Adding Shelving to Kitchen Cabinets

After years of housekeeping and collecting cooking paraphernalia for all kinds of food prep, I find that the “giant” kitchen in the house we purchased when we were first married has shrunk significantly. The once spacious cabinets are filled to bursting. Yes I need to sort, clean out and give away stuff I no longer use, but I also like to maximize every square inch of possible storage space. I’d like to open the cabinets and see room to grow my collection of things I really need. I’d love to have my lower kitchen cabinets rebuilt with pull out drawers and lazy susans and all kinds of clever storage solutions, but I’m not ready to spend big dollars for that project.

I’ve always stewed over the fact that the upper shelves in the lower cabinets are only half as wide as the bottom ones, and I understand that’s because of lighting and access. But, I’ve found a solution to double that space without compromising the light and visual access to the lower space. I added a wire shelf to extend the top shelves the full width of the cabinet.

Wire shelves with glass bowls and dishes let plenty of light through to the bottom shelf.

Yes, I have to bend over and stretch a little further (call it exercise!) when I reach back to get to the less frequently used items in the back of the lower space, but at least I have visual access. I specially like the casserole side of my cabinets because I put clear glass items on the top shelf so there’s plenty of light to see things on the bottom.

If you’ve been looking for more storage space in your kitchen, here’s how I got more shelving for about $50. I purchased adjustable wire shelves (Rubbermaid brand) from the local big box hardware store,

Adjustable wire shelving.

C-clamps

C clamps made for the wire shelving system, and some 1” X 2” wood to use for additional shelf support (like legs) because I will put heavy things on those shelves.

1″ x 2″s cut as support legs

1″ x 2″ support “legs” for wire shelf, screwed into existing cabinetry.

I could have saved more money by purchasing rigid wire shelving, rather than adjustable, and cutting it to size, but I’m not that great at cutting. (Measure twice, cut once doesn’t always work for me!) The adjustable shelves gave me a perfect fit. I also used the c-clamps to attach the shelves to the sides of the cabinets and a cut rigid shelf might not have been a tight enough fit at the cut edges to make the c-clamps work for this project.

I measured and cut the 1” X 2” to the height I wanted the wire shelves to be mounted, with the back of the wire shelves resting on the existing wooden shelving and secured with c-clamps.  I screwed the wooden supports into the cabinetry at the front cabinet edges and on the back of the wood strip between the doors. The c-clamps hold the shelves in permanent position.  Now all I have left to do is stain the wooden supports to match the cabinets. (I should have done that before installation, but I didn’t think of that then.)

Before…

…After

It’s not the most gorgeous cabinet modification ever designed, but I have more storage space, the cabinets are less cluttered, and my stacks of skillets no longer cascade out of my cabinet when I try to pull out one from the bottom of the stack.  My toes and shins are so happy about that!