Don't ignore your backsplash and wall space-use them creatively, and you'll find yourself with creative and stylish storage solutions.

Your options for storage solutions include:

• Mount a cookbook holder to your wall to keep recipes at eye level-and away from counters filled with bowls and ingredients.

• Make overflowing drawers a thing of the past with a backsplash storage system, perfect for hanging cooking utensils.

• Hang a pot rack over your island or install one on your wall; just make sure your pots and pans are near your cooking space.

• A decorative wine rack can add a gourmet flair to your wall, but make sure the wine doesn't sit for too long.

Freestanding pieces like hutches and armoires are quickly finding their way into the kitchen, adding an eye-catching furniture piece while enhancing the room's style with antique charm.

Hutches, armoires, and other freestanding pieces also provide a perfect storage space for extra dishware, cutlery, and linens. Since they stand separate from the rest of your wall cabinetry, they also lend your kitchen some visual interest while providing plenty of storage options.

Your options for freestanding storage solutions include:

• Place a hutch near your dining area to store fine china.

• Keep linens like placemats, napkins, and table cloths, in an armoire in your eating area for quicker table setting.

• Situate a hutch near your table-its surface can double as a serving area.

The battle for more space in the kitchen rages inside the cabinetry, too. Despite a wealth of cabinet storage accessories, many cooking products and dinnerware items remain organizationally and spatially unfriendly. Awkward shapes and sizes lead to cabinetry clutter no matter how diligent you are in trying to keep things tidy. Plates, however, are flat and easily stackable. Now other kitchen products have taken the plate's cue. Each of these items cost slightly more than their traditional versions, but none should exceed $20.

Storing the Storage:

Plastic containers make storing food easier, but storing empty plastic containers can be extremely difficult and frustrating. It's not uncommon to have entire cabinets or drawers devoted to a mess of plastic containers and lids strewn about in a sloppy manner. Collapsible containers take the inherent clumsiness out of storing containers, keeping them flat and stackable. Your container drawer or cabinet can finally be organized-and have room for things other than containers.

Normann Coppenhagen collapsible strainer

Strainer and Funnel:

Because of their shape, these two items claim a decent amount of area wherever they are placed. But silicone colanders and funnels can collapse, only taking up space when they are in use. The silicone is durable enough to continually keep its shape, and can withstand hot and cold temperatures.

Sleekstor collapsible measuring cups by Chef

Measuring Cups:

Often found jammed into drawers or scattered among shelves, measuring cups can be difficult to store when stacked. Collapsible measuring cups, however, can be stacked at a reasonable height. Like the colander and funnel, the measuring cups are made from silicone and can hold both hot and cold items.

Combination appliances for the countertop can be particularly useful for those with very limited space in their kitchen-think studios or apartments or condos with low square footage or galley kitchens. Here are some examples of the latest countertop combination appliances:

• Microwaves with integrated toaster or coffeemaker

• Toaster ovens with an integrated griddle and coffeemaker

LG'S combination microwave oven and toaster

These appliances aren't ideal for someone who needs a toaster that can hold eight slices of bread, or a coffee maker that can also make gourmet espresso. But for those that are in desperate need of space, who prepare many (if not most) meals with a toaster or microwave, these can be helpful options.

In addition, these combination appliances are usually low on cost, rarely exceeding $150.

Briva in-sink dishwasher from KitchenAid

Another combination for those in tight quarters is a kitchen sink that doubles as a dishwasher. (As far as we know, there's only one model on the market.) This can be a good product for singles who don't do large loads of dishes and don't have room for even a compact portable dishwasher. The downside is the hefty price tag — about $1,800 — and that the place it might function best — a small apartment — might not allow an addition like this. Briva in-sink dishwashers are typically available in 36- or 42-inch widths.

Warming and cooling drawers have fairly obvious functions: keeping warm foods warm and cold foods cold. Warming drawers keep counters uncluttered by providing an area to store prepared food that is not ready to be served, while cooling drawers (or undercounter refrigerators) act as another refrigerator, creating extra room in your standing fridge. Cooling drawers can also be placed near the food preparation area, giving you easier access to condiments and other refrigerated ingredients. Other features often found on warming and cooling driers are:

• Trim kits and panels that match the rest of your cabinetry

• Stainless steel interiors

• Removable bins that can double as serving trays

• Various size options, usually ranging between 24 and 42 inches.

Warming Drawer by Wolf

And remember that the standard dimensions for cabinets are becoming less and less so. Find out from your designer or cabinetmaker how much you can push it. Maybe you can add 6 inches of storage to your base cabinets, making them 30 inches instead of the standard 24 inches deep. Or you could make your upper cabinets a foot taller and add 3 to 4 inches to their standard 12- to 13-inch depth.

Keep aesthetics in mind. To avoid turning your kitchen into an overwhelming collection of floor-to-ceiling cabinetry, add contrast. Screened or frosted cabinet doors hide clutter while breaking up the monotony of wood. Juxtapose your cabinetry with open shelving. Or, stick with three walls of closed cabinetry but opt for an open floor plan; let the fourth wall open into an adjacent living or dining room.

Your options for storage solutions include:

Shelves

• Look to different interior shelving options for easy-access in hard-to reach places:

o Rollout shelves

o Foldout banks of shelves

o Swingout shelves

• Gain storage space with the narrow, 4-inch-to-10-inch wide slide-in shelves that look like posts when they're pushed in. They can give you extra room without taking up whole sections of the cabinets, holding spices, soups, and more.

• Put away plates with ease with open shelving-a great way to add color and personality to your kitchen. Also, since upper cabinet open shelving tends to be more recessed than low-hanging boxes, you'll end up with a more open workspace.

• Turn an awkward corner into a valuable storage spot with a lazy Susan. Many shelving manufacturers offer accessories to make access even easier, like pie-shaped bins and slideouts.

Baskets

• Add visual depth and interest with pullout wicker baskets and under-the sink pullout wire baskets; ideal ways to store linens and more.

Bins

• Make cleanup a breeze with pullout trash and recycling bins.

• Add style and practicality with grain storage bins.

Drawers

• Use dividers for simplified retrieval:

o Cutlery compartments

o Spice drawers

o Utensil dividers

• Consider using drawers instead of shelving for your base cabinets.

• Don't equate drawer storage only with cabinetry. Many appliances, including refrigerators, wine chillers, and dishwashers, now come as drawer units. Store milk and juice next to your breakfast nook or place frequently used items in a refrigerator drawer beneath your workspace.

• Keep what you use where you use it. A large drawer under a cooktop is an ideal place for pots and pans.

Pantries

• Buy in bulk and store with ease with a pantry unit, complete with your choice of shelving:

o Fixed shelf pantry

o Pullout pantry

o Foldout pantry

o Rollout pantry

Other

• Opt for long cabinet pulls; they double as dishtowel hangers.

• Store sponges and small cleaning items in a tiltout panel in front of the sink.

• Consolidate spices on an inner door rack. To simplify further, alphabetize them for easy retrieval.

• Save space by storing trays and baking sheets in vertical dividers.

• Display dishware in a plate rack above the sink to add color and clean-up convenience.

• Free up valuable cabinet space by storing infrequently used items (like holiday dishes or juicers) in a pantry or closet space.

• Keep what you do use at easy reach-22 to 72 inches above the floor is recommended.