Five Must-Have Favorite Kitchen Features for your Renovation or Remodel

Are you planning your dream kitchen?  Pinning images of every gorgeous stove, backsplash, and granite counter?  I’ve come up with Five Must-Have Favorite Kitchen Features for your Renovation or Remodel that I’m excited to share with you.

We did a complete gut for Our Kitchen Renovation and when you read that post you’ll see what we had and why I love all these things so so much.

Since I’ve been living with our new kitchen for a while I thought I’d share what my five favorite kitchen features are.  I love the entire kitchen but I narrowed it down to just five(ish) favorites you can use when updating your own kitchen.

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My Five Favorite Kitchen Features

In no particular order here is the list of my favorite kitchen features.

Number One – Pot and Pan Storage

This first item of my favorite new kitchen features is an awesome product and I don’t know how I lived without it.  It’s called Glideware Pull-out Pot and Pan Organizer.  It mounts inside a base cabinet and can hold up to 100 lbs.

The lids slide over the pot handles for easy storage and there’s clearance below to store splatter screens and larger lids.  Two of these can be mounted side-by-side if you have a wider cabinet and more cookware.

I can’t believe I ever lived without this!

My old pans didn’t have slotted handles and I was lucky to score this Cuisinart Cookware Set on clearance locally. They’re such good pans I would have paid the regular price.

Number Two – Dead Corner Storage

No one likes dead space and this Wari Corner  is perfect to fill every nook.

This thing is awesome; in the back I keep my Crock Pot and some cake and pie pans as well as my large pot, the steamer basket, and some lids in the front section.  It’s easy to operate and makes good use of otherwise wasted space.

Magic Corner is another brand you may have heard of and there are some less expensive options such as Rev-A-Shelf but they don’t have the storage capacity of the the Wari or Magic Corner.

Number Three – Sink and Faucet

The one thing we use most often is the gigantic Kraus Stainless Steel Sink.  I cannot begin to tell you what an upgrade this is to the old shallow two-bowl sink I had before.

The old sink had rounded sides and I couldn’t fill a pitcher without it falling over.  It was so cheaply made. Not this baby, it’s solid and 10″ deep.

While we’re at the sink is the Ashton Faucet by Delta  we selected.  We got ours locally at Lowe’s. The sprayer head snaps back in place with a magnet when not in use.

I asked to have it mounted with the handle in the front instead of on either side (as you can see in the picture above).  Installing the faucet with the handle at the front keeps puddles from happening on the counter behind the sink from wet hands.

Number Four – Smart Storage

We’re almost to the end of my list of favorite kitchen features but there’s still good stuff to share.  This space before the Kitchen Renovation was U-G-L-Y, you have to see it to believe it.

At first I wasn’t sure I’d like the slide out oil and vinegar drawer but it makes finding the bottles so much easier, and nothing gets lost at the back of the cabinet any longer.

And I really love the deep narrow shelves on the left for cookie sheets and cutting boards!

Before we literally we had 7″ gaps on either side of the stove that were big crumb and spill catchers.  The house came like that but I lived with it for way too long.  I can’t believe I never came up with even a temporary solution.

Taking just a quick look online I found plenty of options that would’ve solved the issue quickly, and given us more storage. Or I could have DIY’d one myself 🙂

Number Five – Lighting

Who wouldn’t add lighting to their list of favorite kitchen features?  It’s like jewelry for the kitchen.  When we first bought our house there was nothing pretty about the lights.

We had one tiny light over the sink behind frosted glass, one domed boob light on the ceiling and a vent hood light.  With all three together there wasn’t enough light for working in the kitchen.

(check out how I solved our other Boob Light problem
with a beautiful makeover.)

Goose neck lights are awesome and I knew I wanted them over the sink.  I love how they look, and the graceful curve is a nice visual relief to all the angles of the open beam ceiling.

Considering the thousands of options for goose neck lights I found what I wanted relatively quickly and at a great price.

I got my Goose Neck Lights on Wayfair but they’re not available there any longer.  I was, however, able to locate the same ones for you, and even less expensive, at Home Depot.

The industrial nature of these lights looks perfect in our classic kitchen.  Can you see why they’re one of my favorite features in my kitchen?

No kitchen renovation these days would be complete without under-cabinet lights.  After tons of research and reading online reviews until my eyes crossed I chose these  LightKiwi Dimmable LED lights.

The lights come in kits that can be daisy chained together and plugged into a wall.  Or you can do like us and wire them to a transformer with a master dimmer.

I love that they have a shield to protect the bulbs and it gives some moisture protection from the coffee pot or steam from the stove.  If you are in the market for under-cabinet lights, these are what you want.  You can see a few other options below.

If you’re in the market for a new coffee pot I can’t recommend the Cuisinart Brew Central enough.  It’s uses cone-shaped filters which saves coffee, and it’s a work horse.  We’ve bought a few over the years to give as gifts.

There are many more things I love about my kitchen; but, there are too many to list here.  I wanted to keep it to five(ish) favorite features so I don’t bore you.

I can’t say I have one favorite thing over the others and I really recommend every single one.  All of them together makes my kitchen function better than ever!

Thanks for taking my mini kitchen tour today.  I hope you found some great ideas and inspiration for your next kitchen project.  Don’t forget to pin the things you love to your favorite boards.

Until next time,
Toni

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