10 Kitchen Remodel Ideas: My Must-Haves!

With our new home build underway, I’m in the process of finalizing our kitchen cabinet plans and all of the little details that go along with them. After loving so many of the choices we made in the kitchens of our current and previous homes, there are several that I knew from day one I wanted to put on repeat!

Today I’m sharing my tried-and-true kitchen remodel ideas & must-haves, along with a few new additions that made the cut for our new build. Whether you’re remodeling, building, or simply looking for a few smart ways to make your kitchen work better, I hope you find an idea or two to steal for your own space! (post includes commissionable links; for more information, see my full disclosure statement {here})

1. Open Kitchen Shelving

Open shelving in a kitchen… do you love it or hate it? After adding open shelves to the kitchens in both our previous and current homes, you can definitely put me in the “love it” camp!

I love the look of open shelving because it breaks up wall-to-wall cabinets so you’re not looking at a sea of doors. And if you choose wood shelves, they add warmth to the space. As a bonus, shelving is a great place to add some personality to your kitchen with accessories and beautiful serving pieces.

In the kitchen of our previous home, I added white oak floating corner shelves that added so much warmth to the space:

Want to see more pics of our remodeled kitchen and get source links for everything? Check out our kitchen remodel before and after!

And when we remodeled the kitchen in our current home, I added two pairs of {these floating wood shelves} flanking our range hood:

The biggest concern I hear about open shelving is the dust, and it’s true that it requires more dusting than closed cabinetry. But if you keep things on your shelves that you use frequently, they’ll be used and washed too often for dust to collect. And for serving pieces and other items that aren’t used as often, a quick rinse or wipe before using them does the trick.

And yes, open shelves mean you can’t hide the not-so-pretty stuff. But as long as you have enough closed cabinet storage for mugs, water bottles, and mismatched dishes, styling your open shelves is part of the fun! I love having a spot to display and rotate some of my prettier kitchen pieces instead of keeping everything hidden behind cabinet doors.

Based on my love of open shelving, I’m sure it’s not surprise that it’s making an appearance in our new kitchen too! Similar to the kitchen coffee bar in our current home, we’ll have open wood shelves above the coffee station in our walk-through pantry (cabinet design by Coastal Cabinets):

2. Integrated Paper Towel Storage

Having a designated spot for our paper towels where they’re off the countertop but easy to grab is one of the kitchen remodel ideas that’s a definite must-have for me. In our previous home, we had a hanging roll of paper towels (with storage for extra rolls behind it) in the space above our pull-out trash cans:

I liked that there was a full shelf underneath the paper towel roll that created a division between them and the trash/recycling cans.

In our current home, we keep our paper towels in a narrow pull out-next to our sink:

For our new build, we’re switching things up again! Our paper towels will be stored in one of our island drawers, with a built-in holder for the roll in front and space for extra rolls behind it:

I love that everything will be tucked out of sight but still right where we need it.

3. Drawers & More Drawers

One piece of advice that many of you gave me before remodeling our first kitchen was to add LOTS of drawers. Such great advice! We did all drawers in our kitchen island in our current home and our previous one:

Sources: Lantern pendants over island  |  Drawer pulls (12″)  |  Rattan counter stools in Fog

They hold everything from our cookware to our food storage containers, baking dishes, colanders, water bottles and more:

See my post on kitchen drawer organizer ideas to peek inside each one!

4. Hidden Outlet & USB Charger

While we’re talking drawers, another feature I loved having and plan to put on repeat is a hidden charger within a drawer like this one we had in our previous kitchen:

I loved being able to store a tablet (which I often use for recipes) out of sight while keeping it charged. It was also a great spot to charge my phone when I was listening to music or a podcast while cooking or cleaning the kitchen.

We also had a hidden outlet on the back of our kitchen island where the counter stools were that I used all of the time for plugging in my laptop (our island often did double duty as my “desk”).

5. Corner Drawers

If you have the opportunity to add corner drawers to your kitchen when you remodel, do it! It’s a kitchen remodel idea you won’t regret – I LOVED mine! Instead of having a lazy Susan with an awkward hinged door and turntables, the corner drawers were easy to use, awesome for storing long items (in our top drawer) that were hard to fit in standard depth drawers, and full of functional, deep space in the bottom two drawers:

Our future home won’t have corner drawers, only because there are no corners with cabinetry but it’s a kitchen feature I loved having!

6. A Large Single Sink

Are you team single basin sink or divided sink. I am single basin sink all the way! All four houses we’ve owned had divided kitchen sinks when we moved in and swapping them out to single basin sinks was always high on my priority list!

I love having a sink that’s big enough to lay baking dishes flat for soaking. And being able to use it as a dog washing station is a plus too 🙂

For our new build, I’m planning to use {this same large farmhouse sink} in our laundry room that we had in the kitchen of our previous home. And I’m planning to use {this beautiful farmhouse workstation sink} in our kitchen.

7. Smart Cabinet & Drawer Storage

There are so many awesome additions that you can make to your kitchen drawers and cabinets to increase storage space and keep things organized. One of my favorites from our previous kitchen was the double tier rollback silverware drawer that essentially doubled the amount of storage space:

I also loved the hidden toe kick drawer in our kitchen island – it made use of what’s normally wasted space and was the perfect spot for storing large platters and trays:

In our new build, I’m excited to have a tall drawer with dividers to keep cookie sheets and cutting boards. Check out my post on kitchen cabinet storage ideas to see other favorites from our previous home.

8. Microwave Drawer

Microwave drawers seem to be a love-it-or-hate-it kitchen addition. I had one for the first time in the kitchen of our previous home and loved it:

It opened and closed with the push of a button, made it easier to lift heavy dishes in and out, and was a nice large size. Some people complain about how slowly the drawer opens and closes, but that never really bothered me. I can program the microwave while the drawer is closing, and when my food is done, I only have to wait a few seconds for it to fully open.

It’s a little more of a pain to clean than a standard microwave, but I found an easy trick that helps. Heat up a bowl of water with a splash of lemon juice, let it sit for a few minutes, and any splatters and grime wipe away super easily.

9. A Large Gas Range With Double Oven

The star of the show in our previous kitchen was our 48″ Monogram range that had six gas burners and a griddle along with a full size oven and a second smaller oven. It was exactly what I wanted in terms of features and functionality and it was pretty darn beautiful too:

The small oven is great because it’s large enough for many meals we cooked and heated up quickly – I didn’t miss having two full sized ovens a bit. And did I mention how pretty is is?! The only thing I didn’t love about the range in our last home is that the oven was gas too (I found that I prefer an electric oven because it bakes more evenly) so I made that change when we remodeled the kitchen in our current home.

For our new build, I’m sticking with a 48″ range but going with an induction cooktop instead of gas. See my post on induction vs gas for more details on why I’m making the switch!

10. Kitchen Pantry with Pullout Shelves

Our last house was the first one where we had a pantry with pullout shelves, and I don’t think I can ever go back to not having them!

There’s room to store so much more food than with a standard shallow pantry with fixed shelves, and the pull-outs make everything so much easier to see and access. No more digging around in the back of a deep cabinet to find what you’re looking for!

A few other kitchen remodel ideas I’m incorporating into our new build are dedicated spice drawers, a dedicated coffee station, and cabinets on the back of our kitchen island with touch-latch hardware for extra storage.:

Now that you’ve seen my favorite kitchen remodel ideas I’d love your input! What am I missing?! Tell me what you have in your kitchen that you couldn’t live without or what’s on your kitchen wish list!

If you’re looking for sources on anything in our previous kitchen, check out my post on our before and after kitchen remodel and for our current kitchen, check out my post on our kitchen remodel reveal. And if you’re looking for more ideas and inspiration for a kitchen remodel, these posts might be helpful:

10 Kitchen Cabinet Organization Ideas

Kitchen Drawer Organizer Ideas

Kitchen Counter Stools 101

Kitchen Remodel Ideas on a Budget

How to Organize Under Your Kitchen Sink