Keep it Out of Sight in an Appliance Garage

This great garage sports a lift up style door for easy access and a handy roll out to house the "coffee center". This is one of our own custom kitchensA couple of posts back I showed you a nifty little kitchen phenomenon called an "appliance garage".  One of you peeps said "we want more!" Since I only live to make you happy (not), here you go.  An appliance garage is precisely what the name implies, a place to park things like toasters, coffee makers, juicers etc.     If you have the room, they are certainly great to hide the visual clutter but they also will take a minimum of four square feet of counter space. An appliance garage utilizes the area between your upper cabinets and the counter top.This example is not only functional but is a design feature as well as it separates the kitchen from the entry into the house. This home owner is a potter so we included these open shelves for her to display her lovliness!A corner is the best location for this option and if you have to give up some counter space the area deep in the corner is not actually "working space" anyway.Appliance_GarageOriginally appliance garages featured something called a tambour door.  The best thing about those is that they don't get in the way or stick out, although they might stick.  The best thing about the types that stick out is that they look much nicer.  Here are some of your choices if you're considering adding this to your kitchen bucket list.We installed two appliance garages here, one at each end of this wall. Here you can see the one on the right which holds the coffee pot. The one on the left houses the toaster oven. Make sure to measure your appliances before you order your cabinets! You can only imagine the horror when you find out too late! These were custom cabinets so we were able to make the garage high enough for our needs.closerYou can see we like our lift up door! This cabinet with a decorative end panel divides the kitchen and office areas. The Rolls Royce of appliance garages is this one by Hafele. Believe me there's a whole world of efficiency behind this door. It's actually aluminum and is custom made to fit your needs.So there you have it.  There are  many choices for they type of space and style of your kitchen from Traditional to Contemporary.   Oh and don't forget to include an electrical outlet inside.  This could even be a great place for a charging station, but that's another blog post!PS Some excitement brewing at Kitchens for Living, a new direction and a new design all leading up to Blog Tour New Orleans with Modenus.  Please stay tuned and don't be bashful about spreading the word about Kitchens for Living!