For hands-on advice from designers and pro DIYers, plus more scrappy before-and-after transformations, subscribe to Reno. Let your in-box do all the hard work—for now. For photographer and avid cook Thayer Gowdy, there’s nothing worse than having to trek across the kitchen to grab something out of the refrigerator. “I hate the idea of it not being close to the counter,” she says. “The flow is just wrong for me.” So when she took her new Ojai, California, home down to the studs, she decided the appliance would have pride of place in her open-concept space. The only catch was she didn’t want people in the living room staring at the back of it, nor did she like the idea of building a floor-to-ceiling...
s Courtesy of Studio McGee So you want new kitchen cabinets—are you prepared for all the costs that come with them? On average, it will run you around $5,100 just to have them installed (prices for fully custom cupboards can range from $13,000 to $30,00), according to an estimate by Home Advisor. But there is a way around that expense: Put them in yourself. It’s not as impossible as it sounds. The process really comes down to screwing the new frames into the wall in the right order and triple checking everything is level. It’s a major time investment (for an average-size kitchen, it can easily take the whole weekend if not longer), but all that money you save can...
Stacking pots and pans in low kitchen cabinets is by far the most popular storage method. It also happens to be the least convenient. You can be as strategic about it as you like, but somehow the tool you end up needing always seems to be at the bottom of the pile—the corresponding lid nowhere to be found. And if you’re the type of person who collects cast iron, wrangling the heavy pieces is a back-breaking workout, not to mention loud. While shoving bulky braisers and skillets in a cupboard is certainly a quick solution, there are plenty of other practical, affordable, and nonawkward ways to organize these essentials. Turns out, the ceiling and the extractor fan are better spots...
