Kitchen, Cabinet & Furniture Makers

Design Tips

Kitchen blog for Herringbone kitchens, Kitchen showroom base in Canterbury, Kent

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Design Tips: Spice Racks & Toaster Trays

When planning and designing your dream kitchen, you will consider a myriad of things from cabinetry style, worktop materials & colours and daydream about the styling once it's all done. Something that we have noticed gaining a lot of popularity recently in our designs however might be something you would never have considered or known to exist: the in-larder toaster tray and spice racks on the back of a cabinetry door!

Navy blue double door larder with oak shelving, drawers and spice rack.
Dark blue double door larder with spice rack and toaster tray inside.

Toaster trays are brilliant works of carpentry, designed to sit inside your cabinetry or larder units, sliding in and out allowing you to store your toaster off your counter. This also keeps your kitchen a safer space as toasters should not be used inside regular cabinetry due to their nature of being fire hazards.

Black and white kitchen with boiler cupboard door open revealing a spice rack and toaster tray inside.
Light green larder with oak shelves and spice racks inside.

You may even wish to use the sliding trays as smart kitchen storage instead. Storing things like teas and coffees or dry goods you use on a regular, every day basis.

Large green double door pantry larder with its doors open revealing oak drawers, shelving and painted spice racks inside.
Black kitchen with brass handles and quartz worktops. Double door larder with spice racks and quartz shelf

The spice rack: one of our favourite kitchen design inventions! Say goodbye to rummaging to the back of a cupboard shelf looking for your turmeric powder. Spice racks on the inside of your cabinetry doors as a great way to conceal your herbs, spices and oils while keeping them incredibly accessible when needed.

Blue kitchen with large double door larder unit with its doors open revealing oak shelving, drawers and painted spice racks.

You can have one or two (or more) spice racks either painted to match your cabinetry colours or left in their natural oak to match the inside of your pantry. Adding brass, nickel or chrome bars to the spice rack shelves is a very small touch, but will make a big impact to the overall feel of your kitchen.

Green double door kitchen larder with its doors open revealing oak drawers , a quartz shelf and painted spice racks.
Dark navy blue kitchen with double door larder with its doors open revealing oak drawers and a pull out toaster tray.

Please always follow your appliances instructions, including whether they can be placed inside cabinetry or not. This includes all appliances but especially toasters and microwaves in cabinetry. Do not use toasters or leave appliances such as kettles and microwaves plugged in inside larders.