Signature Moves: Remove Kitchen Cabinet Doors

Earlier this month we had a great time helping one of my apprentices, Kelsey Anne, get her kitchen more organized. We’ve been working together for eight months now and have grown quite fond of each other. So getting to work on a kitchen project together was like a field trip and play date rolled into one.

Kelsey has a small kitchen, so we were trying to maximize the space for easy access to the things she uses most.

One of my favorite parts of our project was making a simple change of reversing a baker’s rack and her refrigerator. It made a remarkable difference to the feel of her room and gave her with a nice surface to set items on between the fridge and stove, and also gave her better access to storage for her cookbooks, and things like onions and potatoes.

The other thing we did – which is one of my signature moves – is to take one of her kitchen cabinet doors off. If you find you have trouble closing cupboard doors behind you as I do, then consider taking a couple of doors off. I know taking doors off isn’t for everybody, but for some people it’s a great solution for easier access to storage.

If I’m going to take doors off, I like to make placement of dishes “artful,” so that it can be aesthetically pleasing as well as practical.

In the case of Kelsey’s kitchen, we did it because the door was in the way of her limited counter space.

Do you have anything in your kitchen that could benefit by a simple shift in placement?