Ten smart kitchen storage ideas and DIY projects that make the most of your space!

I’m always trying to utilize our storage spaces well — from small drawers to big closets, I really enjoy trying to figure out how to use all the available space and make them function better. 

Even though I’m a decor lover and want things to look great, my priority is to make them function just as well as they look! 

Over the years I’ve figured out some great ways to create an organized kitchen that fits our needs. These storage solutions work for smaller gadgets to larger appliances, and make our spaces work how we use them! 

I’ve gathered ten of the best ways I’ve made the most of our kitchen storage…some are easy, some are more involved DIY projects. 

Most of these solutions are hidden, but I’ve also created some storage that has become part of the design of the kitchen! We’ll start with the pretty ones first…

1. Utilize the side of your fridge

This is one of my all time favorite kitchen DIY projects! If you have a built in fridge with cabinets around it, you may be able to put that big space on the side to good use.

I just love how it looks! The leather straps and wood boards add some warmth to our kitchen. 

But it’s also so nice to have such easy access to serving and cutting boards like these. They are large and awkward, so finding a spot to store them in lower cabinets is difficult. 

You can also use the side of your fridge to hold a family command station with calendars and mail, or add small shelves to hold spices or oils if you don’t have a lot of pantry space. 

2. Window seat storage in the kitchen

This is another favorite…because what’s prettier than a window seat in a kitchen? Nothing, I tell you. 

If you add one in your home, make it functional by creating access to all that empty space inside! 

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It was wonderful! 

That deep extra storage space is perfect for items that you don’t reach for every day — maybe appliances you only use occasionally or big serving dishes. 

It’s such a great secret space and of course looks great from the outside! I always knew the window wall in our dining area off the kitchen would be the perfect spot: 

We use that storage for some outdoor items like citronella candles and bug spray, since it’s so close to the patio door. The other side is usually empty, so I use it to store year-round decor from around the house when I decorate for Christmas. 🙂

3. Add storage by extending your kitchen island

This is another one that adds so much storage but also looks GOOD! 

Even the rod with hooks to hold the towel and pot holders was so handy!

Now let’s move to the storage ideas inside the cabinets! 

4. Tip out trays by the kitchen sink 

I discovered these when we were building our first house and thought they were brilliant. 

They are small, but in the kitchen hold sponges, the sink stopper, scrapers and our dishwasher pods. You just tip the drawer out to access the trays. 

We had two in our first house pictured above, and now we have a long drawer front that has two: 

They can be a little tricky to install because you’re working in such a small space. It’s easier to install these before the sink, but you can definitely do so after as well. 

They are so useful, we used them in our bathroom as well. They are perfect for toothbrushes and toothpaste!

5. Awkward pan and tray storage

I use the Variera organizers from IKEA so I can slide these longer kitchen necessities in and out easily. 

If you build in your fridge using my tutorial above, measure your items to see how much space you’ll need! 

The key is storing these items vertically — if you stack them up it’s a pain to get what you need. 

Although you could build very small shelving inside those cabinets that holds one item on each shelf. That brings me to my next simple fix!

6. Make base cabinets functional with DIY shelves

I hate regular base cabinets with small drawers and doors. They are an abyss of underutilized and hard-to-reach space in my opinion, and if we ever redo our kitchen, it will have mostly drawers like our mud/laundry combo. 

They allow me to store way more in that tall space, and are super easy to make! I usually have plenty of scrap wood to throw one together. 

The assembly isn’t fancy — I use a couple screws into each “foot” or the side supports. 

7. DIY pull out pantry drawers

I just shared this project last week, and it has allowed us to store SO MUCH food in the new pantry makeover. 

I used tall pantry cabinets in there, and as is, those are almost as bad as the base cabinets I hate. I knew I could make them way more functional with these pull out pantry drawers: 

You can make them fully extend or soft close (or both!). 

The best part is they allow you to create storage that works for your family — add a bunch to hold a ton or space them out for taller items. 

8. DIY pull out shelf for appliances

These rolling shelves are along the same lines, and work well both inside a cabinet or on open shelves. They are a great way to free up some counter space in the kitchen! 

Our pantry had melamine shelving before I started the redo, and a few years ago I wanted to store some of our small appliances on one shelf. 

We quickly realized we’d need more clearance above (especially for the toaster!), so I used full extension drawer slides to create this easy pull out appliance shelf: 

If you’re planning to use this for a mixer or other heavy appliances, make sure the shelf your pull out is attached to is secure and that the slides can hold the weight. 

Those IKEA racks are also great for storing container lids or plates. 

And finally, some of my favorite organizing products for inside the kitchen drawers! 

9. Expandable drawer dividers 

They come in different sizes that fit narrow to wide drawers. 

These expanders are perfect for organizing forks, spoons and knives in a cutlery drawer as well!

Not only do they keep things separate, but also keep things from moving around when you open and shut the drawers. 

The spots for Ziploc bags are GREAT and make for very easy access. The rolled items like the foil aren’t quite as handy, but we don’t reach for those as much anyway. 

This organizer can go in a drawer or hang on the wall. 

10. Coffee pod drawer storage 

 

My husband started drinking coffee about a year ago, so all the sudden we had all of his coffee items I wanted to corral into one spot. 

It allows us to see what we have at a glance — I’m always looking for hot chocolate, he only wants his coffee. 😉 

These K-cup inserts come in a ton of sizes and shapes. Check the depth of your drawers to make sure it will fit! 

Thankfully we have full extension drawers so we can open them allll the way out and access everything. 

There you go…my top ten favorite pantry and kitchen organization ideas I’ve incorporated in our home. I’m always thinking about how we use our spaces and trying to figure out the best storage solutions. 

Do you use any of these as well? I’d love to hear some of the ways you’ve organized your kitchen!

A tour of my moody home office makeover reveal, with grasscloth wallpaper and DIY wall paneling.

I finally finished up my office makeover! Come with me for a full tour of this warm space that I LOVE to work in!

Remember A YEAR AGO when I started my home office makeover? And then the fall marching band season, our son’s senior year of high school, college visits, and a million school events happened? 

It was time to finish up this room! 

But first, I’ll show you how this room has transitioned over the years. It was a blank slate when we moved in: 

I had a plan in mind, knowing I wanted to float my desk in the middle of the room. I can’t imagine sitting facing a wall to work…I need a view! (Or a TV. ) 

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The layout has worked perfectly! 

As the years have passed, I’ve been adding a slightly moodier look in a few of our spaces. Some rooms just feel perfect for it — I’m in my office a lot and was craving a warmer spot to work. 

This room gets a ton of natural light, so I knew I could play around with some darker colors. 

My first step was to remove the light wallpaper on the backs of the bookcases. I painted them the same Vintage Vogue paint color of the rest of the shelves: 

I had some fun changing up the decor on the shelves too. I decided then that I wanted this room to represent all the things I love. So I rummaged through keepsakes, decor and artwork and added some personal touches that make me so happy. 

A year later…I decided to finally finish up the paneling around the room! It was stumping me. I sat for months, staring at it everyday trying to decide how I would configure it on the rest of the walls. 

Earlier this week I sat down with my molding and got after it, and went with the simplest design. It turned out beautiful! 

So let’s take a tour, shall we? 

Because I made the decision a year ago that I was going to fill this space with things that I love, this is definitely the most “maximalist” space in our home. And I LOVE IT. 

This room feels like a huge, warm hug when I walk in, and I absolutely love spending time in here: 

It’s full of warm colors and textures that make me happy. 

If you are able, I highly recommend positioning your office desk in the middle of the room. Thankfully we added a floor outlet during the building process: 

That small basket at the bottom of the desk hides the cords. I’ll show you these details in an upcoming post!

Our animals cuddle up in that pet bed and keep me company while in work. Our tortie cat loves it, and Boomer tries to fit in it: 

The giant bulletin board I made years ago is full of things that make me smile. It works out well that no one really sees it unless they fully walk into the room…it’s busy and messy and I love it: 

My office is a generous size, about 12 by 14 feet if I remember correctly. This is the view from the back corner: 

And along the back bookcase wall, to the windows: 

The neutral wallpaper breaks up the walls, so this room isn’t completely color drenched. But I did paint all of the trim to match the lower walls and built ins. 

As you walk around the room, you can get a better idea of my view as I work every day: 

Normally I’d remove some of my goofy personal touches in this room for photos, like my little Remy that perches on my lamp base: 

But these are what this space my own, so I’m showing them off. 🙂 

Some of them are gifts, some just represent things I love. My Lego Olaf our son built me years ago is yellowing from sitting in the sun every day. He hasn’t melted yet: 

Let’s take one more look back at this space when we moved in eight year ago: 

And that same space, with warm textures, colors, and so many things that I love: 

Here was the wall I face while working: 

And this is what I look at now: 

The antique dresser for our printer was a FB find as well. I like the lower height right there, and the drawers are perfect for printer paper and necessities. 

I gathered links to a few of the items in this room if you are interested!: 

If I missed something you’re interested in, let me know! 

There are a few projects I’d still like to tackle in here eventually…I’ve always wanted to add some black out lining to the drapes to beef them up a bit. I’m also considering installing crown around the room someday. 

I’m SO thrilled this room is done though! I absolutely love it, and now I can focus on some fun new DIY projects that have been on my list. 

How to build a wood burning stone fire pit on top of a concrete patio.

There are a few safety issues to consider when building a DIY fire pit on a concrete surface. I’m sharing the how-to here!

Years ago we had a large patio poured in our back yard. The best part was a 14 foot circular fire pit area we designed off to one side.

One big project I had to hold off on was the DIY fire pit. The concrete contractors advised we wait a bit because the stone for the pit is so heavy. The patio had to cure for a couple of weeks. 

Before I started, we got a quote for a small stone retaining wall around the circular fire pit area as well as a fire pit with stone that matched our house. The quote came back at almost DOUBLE what the entire PATIO cost. Lordt. 

Soooo we decided to do it ourselves with a kit and it was crazy easy. It doesn’t look custom, but it does the job…burns wood.

It is 3 1/2 feet wide and was under $200. WAY better! It comes with the stones, glue and the metal ring. 

I figured it would be easy to build, but it was even easier than I thought! I’ll share some specific tips at the end of the post, but here are the basic steps. 

I put the ring together first, and centered it on the hole the construction crew added for the pit: 

I realized after I was done that it wasn’t centered at all but OH WELL. 

Our concrete company included that small hole so they could add a drainage pipe — brilliant! Any water drains out to the back of the patio. If you are adding a patio with a fire pit, I highly recommend this! 

The instructions called for 20 stone wedges on the first ring, but I only needed 19. If I had added one more I think it would have been too wide for the metal insert: 

I had to pull them out quite a bit and only place the long ends against each other so it made the circle bigger. Hope that makes sense!

This kit only calls for three levels of stone. The second level is centered over two stones so each row is staggered instead of right on top of each other. 

The final ring goes back to the same as the first: 

You can stagger them however you want, like tile patterns. Instead of staggering them on the center, you could do 1/3 of the blocks, or even 1/4. 

As you can see, I didn’t get the centering just right. It’s OK. After the third layer of stones, you add the metal ring back in and you’re almost done! 

We added three bags of pea gravel to fill in the hole in the concrete and then up to the bottom of the metal ring :

That’s it! It’s plenty big, but if we find we want something grander in the future, we can just purchase a bigger metal ring and then add more stones to make it wider. 

I later added one more layer of stone blocks to make the the pit a little taller and more comfortable to rest our feet on: 

We added more pea gravel when we did this so it covers the stone at the base of the pit inside.

You can read all about our Polywood Adirondack chairs here! Those chairs are an investment but will literally last forever. They still look amazing and we’ve never covered them throughout years of rain and snow.

Here are a few tips if you want to try this DIY fire pit project on your own! 

• Per the instructions, you shouldn’t burn a fire directly on concrete, hence the gravel addition.
• A metal ring is necessary when building a fire pit — the stones can crack or explode if in direct contact with the fire.
• We added enough gravel so that none of the stone was showing inside — they are all covered with either the gravel or the metal ring. 
• We did not glue the stone and haven’t had any issues. But you can use a construction adhesive to secure them if you’d like.
• If you aren’t starting from scratch with a new patio, you can use a fire pit heat shield or mat to help ensure the concrete doesn’t get too hot over time. 

We added evergreen trees around the circular patio the next year. This is how they started: 

And this is how big those trees are about five years later!:

Our favorite handy finds for around the house, all $10 or under!

It’s that time of year! This time the Amazon Prime sale goes for four days — running from the 8th through the 11th of this week. 

This year I went even lower and put a list together of handy home items, all for $10 and under! 

I wasn’t meaning to gather things that I find particularly helpful, but it turned out that way. We use every item on this list of useful products, and all are super affordable, even without prime day discounts.

I know, I know…Christmas is a long way off! But I use these discounts to shop early and I’m always so thankful I did! It’s so nice to have items crossed off your list before you even start. 

Now the fun stuff! 

They come with four in the set and are easy to fill up. 

You push the button at the bottom of the pen to push the paint up into the brush. So handy! I keep them in our junk drawer for easy access. 

I noticed it was getting harder for me to see the detail in the puzzle pieces without my glasses (I’m getting old!!) so this thing is awesome! Plus the light is a game changer. 

They slide into the bottom of your oven (check to make sure yours will work with these) and last forever! I wash mine and reuse them over and over. 

It allows you to safely clean around the blades, but also cleans the underside of the rubber sink drain as well. SO nasty! 

This brush is great — we use it every other week or so. 

A fabric shaver is a must for clothing — I use them often to get little fuzz balls off of my clothing. But these are also so helpful for upholstery as well: 

This cordless fabric shaver is great to have around the house, especially if you have animals! I was able to easily remove those snags on the chair with a few swipes. 

This one shows you how much charge is left (the LED was glitching for the camera, mine was at 83 percent) and has three power levels. 

This defuzzer tool is AWESOME, and another great idea for a pet owner. I use it on upholstery and fabric that doesn’t clean up as well with my Chom Chom or a vacuum: 

This thing is especially helpful in the car — you know those fuzzies that will not come out the carpet? This rakes them right up and makes it so easy. 

My picture is underwhelming, I know. I had just cleaned this up a few weeks ago. It works SO well with stubborn pet fur, lint and fuzz around the house. 

The sheets are perforated — for large loads we use two, for smaller just one section. 

They dissolve well (put them in the washer before your clothing) and are WAY less messy than liquid or powder detergent. 

If you’re short on space in your laundry area, they take up WAY less space as well!: 

They are silky smooth and the paint goes on like butter. The tips are shaped in a way that makes it so much easier to get paint into detailed areas. 

And a little detail — but I like the longer handles as well. 

It’s great for coupons and photos, but I use them for our monthly receipts. If you need to keep track of paper receipts for tax purposes, this is so helpful! 

This organizer would be awesome for photos as well — it holds a ton! 

When I made some minor changes to my closet this year, I picked up these space saving double hanger doodads and was surprised at how handy they are: 

You get a TON — 20 hooks! 

I don’t know if I’d necessarily say they are super space saving, as you are still going to have two items hanging, but they are quite handy to keep clothing sets together. 

My husband is going to try them out on his suits as well. They are super sturdy and will hold a lot of weight. 

I used this decorative window film on the glass on our upper cabinets in the kitchen. I LOVE the film and the way it looks — but it’s a bit busy looking with our backsplash tile and grout. 

It was so easy to apply and makes for a very inexpensive DIY update. 

We hosted our son’s graduation party earlier this summer and I spent weeks sprucing up the back patio in preparation. I was thrilled to find this large striped outdoor rug for only $25 on Facebook Marketplace the week before!: 

It was in wonderful condition, but the edges were a bit thick and would curl up. I was terrified someone would trip on it. Thankfully I found this carpet tape that works on concrete. 

The tape works so well! In really hot weather the edges sometimes creep up a bit, but we just have to step on it and they are secure again. 

After the first batch of tissues were out, I tried refilling with a stack of Kleenex, but it never fit just right. 

I happened upon these tissue refills for made just for this holder, but also love them for having for travel, the beach bag, whatever: 

They have extra large sizes for giant photos or art, but the 4×6, 5×7 and 8.5×11 albums are all under $10 and each holds 48 flat items. 

I love seeing what other family’s find handy to have around the house, so I hope this was helpful!