space (basically it is a covered counter)
Standard counter level roll up tambour door in either wood or metal, 12” deep, still lose counter space
Counter level lift up or tilt up door, 12” deep
Corner appliance garage with either swing out, or tambour door, this can be a great use of dead corners, however remember those corners can be hard to reach…

What drives me nuts is that the appliances almost always need to be pulled forward to you to be used, whether it is because you are loading the food in from the top of the mixer, or because the unit creates heat or steam and you do not want it to affect the cabinetry above. What we really need is a station specifically designed for use of countertop appliances. We need a niche in our kitchen that has a 12-15” deep counter that does not have cabinets above for at least 30”. The counter can be lowered if it makes the appliance easier to use. How about this counter being in the shape of a U so that you actually have 3 counters appropriate for appliance use. Designed in this way, the appliances will look like they belong there, they never have to be moved in or out and they can have outlets conveniently located right behind them.