Kitchen Remodel Tour

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An Organized Kitchen

A Minnesota kitchen drowning in clutter is revived with a storage-savvy approach.

Margaret Longlet's kitchen was awash in a sea of paper that rose from a corner desk and spilled onto the counters and center island. The desk, which she once considered a benefit, had become a burden.

"The paperwork was always unbelievable," she says. "We had to get rid of it." Margaret and her husband, Don, then began to notice other problems in their Bloomington, Minnesota, kitchen: scarce storage, inadequate lighting, and boring surfaces that showed their age.

The couple enlisted the help of Minneapolis architects Petra Schwartze and Dan Nepp to rework the kitchen, staying within its existing footprint. Storage was a priority, so the design team turned the existing pantry into a butler's pantry and borrowed space from the garage to create an enlarged mudroom. That freed up an overused back closet to create a new pantry. "You walk in and you're wrapped in shelves," Margaret says of her storage sanctuary. "And it isn't filled with coats and boots, it's filled with food and dishes."