Inspired Approaches to Kitchen Storage

Featuring reclaimed wood from the original house, a single sliding door covers only half of the kitchen pantry. As the door slides, china and glassware are revealed on one side; the other side holds Anne’s design library and favored heirlooms. The sliding door follows a track installed in the concrete underfloor; the shelves are supported by recessed steel brackets, strong enough to hold the weight of a man—or a baby. An additional full-size pantry is located inside the laundry room, toward the original bungalow.

Surviving a natural disaster can be hard on your body—particularly if you need to walk long distances. To be as efficient as possible, you want to stock up on high-calorie, lightweight foods with long shelf lives like dried fruit, nuts and nut butters, crackers, and energy and protein bars. Canned food and MREs (meals-ready-to-eat) are also a good idea, but make sure that you have the means to open them by also packing a can opener or only purchasing pop-top cans.

In this sleek kitchen renovation in San Francisco, the kitchen backsplash is an easy-to-clean glass backsplash that mimics the glossy finish of the surrounding white cabinets. Painters accomplished the high-gloss finish on the cabinets of a kitchen in San Francisco by applying a coat of paint, polishing it with very high-grit sandpaper, repeating the process for each layer, then topping it with three coats of clear varnish. "It’s like an auto body," says builder Jeff King. "It’s incredibly beautiful." The island provides shelving space and storage as well as a second sink, an is topped with pietra grigio marble.

The pantry is integrated into the stairwell that leads to the basement. Photo credit: Dale Christopher Lang PhD AIAP