When we first sit down with a customer to talk about their new kitchen, there’s one request that comes up more than any other.
“We need more storage.”
And honestly, it makes sense. Most people are currently living with kitchens where the Tupperware falls out every time they open a door, the blender lives on top of the fridge, and there’s a colander wedged in with the frying pans because there’s simply nowhere else for it to go.
So the natural assumption is that the new kitchen needs to fix all of that by cramming in as many cupboards as physically possible. Wall-to-wall. Floor-to-ceiling.
But here’s a thought that might feel a bit controversial.
More cupboards don’t necessarily give you a better kitchen.
They often just give you more places to hide things you don’t use.
1. Why “more storage” is the wrong goal
I get why people ask for it. You’ve been battling a badly designed kitchen for years, so more space feels like the obvious answer.
But there’s a difference between having storage and being able to actually use it.
Ask yourself this. If I asked you to grab the baking tray you used at Christmas, would you know exactly where it was? Could you get it out in ten seconds without moving anything else?
For most people, the honest answer is no.
That baking tray is at the back of a base cupboard, behind a tower of pans, next to that weird gadget from the wedding list you’ve never actually opened.
That’s not storage. That’s a graveyard.
2. The problem with standard cupboards
Standard base cupboards, the ones with a single door and a shelf inside, are the reason so many kitchens feel cramped even when they aren’t.
The problem is depth.
A base cupboard is around 560mm deep, but you can only really see the front third of it. Anything beyond that vanishes into the shadows.
So you end up doing that thing everyone does. You crouch down, tilt your head, and reach blindly into the back like you’re rescuing something from under the sofa.
You can only fit so many things in before it becomes impossible to find any of them.
The result is that most standard cupboards are actually working at about half their capacity. The volume is there, you just can’t get to it.
3. Why pan drawers change everything
This is why we’re huge advocates for deep, wide pan drawers instead of standard base cupboards.
When you open a drawer, the entire contents come out to meet you.
You can see everything at a glance, right to the very back. Pans stacked neatly. Lids in a row. Baking trays lifted upright with a divider. Nothing hiding. Nothing lost.
A well-designed stack of three drawers will hold far more than two standard cupboards of the same width, and make everything in it far easier to reach.
No rummaging. No kneeling. No swearing under your breath at 6pm on a Wednesday because you can’t find the pan you want.
The bit that surprises people most is how much a single drawer will swallow. One deep pan drawer will happily take all your saucepans and their lids. The next one down handles mixing bowls, colanders and casseroles. The bottom one is for the big stuff, roasting trays, air fryers, anything oversized.
Suddenly the kitchen isn’t full of hidden clutter. Everything has a home you can actually see.
4. Fewer wall cabinets, more room to breathe
Here’s where it gets interesting.
Once you’ve designed smart storage below the worktop, you often don’t need as many wall cabinets above it.
That’s a big deal. Wall cabinets are the thing that makes a kitchen feel closed in. They loom over the worktop, block the light, and force you to reach up to get anything out of them (which is where those “why did I put the good glasses on the top shelf” moments come from).
By moving the daily-use storage down into drawers, we can often strip back the wall units to just the essentials. Sometimes we replace them entirely with open shelving, a couple of tall units at one end of the room, or nothing at all.
The room opens up. The light flows. The worktop feels endless.
Kitchens that would otherwise feel small suddenly feel airy and generous. And you haven’t lost any storage. You’ve just moved it somewhere you can actually reach it.
5. Accessibility beats volume, every time
If there’s one idea I’d love you to take away from this, it’s that good storage isn’t about how much you can fit in.
It’s about how easily you can get it back out.
A kitchen with fewer, smarter cupboards will always feel better to live in than a kitchen packed with cupboards you can barely use. Every time you open a drawer and everything you need is right there in front of you, you’ll be reminded why the layout matters more than the volume.
Your kitchen should work for you at 7am on a Tuesday when someone’s late for school and you can’t find the lunchbox, not just at Christmas when you’ve had time to root around at the back of a cupboard.
6. You don’t need more cupboards, you need the right ones
When someone tells us they need more storage, what they really mean is they’re tired of not being able to find anything. They want a kitchen that stops fighting them.
The good news is you don’t fix that with more cupboards. You fix it with smarter ones.
Deep pan drawers below. Tall units where they earn their keep. Fewer wall cabinets. Everything in its right place. A kitchen where you can open one drawer, see everything, and get on with your day.
If you’re planning a new kitchen and you’ve been assuming more cupboards is the answer, come and have a chat with us before you commit to a layout. We’ll walk you through how the storage will actually work in daily life, not just how it looks on the plan.
You might be surprised how much better a kitchen feels with fewer, smarter cupboards.
And you’ll definitely be surprised how much you can fit in a really good drawer.
If you’re curious about squeezing every last bit of usable space out of a compact layout, we go deeper on that in our guide to How Can I Save Space in My Small Kitchen?
You Might Also Like
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I really need more cupboards in my new kitchen?
Are drawers really better than cupboards in a kitchen?
For everyday cooking, yes. When you open a drawer, the whole contents come out to meet you. You see everything at a glance and nothing gets stranded at the back. A standard base cupboard is around 560mm deep, but you can only really see the front third of it, so anything beyond that vanishes into the shadows. Cupboards still have their place for a few bits (bulky appliances, tall bottles, that sort of thing), but for the daily stuff (pans, bowls, trays, utensils) deep drawers win every time.
How many pan drawers should a kitchen have?
There isn’t a fixed number, but a good starting point is a stack of three deep pan drawers below or next to the hob for cookware, and a second stack of two or three shallower drawers for cutlery, utensils and everyday bits. Once you’ve got that, you can add more drawer stacks depending on how much daily-use storage you need. We’d rather see you with three well-designed drawer stacks than eight standard base cupboards.
How deep are kitchen pan drawers?
Most base units are around 560mm deep front-to-back, so a pan drawer runs to the same depth. The bit that varies is the height of each drawer. A typical stack of three might be roughly 250mm, 300mm and 350mm high, though a good designer will tailor those to what you actually own. Deeper isn’t always better. A drawer that’s too deep just becomes another place for things to pile up on top of each other.
Do I still need wall cabinets if I have pan drawers?
Often, no. Once your daily-use storage has moved into deep drawers below the worktop, wall cabinets stop pulling their weight. They loom over the worktop, block light, and end up storing things you rarely reach for. A lot of the kitchens we design now have far fewer wall cabinets than people expect, sometimes none at all on one side. The room feels bigger, the light flows, and nothing important is out of reach.
What can you store in a pan drawer besides pans?
More than you’d think. One drawer will happily take mixing bowls, colanders and casseroles. Another handles baking trays and roasting tins if you add an upright divider. Shallow top drawers work brilliantly for cutlery, utensils, knives, wraps and foils. Deeper drawers will swallow air fryers, slow cookers and other bulky appliances so they aren’t cluttering up the worktop. With the right internal fittings, drawers are honestly the most flexible bit of storage in the whole kitchen.
