Most kitchens do not need more cupboards. They need the cupboards they have to give things back. Six pages here cover the mechanisms that do that, and the hardware that decides whether it still works in ten years.
A base cabinet with a fixed shelf is two feet deep and you use the front eight inches of it. The rest is technically storage and practically a place things go to be forgotten. Adding another cupboard does not fix that; it gives you a second cupboard with the same problem.
What fixes it is bringing the depth forward. Pull-out shelves put the back of the cabinet in your hand, and corner units do the same for the dead space no arm reaches. Both convert space you already paid for into space you use.
The same logic runs through drawers. A deep drawer without dividers is a box everything slides around in, and the fix is pegs and trays rather than a bigger drawer. None of this needs a new kitchen, only the right moment to fit it.
Recent work
How it works
How Storage Gets Specified
Look at what is in there
We open every cupboard and ask what annoys you daily. The answer is usually two or three specific cabinets rather than the kitchen, and that keeps the spend small.
Measure the opening properly
Internal width, not the door. Face frames, hinge plates and the door itself all steal clearance, and a pull-out ordered to the wrong number does not go in.
Rate the runners to the load
A pull-out of tins is heavy. Runners are chosen against weight rather than width, which is the difference between a mechanism that lasts and one that sags in a year.
Fit while the doors are off
During a reface or install this is an hour of work. Afterwards it is a return visit. We tell you what is worth doing now even if you are not sure you want it.
Common questions
Storage and Hardware Questions, Answered
What is worth fitting, what it costs, and what actually fails.
Nearly always better ones. A deep cabinet with a fixed shelf wastes most of its volume because you cannot reach it. Mechanisms that bring the depth forward turn space you already own into space you use.
Usually yes, provided the internal width suits. The catch is cost: fitted during a reface it is an hour of work, fitted afterwards it is a separate visit for the same result.
Quality hinges are rated for 50,000 to 100,000 cycles, roughly 15 to 25 years in normal use. When the damper eventually wears out the door simply closes normally again rather than failing.
Roughly one third of the drawer width. A 30 inch drawer takes about a 10 inch pull, a 12 inch drawer about 4 inches. Drawers over 24 inches usually look better with two.
Pull-out systems give more usable storage than a lazy susan, because rectangular shelves fit a square corner and circular ones do not. Lazy susans are cheaper and mechanically simpler.
Runners that were under-specified for the load. Everything else on these pages is either mechanically simple or rated for decades. Weight is the question nobody asks and the one that matters.
Do the cabinets that annoy you and leave the rest. Fitting every mechanism available is a fast way to spend money on cupboards you open twice a year.
We open every cupboard, ask what annoys you, and quote only the ones worth doing. Fitted while the doors are off it costs a fraction of doing it later.
