furniture
By Liza Corsillo, a senior writer at the Strategist covering kids’ toys and men’s style. She joined the Strategist in 2019. She is a former writer for GQ and an accomplished illustrator.
The winning cabinet in its corner of our kitchen. Photo: Liza Corsillo
I am a renter, but if I owned my apartment I would tear everything out of the narrow galley kitchen and start from scratch. Instead, every once in a while I make some tiny change in an effort to maximize space and minimize the ick. When I moved in, my husband had been living in the apartment for several years and had set up two wooden Ikea carts on the wall opposite the sink, oven, and refrigerator to use as storage and counter space. The carts are functional and fit the space perfectly, but are not toddler-friendly and the open shelves always look cluttered and messy to me. So around the time my son turned 1, I started searching for an alternative. My criteria: something that was counter-height and comfortable for chopping, shallow, baby-proof-able (with doors to hide dangerous items, all of our clutter, and keep dust out), easy to keep clean, under $300 dollars, and attractive enough to make the whole space look better.
In the beginning I really struggled with what to call this type of product. When I searched for kitchen cabinets, I mostly found the sort of things geared towards contractors renovating a kitchen. This made me briefly consider ordering custom cabinets from Ikea with butcher-block-style counters on top. But if I was going to go that far, I figured my money would be better spent renovating the whole kitchen.
$599
Then I started searching online for kitchen islands. They were freestanding and had convenient features like silverware drawers and paper towel roll holders. But all of them — including this very nice one from Crate and Barrel — ended up being too big for my space. The height is good, but it wasn’t shallow enough to fit in my kitchen and was a little too expensive for my budget. Plus it’s a little too modern farmhouse for my taste, but I loved the half moon stainless-steel drawer pulls, that it looks sturdy, and that it has a leaf you can pull up for extra counter space. When I went looking for something similar more in line with my budget, they all looked kind of cheap and leaned too cold and industrial-looking or like something from the set of a hokey cooking show.
$369
After that, I played around with other search terms, trying “kitchen sideboard” and “counter height storage unit” and “bar cart with doors.” At this point I started to realize that there just aren’t that many freestanding counter-height kitchen cabinets, especially not ones slim enough for my kitchen. But there are a lot of slim metal storage cabinets with doors. These are often designed for use outdoors, because they are weatherproof, or to be used in kids’ rooms, offices, workshops, or garages, because they are durable and easy to wipe clean.
They also tend to come in more than just white, black, and brown. Mustard makes its metal lockers in three heights and 12 stylish colors. But the Midi locker, which is closest to what I was looking for, is too tall (43 inches) to make sense as a kitchen counter and the Lowdown is too low (28 inches).
$149
I really like this outdoor storage cabinet from Ikea, and thought about buying two of them since they are so affordable. Fellow Strategist writer Emma Wartzman has one with the upper shelving unit on top in her apartment and loves it. But they’re also too short and I would have had to spend extra money on butcher blocks to add on top.
$199
Discouraged, I had put my hunt on hold. But not too long after, the Wayfair “Way Days” sale reawakened my curiosity. That’s where I discovered that using the term “accent cabinet” would lead me to my prize. Unfortunately the decorative cut-outs on this cabinet got it vetoed by my husband.
$210
This is the one I finally bought. It’s nearly identical to the above cabinet, but minus the cut-outs.And I have been smiling at it since assembling it (the whole process took around 45 minutes) and setting it up in our kitchen. I love how much stuff I can fit inside and how much more streamlined and airy the space looks now. It’s a bit higher than the Ikea carts, so not the perfect cutting and chopping height but I have used it (cutting board on top) to cut bread, fruit, cheese with no problems. It was incredibly easy to babyproof and came with anti-tip straps, so I am not worried about it falling on my son if he pulls too hard on the handles. Best of all, because it’s metal I can use it as an activity space for my son to play with letter and animal magnets while I cook or do dishes.
My son playing with his Melissa and Doug alphabet magnets.
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