10 Clever Uses for Kitchen Cabinets

Home bars are great additions to basements, living rooms, dining rooms or off the kitchen, creating the perfect setup for entertaining. It's no surprise that cabinets work well here, offering a designated place to keep mixers and bar accessories. This home bar also features a wine cooler, perfect for keeping your wine at the right temperature. Open shelving balances out the cabinetry and gives you a place to display décor and your favorite glassware. If you prefer and are able, make it a wet bar by incorporating a bar sink.

Home bars also make great coffee stations. However you like your coffee — iced or hot, brewed with a French press or with a regular coffee maker — create a coffee hub that includes everything you need to fuel your days. Within the cabinets you can store all the essentials like coffee filters, pods for single-serve cups, stir sticks and more. Plus, it’s perfect for your collection of coffee mugs, giving you plenty of room to tuck some away and keep your favorites out on display.

Creating a pet washing station for bathing your dog makes their grooming routine easier to manage. Carve out an area in your garage or basement or add on to your mudroom. Stock cabinetry is perfect for keeping shampoos, brushes, towels and other grooming supplies at the ready. For this pet station, upper and lower white cabinets provide plenty of storage for the essentials, with a countertop and sink in between for convenience. Matching black fixtures and hardware tie the space together.

Laundry day is more enjoyable when things are organized and everything is in its place. And a mix of cabinets provides needed storage to keep things tidy. Upper cabinets with glass fronts can hold detergent and towels, while cabinets below can handle other cleaning supplies. An opening under the sink can hold laundry baskets. A series of hooks and rods can keep ironing boards and other essentials at the ready.

Here are some tips and ideas for stylishing organizing your laundry room.

How to Organize Your Laundry Room

Garages are often a breeding ground for mess and disorganization, but adding stock cabinets can transform it into a clean and tidy space. In this garage, cabinets were used for tool and paint storage. Use them for whatever you need to contain: cleaning supplies, extra toiletries, gardening supplies, sporting equipment, etc. Add a pegboard along the back wall to hang brooms, rakes and small tools.

For further tips and storage ideas, read:

Garage Storage Buying Guide

Garage Tool Storage Buying Guide

How to Organize a Garage

Customize Cabinets for Garage Storage

With home offices more popular than ever, it's important to have an organized space where you can be comfortable and productive. By using cabinetry, you can create a space for a desk, drawers for supplies and files, and shelving for books, calendars and your favorite knickknacks.

For more ideas on how to create an office space for yourself or a workspace for your children, watch these videos:

Transform Your Living Room Into a Home Office

Transform Closet Into Kids' Workspace

Office for Two

Mudrooms are a drop zone for umbrellas, raincoats, winter coats and muddy boots. And if things don't have a designated space, it can get messy. This is where cabinets can take a mudroom from cluttered to contained. In this entryway, cabinets double as seating and storage. Hooks keep backpacks and purses at eye level. Scarves, hats and gloves are tucked away in baskets.

Get inspired to create your own mud room with these how-to articles.

How to Plan a Mudroom

In a bathroom, every inch of storage counts. Vanities and medicine cabinets are always a good way to hide toiletries. And if you’re looking for a way to create a custom, one-of-a-kind vanity, then kitchen cabinets are an ideal choice. Keep convenient features like pull-out shelves to easily access toiletries and other bathroom essentials or get really creative and convert a pull-out trash can into a hamper that can stay hidden behind a closed cabinet door. In this bathroom, white base cabinets were used to create the vanity, and act as an anchor between gray floor tile, green wall tile and a wood plank ceiling.

Here are some more bathroom ideas to get you inspired.

3 Ways to Make Over Your Bathroom

Stylish Organization for a Child's Bathroom

Stuffed animals, trucks, markers and more can overwhelm the playroom. Get all those toys off the floor and straighten up this space. In this case, cabinets and drawers were used for hidden storage, with counter space and shelving above for a selection of toys and room décor. Ledge shelving was added to keep books neatly lined up and to display artwork.

From bedrooms and dining rooms to kitchens and more, a window seat is a pretty yet practical option for almost any space. The window seat in this living room uses cabinetry for the seat base, creating L-shaped seating in front of sets of windows at one side of the room. Black and white cushions and throw pillows top off the cozy corner. The green cabinet color stands out as the statement hue in the space, accented with gold hardware to match the gold light fixtures on the walls. But the best part is, this seating addition brings extra storage to the space.

Watch our how-to video:

Home Entryway: Storage and Organization Solutions

Built-in bookcases are always a stylish and functional addition to any room, but they can be expensive. By using stock cabinetry, you can create beautiful storage for different spaces, like in this dining room. Tall cabinets flank shorter base cabinets and are perfect for keeping table linens, special dishes and more tucked away. Floating shelves in the open wall space between the cabinets leaves room to display glassware and other decor pieces.

Here’s one idea for adding built-ins to your space.

How to Build a Media Wall and Desk