The Next Idea (Part Three of Three)
28 February 2008With a sink cabinet that is no longer mostly filled with plumbing, it is possible to make wonderful use of a cabinet that is often 36″ wide. Some have only one over-sized drawer which they then use for trash; others split the space into two 12″ deep drawers. The very top of the cabinet can also be put to use, depending on the style of cabinetry one chooses.
The area at the top of a sink cabinet is sometimes still just given over to false front panels. Other times a drawer is installed with varying configurations. One method is a very shallow drawer, which still runs back on full-length drawer glides. Heretofore, the home owner has been relegated to whatever cleaning supplies would fit into this shallow drawer, but Hettich Innotech has come out with a product they call OrgaFlex, which enables one to simply hook bins behind the back panel of this drawer. Depending on where the sink is, one can slide these bins back and forth to still permit the drawer to close, but the end result is a bit more storage space than would have otherwise been the case.
Another company that has been hard at work on storage problems is Blum, which is one of the leading manufacturers of hinges and drawer glides. Some years back they began making Metabox, which is an economical metal drawer system, and have since gone into the manufacture of drawers, but with a bit of a twist. Most of the drawer ideas they now promote seek to solve a storage problem of some sort, most often in the kitchen.
Blum’s solution to the top of the sink cabinet challenge is a U-shaped drawer that wraps around the sink basin, with the base of the “U” being very shallow. The legs of the “U” are a bit wider and easily accommodate most cleaning supplies.
These are cutting-edge ideas that have come from manufacturers, but, of course, there is still the innovation that often results from an inventive homeowner collaborating with an accomplished cabinetmaker. A pretty girl is like a melody, they say. So is a new solution to an old problem!
Joseph
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kitchen storage,kitchen design
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