6 Design-Savvy Tips for Hiding Kitchen Appliances

You dream of a sleek clutter-free kitchen out of the pages of your favorite design magazine. Yet, instead, your space resembles more of an appliance showroom. Thanks to your collection of machines—from your multi-cooker and microwave to your stove and oven—your kitchen is a sea of stainless steel. Read on for ideas on how to take back precious counter space and keep your appliances from stealing the show. 

1. Add an Appliance Garage

An appliance garage is a hidden cabinet space for your appliances. Consider this type of set-up for a breakfast or coffee station—complete with your coffeemaker, coffee grinder, tools, mugs, and toaster. Or use it to store multiple items, such as your food processor, slow cooker, and blender.

 Most importantly, if the base of your appliance garage is your countertop, add electrical outlets to the back of the cabinets. Then designate this storage for your heaviest items, like your standing mixer and food processor. This way, you can use these cumbersome items in place, no heavy lifting required.

2. Buy Appliance Drawers

For the ultimate camouflage treatment, you may want to consider purchasing appliances that are pull-out drawers. You can find fridges, dishwashers, warming drawers, and microwaves in this format. Usually, the 24- to 30-inch-wide pull-out drawers are installed in kitchen islands. Since you’ll definitely need more cold storage space than one or two drawers can provide, think of refrigerated drawers as supplementary to your main appliance.

3. Choose Integrated, Panel-Ready Appliances

 Integrated appliances are permanently built into kitchen walls or cabinets, which helps them blend into their surroundings. To camouflage them even further, opt for panel-ready models, which let you face your fridge or dishwasher with the same cabinetry you’re using for the rest of your kitchen. Your cabinet company can also fabricate matching panels and then mount them on top of your appliances. Choose fully integrated (rather than built-in) panel-ready appliances for the most effective disguise since these will sit flush with your cabinets.

4. Fit Cabinets with Pull-Out Shelves

Install pull-out or swing-out shelves in your lower cabinets and use them to store small to midsize appliances, like toasters and electric can openers. To make this strategy more ergonomic, purchase light-weight machines. That way, you won’t overtax your back when lifting these items and placing them on your countertop.

5. Recess Your Fridge

Refrigerators tend to stick out more than their surrounding cabinets since standard cabinets and fridges are different depths. To make your fridge blend in, you can recess it—so long as your home has a room with extra space behind your appliance. Just ask your carpenter or contractor to build a recessed area into the interior wall that can accommodate your fridge. Alternatively, you can ask your contractor to make the cabinets on the same wall as your fridge match its depth.   

6. Build a Pantry

If you have the space, create a pantry and use it to store your appliances. Although walk-ins are ideal, since they’re the roomiest, you can even repurpose an armoire or media cabinet as a freestanding pantry.