Sometimes you just want things ready to grab. No opening a cabinet. No opening a drawer.
When I moved in I knew I needed to at least repair, if not replace, my cabinet doors. The plywood they were made from was delaminating on the corners. I took them all down, pumped them full of wood glue and put them back up.
This has had me blissfully not caring if I put holes in them for the last 8 years. So I just keep adding features for stuff that gets used frequently and I don’t want to ever dig for.
Dry goods storage above the cabinets got installed first, a double magnetics knife strip so knives didn’t go flying when you open the cabinet. Dry measuring cups, liquid measuring cups, pot lids for two sets of pots, small pastry rolling pin, instant read thermometer, pot holders, two skillets (one not seen to the left, a special shelf on the inside of a cabinet just got my instant coffee, and so much more like quick grab spice/oil racks over the sink.
Have you got any cabinet modifications you have done to make everything easier?
I know it’s not in-line with the latest kitchen trends but holy cow is this a functional workspace. You don’t “prepare meals” here. You build cuisine in a space like this.
New-old house this year. Drawer slides and drawer-pulls were first to go. All were sticky, impossible to clean, and didn’t work half the time.
My drawers don’t have any slides. They are all raw wood on wood. When we moved in I had to buy a bar of soap to put on all the drawer bottoms. Worked like a charm. Haven’t had reapply in 8 years.
I don’t envy the price you paid for new slides. Or the cramps someone got installing them in cabinets that have a counter on top.
Some times, the old ways are best.
Eh, I didn’t have to get every last set, but the ones that were too rusted/gunked to work… yeah. I’m almost a contortionist and some of those were complete bastards to install. Everywhere the Makita didn’t fit, yeah, hand-cramp city.