Must-Have Kitchen Features

Building a home or remodeling a kitchen? These are 5 must-have kitchen features we added when we built our home that we can’t live without; once you have them, you won’t be able to go back 🙂

Cabinets to the Ceiling

Cabinets that go all the way to the ceiling not only add extra storage, they also eliminate the need to clean the tops of them from all the grease and grime that accumulate when cooking. I’m all about low maintenance so if there’s an area in the house that I don’t have to worry about cleaning, I’m all for it. Our ceilings are 9 feet tall so our cabinet maker did a double-stack, but you can also just have one taller cabinet extend to the ceiling.

Another visual benefit is that they can make your ceilings appear taller. Drawing the eye upward makes spaces look bigger, and if there’s an actual break in the design (e.g. a space between the top of the cabinets and the ceiling), it can break that illusion.

Soft Close Doors and Drawers

We had soft close hinges in the kitchen at our old place and knew we wanted them in our new home, too. It is SO nice not hearing slamming doors and drawers. These cabinet hinges and drawer slides are available at home improvement stores. A must-have feature that gives your kitchen a bit of a luxury feel.

Trash Pull Out

I love having a dedicated drawer just for our trash and recycling bins. We have the trash in the front and recycling in the back. At our old place, we just had a tiny trashcan underneath the sink and it wasn’t able to hold much. I’m also not a fan of having those trash cans with the lids out in the open – convenient but a bit unsightly. It’s nice having a dedicated space for the trash and recycling that’s out of sight.

Touch Faucet

Our Delta touch faucet was definitely a pricey upgrade from the standard faucet our builder offered, but it was so worth it. We use it all. the. time. As I’m typing this, my husband just said it’s his favorite part of the kitchen. Once you start using it, you won’t be able to go back! I find myself automatically going to touch other faucets and then having a moment of confusion when it doesn’t turn on haha! The touch faucet is so convenient when your hands are messy; you can use the back of your hand or forearm to turn it on and off.

Under Cabinet Lighting

We have an open floor plan where the kitchen, dining room, and great room are all one big room, so we get a lot of natural light in our kitchen, but the extra light we get from the under-cabinet lighting is a game-changer, even during the day. The direct light on the countertops is so useful when we are prepping meals or baking. Our lights are hardwired so we can turn them on with a switch, but they also have lights that plug into an outlet which can make adding under-cabinet lighting a super easy DIY project!