So I've been thinking about my dream house for most of my life. I'm always thinking of new little bits, ways I want to do things, techniques I might want to try, planning considerations I want to keep in mind. But I think I forget about a lot of it because I don't write it down.
This picture relates to something I should keep in mind for my dream kitchen. I think this kitchen is very attractive, and it appeals to me. However, I don't think the idea of open cabinetry would work for me, where people could see all your canned and boxed goods and dishes. This has a lovely feeling, but does not look neat and tidy enough for me (or it certainly wouldn't in practice, anyway).
What I want this picture as a reference for is spice location. Spices should be easily accessible when you're cooking. Standard-depth cabinets don't make sense for spices, because everything becomes difficult to find and bottles hide behind jars or bins or whatever. I think I should build-in a spice area with the cabinetry. Something without the size restrictions of a free-hanging spice rack (they are too narrow and too short for many spices), and without the giant vacuum of space of putting your spices in a cupboard. Something open, likely would work most efficiently, although I could put a door on (it would just be left open during cooking, I guess). Something where the shelf depth isn't more than about two spice bottles, or one of those large plastic bulk tins. The height of each shelf should be less than that of a cupboard shelf, but more than that of a little spice rack; again, the height to allow one of those plastic bulk containers would be just about right. And not every shelf needs to be that height, many (most) spices still come in much shorter jars, so height variance among the shelves would be fine and probably 2/3 or 3/4 of your spice space could be shelves shorter in height. The length of the shelves will really have to depend on the general architecture of the kitchen. The spice area should be within easy reach of both the stove and the counter. Directly over the stove will be a hood, so that won't work, but perhaps next to the hood (if the stove is against a wall)? Or is that too close to the heat of the stove? Could the heat be bad for spices? I'm not sure, I suppose I should check that out. I also want the spice area to be at eye-level, certainly nothing below counter-level would be very visually accessible.
I think having your spices as a single row all visible at the same time would work much better than what I'd previously thought about, which was built-in lazy-susan cabinetry. You couldn't just look and see what you need with that, you have to spin it, and anytime you have lots of little somethings i think it's a mistake to give them a chance to hide from you or get jumbled up (and if you spin too hard everything falls over, I know from my childhood). Grandma has her built-in lazy susan cupboard, and i still like the idea for cupboards in general (particularly corner cupboards which so often seem to fill with dead space and random junk you forget you have). And grandma keeps her spices on the top shelf of her under-counter turntable shelf, directly to the right of the stove. That proximity works, and is very efficient for her grabbing her spices (because it is only the top shelf there is no bending), but you still have the can't-see-all-of-what-you-have-at-once issue, as well as the height restriction of the counter above, and the limited space of only the one shelf.
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