Pot racks are like minivans with automatic doors, once you spoil yourself with one, you can never go back to not having one. Which is why I’ve never had a minivan with automatic doors. I cannot imagine my future self whining and complaining about having to open a car door, how annoying I would be. Back when we moved into this house with the pre-installed hooks just begging for a pot rack I was sure I wouldn’t use them. We have an embarrassing amount of cabinet space. More than enough to store all of our pots and pans.
But after a few months of living here, the thought of being able to just grab a pot from above instead of unstack it from a pile in a cabinet was just too enticing. It’s been two years since I dedicated a post to all things pot rack so I thought it was time to revisit. And my pot collection has grown.
Not only does my Ikea pot rack keep me from whining about having to reach into the dreaded cabinet to get my pots {oh the humanity} it also does something just as important for me. We are renting and as much as I appreciate a nice newish kitchen, this kitchen is not really my style and it’s all I can do sometimes to not whip out the can of paint. So, a pot rack is a great way for me to personalize a not so personal kitchen. So I purposely put white and aqua on my pot rack to help spread the Nester style love.
see the empty pot rack back there?
A few months ago when I was going through one of my purging stages, I cleaned off the pot rack and took it down to see if I liked it better without all that junk hanging up over us. I asked my husband what he thought and I’ll never forget his words, “It looks like we just moved in and we don’t know what we are doing.“ For some reason I took that as a huge compliment that somehow the fact that I had a bunch of junk hanging from our pot rack that my husband hits his head on because if I hang it higher I cannot reach it which is an even bigger annoyance for him because then he has to walk in and hand me every pot I need–made my husband feel like “we knew what we were doing”.
One of the other tricks I do with my pot rack is make sure to stagger the heights where stuff is hanging.
For me that meant digging in my junk drawer till I found some brown wrapped wire and twisting that up then hanging a hook on that. You could do the same with ribbon or twine. But I like that some of my pretty stuff is hanging at different heights. I even added hooks to those awful chains that hang down. I know I could cut those chains off but you know one of my renting mantras, if I might use it in another house soonish, why permanently altar something just so it can work better in this house?
My pot rack is still a work in progress, I need about 10 more hooks to really be able to hang everything I want and to balance stuff out~then I’ll really look like I know what I’m doing.
Pot racks….love ‘em or hate ‘em?
I have a pot rack by Enclume. Got it because our kitchen is small, and cabinet/pantry space is sacred, and they have some you can mount flush against the ceiling (our house was built in the 80′s so we have boring 8ft ceilings throughout). It cost a small fortune, but that sucker is built to last! I absolutely LOVE it. This is what I have: http://enclume.com/ProductCatalog/tabid/106/ProdID/3/Default.aspx
nice one!
Love-LOVE pot racks & as soon as I find “THE” one it will soooooooooooooo be hanging from my kitchen! LOL
Your home is always lovely. I had a pot rack for years before I could update my kitchen. I made long hooks for it by using wire coat hangers and spray painting them black. They worked very well and I could stagger items so things without handles could be reached easier. I miss it but we raised our ceiling and left the area open for more natural light.
Do you decorate it? My girls would put fall leafs on it or garland and lights and hanging Christmas balls to keep the room festive
duh, hangers. genius! I hang my hydrangeas on it to dry in the summer but that’s as far as I’ve gotten~my boys would LOVE lights on it!
I could not funtion without my pot rack! I do not have nearly enough cabinet space for all of my things and a pot rack helps with the clutter. Mine is a wall mount which worked well in my former home but I am now thinking I need one over my island instead. Hmmm…where’s that IKEA catalogue?!
Hmmm I must be the lone ranger. I’ve had a pot rack in our last house and did not want one in this house. I don’t love them or hate them. Well I do love the look of them in certain kitchens. The way that kitchen was configured we had a counter that came off to one side and the pot rack really looked good over it. We had one made from copper. BUT, things got dusty. I actually didn’t put stuff on it that I used often. I didn’t want to fool with washing something before using it. Our kitchen now – I really don’t visualize it with a pot rack. I opted for a really nice light fixture (hangs down) in the area where a pot rack would work. I’d rather have the pretty fixture! Also, the best storage for pots/pans – for me – is the storage drawers. No digging!!
Your husband is right – that pot rack is your stamp on the kitchen. I like the aqua accents!
tina
Could not live without one. I had been hunting forever and husband and I were on a trip to the UK to visit his family. We went into an estate that had been turned into an antique shop on the outskirts of Manchester and I fell in love. We bought it having absolutely no idea how we would get it home. We brought it back to his brother’s opened up husband’s suitcase and it JUST fit perfectly inside. We then proceeded to drag it around the UK for two weeks in and out of B&B’s.
You can see some shots of it here http://amusebouche.org/ (http://countingsheep.typepad.com/amuse_bouche/2011/08/another-day-in-the-kitchen-with-ali-pork-belly-lancashire-hot-pot-and-more.html) it is cast iron. Like you I try to hang things at different heights so I just bought some longer wrought iron S hooks at harden centers and use those to stagger.
Loving the pot rack – but have to know where you got the yellow salt or pepper shaker. And Nick wants to know if the boys ever hang stuff off the swordfishes sword. he really wants to.
xoxo michele
1. yellow pepper mill: $1 yard sale {it’s an anthropologie cast off!!}
2. not yet BUT, i’m hoping to cutsie him up for the book signing party I”m having for my sister on the 17th, hope you can stop by and see it!
I don’t have one but I NEED and WANT one! I’ve been looking at the ReStore often hoping to find an old wood ladder that I can repurpose into a pot rack! I’m getting impatient….
Oh! And Apartment Therapy has some awesome posts about pot racks and DIY ideas.
i haven’t tried one, partly because I am a shorty and I fear I would not be able to reach them, and my husband is a tally and he would bump his head on it. Plus my pots are not all that cute. Where do you store the lids?
I store my lids on the pot/pan handles. The lids have loop handles so they just slide over the pot handles.
where ARE my lids? oh my word.. I actually had to think about that. So, only like 2 of those pots up there have lids, and they are in a cabinet in a basket right behind the pot rack, where I keep my cast iron and a few nonstick skillets, but yes, you could so hang them, I would just need to hang them on long hooks b/c I wouldn’t be able to reach the lids since they wouldn’t hang down far
I keep my pot lids on a lid rack from Ikea that is screwed on the inside of my cabinet. It was one of the best things I’ve ever bought for kitchen organisation!
I don’t hate them, and in some kitchens they work well. My current kitchen doesn’t have anywhere to put one, but then again it barely has room for one person. I can put my hands on the countertop on both sides of the kitchen, and I have wee little t-Rex arms. If anyone comes in and opens the fridge while I’m at the sink I’m essentially in jail until they close the door, so any pot rack over my head would have to be about at the level of the vent hood. So having yet more stuff surrounding me would get a tad claustrophobic even for me, much less the taller people (ie everyone else on the planet).
However, the lights comment above sounds really lovely-I don’t know about a pot rack, but a well lit plant rack might add something special, and if they’re low maintenence I could put it up high enough that its’ out of the way of everyones head…hmmmm….I may need to think on that.
I have the same pot rack and just LOVE it! I love that you hang the colorful colander on it. I will have to try that (ours just has pots).
I love your pot rack! I have a huge kitchen with plenty of cabinet space as well, but I have been going back and forth about getting one to go over our rather large island. I love that the Ikea one has a place to put stuff on top of it as well! Thanks (as always) for the inspiration!
When I saw the title of the post, I was like “Oh no, I love my pot rack, is she going to tell me it has the style of a bedroom ceiling fan (which I refuse to ever give that up either). Whew! love my pot rack, I do think it creates a custom style to a plain kitchen.
Put me in the hate ‘em camp. I think they add a lot of visual clutter. It wouldn’t be feasible in my kitchen (narrow) and my husband would certainly conk his noggin on the pots. If it were hung high enough to clear his head it would certainly be too high for the rest of us to reach. I think it would only really work if you could suspend them over an island so that you wouldn’t have to pass beneath them. But then you are still left with the visual clutter .
I love them! And I think yours is fantastic. Alas, I have a small kitchen, and I use a pan/pot about 3 times a month, so no pot rack for me right now. But someday…definitely!
No pot rack in the new rental, but I am seriously thinking about it. I invented extra cupboard space in the new rental with a wire rack from Sam’s Club, and a butcher block countertop from Ikea, so I do have some space, but now we hate having to go thru a stack to get to the right sized pot.
The last rental we lived it had the smallest kitchen on the planet, no room for an island, and not even enough counterspace to put together a lasagna. I did have a sort of soffit type thing over the sink and I screwed in cup hooks and hung everything up above the sink. I got a lot of compliments on it, both for ingenuity and also because it looked nice.
I like where your’s is located, over the island. I think it would be less in the way there. My sister is short and has one over her stove top. The result is that everyone else that tries to cook on her stove hits their head! I love the ones that are made from parts of old ladders and have thought I’d like to have one but I can’t figure out how my kitchen would accommodate it. I also love your blue colanders and yellow pepper grinder :)
Oh I love pot racks!!! And I want one for our tiny kitchen so badly! We have NO cupboard space in here and a pot rack over the sink would be wonderful!!!
I’m not a fan. It looks like a closet with no doors. I need my clutter hidden. :)
those were my thoughts when I went crazy and took it down, but it’s totally grown on me, plus my husband thinks I know what I’m doing!! totally worth the doorless closet effect!
I can’t even focus on the pot rack because I’m so distracted by your neat, adorable, color coordinated laundry room. My laundry room now needs to eat a gallon of ice cream because it is feeling so down after seeing your laundry room. Counseling may be in order.
it’s so simple, it’s just plain white walls, plain appliances and my CLEANER is what makes it pretty! yippie Mrs. Meyers!
Aren’t husbands wise?
The Lord is using you in so many ways.
j
I have never had a pot rack, seems like all 14 houses that I’ve lived in didn’t cry out for one! Maybe I need a new house, cause I like the pot rack!
I love it! My pots and pans aren’t nearly as pretty as yours, but I would love to hang pretty pitchers and collanders on one like you did! Hmm…maybe a trip to Home Goods is in order! Hee hee!
Have a great day!
-Dawn
Honestly, I have never liked pot racks… that is… until now! I tend to like a “clean look”. Only a few well placed objects on counters and tables, etc. But I have just fallen in love with pot racks thanks to yours… I love it! It definitely adds to style (and “looking like you know what you are doing” :-)) when done right. One more thing… I meant to comment about your vacuum post a week or so ago. I have found that the Swiffer Vacs do a really great job on wood floors. They have some suction to pick up the lighter things, but then they also have the dry cloth to really do a great job on the dust. They are light, cordless with a charger, and fairly inexpensive. Typicall less than $100.
I like everything tucked away, but I also don’t have a kitchen with an island and there’s no real space that would make sense for a pot rack. On the other hand, I have a fabulous Le Crueset collection I would love to stack on a rack in the corner. They are definitely not hanging compatible.
I don’t have a pot rack, although I love the idea of them. I’ve thought of hanging one above my sink. But I’m not great at remembering to dust often, and I’m not sure whether I want all my 10-year-old pots and pans hanging in plain view of the living room (almost right in the living room…darn open-concept!) But it would free up half of my lower cabinet space if I did it.
I loooove my potrack and it’s one of my favorite things in my kitchen. I’m right there with you on it.
Absolutely COVETING your pot rack. I’ve always wanted one, but don’t really have a place to put one. I love all things “organizer-y”!
I am one of those people who needs to see my stuff or I forget I have it. (I promise that doesn’t mean I forget to feed my family because I can’t see the food in the pantry :)
But there really isn’t a place in our (rental) kitchen for a pot rack.
More importantly, please tell us about the cute pink wreath in your laundry room!
Sorry, I suffer from SOS (Shiny Object Syndrome). It makes it really hard to focus!
I like them over islands. My house has a long galley style kitchen so there’s no island and no room for one. Some of the ones that hang from the wall might would work, but it would be in an inconvenient place. I’ll just have to adore yours.
I really don’t like that I’ve had one sitting in my garage for ten years!! Seriously… it was so expensive at the time that I keep waiting to find some other use for it to justify the expense. We had a house from the 1800′s, and the ceilings were so high that is was a great solution to the small footprint… but I need to let go, it has been TEN years already!! So, if you want some more hooks, just let me know, I have lots. ;)
i love your pot rack.
i don’t have one because instead i have a dreadful 80′s lightfixture that’s on the “when the budget allows, must go” list.
your yellow pepper mill thingie sitting pretty beside your aqua bowls & lemons totally rocks.
yellow? oh i must have one.
in your spare time or future posts, please share where you found such a treasure!
I had a housefull of dreaded 1992 shiny brass & glass light fixtures that I couldnt afford to replace, so I spray painted them white – and now they look amazing!!
oh, but a minivan.
will never do that again
i’m entirely too sexy for a minivan ;)
even if it’s door is magic & opens on its own
xo
I like them when there’s room, they’re clutter when there’s not. I think variations on the theme are good, though. I removed a couple of cabinet doors and have pans hanging from a metal pole inside the space. They’re in a row, in order of size, so it looks very orderly and utility chic. It left the space over the small island for additional lighting which was badly needed.
i like pot racks in some kitchens. but i’ll probably never have one in my home / future homes cuz i always tend to go for closed storage to reduce visual clutter.
but i do love anything from IKEA so…i’m a fan of yours! and it is such a great way to personalize a kitchen in a rental!
Your husband is right — obviously you know what you’re doing, you’re the Nester! Your kitchen looked sad without it…like its best friend who complemented it so nicely moved away.
I’m a renter too, and when we moved in all the kitchen had to offer me was cabinets too narrow for stashing my biggest/widest pans, and some odd-shaped wall space in quirky places. We looked at all kinds of pot racks online, but none would have fit in the weird spaces we had to work with. A trip to Home Depot and a little ingenuity on the part of my husband did the trick, and I now have a wall-mounted pot rack which I LOVE that’s made out of shelving components meant for closet organization, which we were able to cut to just the right size.
I L O V E pot racks and wish I had somewhere to put one! I don’t have an island in my kitchen so I don’t think it would work.
We live in a 150 year-old home (we’re renters, too, building our dream home), with high ceilings, so it works for us. Ours isn’t actually a potrack. It’s an old window-bar turned into a potrack. But it works.
Here’s a picture, before I hung the pots and pans. I kept mine pretty sparse, only hanging about 7 pots/pans, to reduce the visual clutter. There are so many open shelves and glass-front cabinets that I felt filling the potrack would make me nuts. I love yours, though!
http://tracyecakes.blogspot.com/2011/03/actual-post-with-pictures-and.html
LOVE the aqua mixed in there. So perfect!!
and I love pot racks in general :) Can’t wait until I have a kitchen that will look good with one (ours now is tiny & it would only make it look smaller).
We have recently moved into a brand new house. I love the look of a pot rack, but I feel like it’s such a HUGE committment. It totally changes the whole look. I’m scared. I don’t know if I can committ!
If we had the space, I’d love to have one. All my pots and pans are crammed into a cabinet and it takes feats of strength to get them out. My mom has a pot rack, and her evil cat Mr. Darcy is terrified of it, for some reason…
I personally do like them for my kitchen, but in other’s it works well.
If I had a pot rack, I would spend more time thinking about dust. And I’m already way over my dust-thinking-quota.
I love looking at them in other kitchens (mostly). Sometimes they look way to messy for me but yours is totally adorable! I didn’t even think a pot rack could be adorable. Very nice job nester!
I meant to also say, I love how you sat those big pots on top and added the white and blues to yours. *perfection
You have such a knack for making practical meet beautiful. Love your pot rack!
I may be the only one, but I hate them. They scream unorganized clutter and lower the feeling of the ceiling in my opinion. However, I am a minimalist so maybe that has something to do with it.
never had one but love yours~
I caught a glimpse of your laundry room in one of the pictures – and it is sinfully organized and lovely. I might actually do laundry if I had a room like that to do it in! ;)