Kitchen cabinets

What a wonderful thing you are doing for your mother-in-law. It's also a great opportunity to be creative. Try open wood shelving, painted wood crates will give you storage, old boxes, discarded drawers stacked on top of each other will give you addition open storage space. Best of luck.

I would shop around used furniture stores and see if there is an old dresser you can repurpose

You could use pallet wood to build shelving and use baskets, as well.

Old dressers would work well, easily found at second hand shops, Goodwill and similar stores, habitat re store, etc.

Kitchen Cabinet Alternatives - 11 Clever Ideas - Bob Vila

https://www.bobvila.com/slideshow/11-clever-alternatives-to-kitchen-cabinets-47078

I Like the idea of tag sales and the Habitat restore.. you might find something just terrific. I would put some thought into USING the space. In particular what she Must be able to reach, and what she will use most often. I have a small step stool that lives in the kitchen so I can ( for example) put the blender away, get down the silver plate tea set and fondue pot. The step stool is vital, and has its place in the corner near the sliding door.

There's also a 'rule' to design a work triangle I think counter space and 7' between fridge stove and sink?

Also watch out for the clearance and direction of the swing you'll need to open anything/everything that has a door. Between my diswasher and oven if both open there is about 1/2" only!

Another must consider topic is: how easy it will be to clean ( I hate open shelves, basically). In my kitchen we left space for 3 open all the time garbage pails ( the 11-13 gallon size) The are in a nice spot next to the sink. and you don't have to open or close anything to access them. One is for food/ mess, the other two are for recycling.

One other thought, is that if she does have a particular need... for me that would be the coffee maker! ....You'd best imagine a good spot for it, close by the sugar, filter, cups whatever.

Good luck!

Hi , Wanda - I am pleased that you are thinking this direction of how to USE the space, as every design choice that WORKS for us is very very satisfying. You will be able to "decorate" happily, once the 'bones' seem right. My coffee maker is to the left of the sink, the storage for the coffee is in the cupboard just above, and the garbage garbage is right under the coffee maker (also to the left of the sink). By the way, the grounds are supposed to be great for compost so you might designate a spot for compostables if it is something you do.

Speaking reaching: of In my kitchen we chose two tall cupboards. Actually, two doubles: One is divided - one side is like a broom closet ( buckets , mop broom , etc,. ) the other side has shelves which is where we stash liquor bottles and soda. I did not think we would want a broom closet; but I was pretty tired of having the broom or mop slide out from next to the fridge!

We also have the same cabinet configured differently with shelves across the entire double door (uh 3' width?). That is the pantry area: pasta, cans, pudding mix, bags of sugar. etc.

Really this is the hard part! I'm sure you're working on it and will come up with something good.

One favorite of mine is that we have a 'built in' open " spice shelf" near the stove for spices. It is quite shallow, and was created where the other side of the wall is the back of a closet. I think they cut the studs in that section; but beefed them up at the top and bottom of this opening. The sides have those little holes so you can adjust the height of 6? shelves. The top starts with "Advil" and "Asprin" actually; then the allspice etc. It is about 2' wide x 4' tall and is trimmed with the same typical molding ... as our wood window trim.. The bottom shelf is the salt and pepper and frequent use misc. So.. the beauty of that is that we can SEE what we have, and it is basically flush with the wall. It is a big improvement over anything else I have used.

I guess I really lke my kitchen, although it is not perfect.

Another topic is lighting: we installed under the cabinet lights in two or three "counter space work areas". This is nice to have available, and could actually be " mood lighting" I suppose.

I like a LOT of light. And, having it possible should not mean that you have to use all of it all the time; IF you install seperate switches. I think i have 11 high hats; and can do 1,2,2,2, or 4. or mix and match .

As I am not getting any younger , myself, I find the availability of plenty of light is really important.

In short - (for a change) Try to be as practical as possible and as realistic about all the items that she will need so that there will be a place for everything. :)