Kitchen Drawers - Vertical Silverware Tray

When we bought our house, I knew that the kitchen would be the one thing that I hated most (after we had our bathroom renovated). I tried my best to quickly make it tolerable with a little amount of money. I've hated the cabinet setup since day one. Overall, there isn't much cabinet space, and what's there is laid out horribly! There are two small drawers the depth of silverware/junk drawers, and two deep drawers that have no good purpose (awful planning!).

Horrible layout.

When we moved in, I hurriedly found spots for things, just trying to get the boxes unpacked. I had to buy a new silverware tray because the drawers aren't of a typical width.

Narrow silverware drawer, not enough room!

I was at a loss of how to best utilize the two deep drawers. The bottom one currently has tupperware and kitchen towels. The middle one was being used for lids to pots and pans.

Lids to my Calphalon, and a drying mat.

I saw a picture on Pinterest where someone had taken a deep drawer like this and converted it into a vertical silverware drawer, leaving more room behind it in the rest of the drawer. The one online was nice and professional looking. Once again, I didn't want to spend actual money on this, so I used a spare cardboard box I had sitting around!

I trimmed up the sides of a small box with scissors.

I did some eyeballing to determine how to cut the cardboard pieces to fit snugly in the drawer. I used two pieces to span the width of the drawer. Then, two smaller pieces were used to form a grid-pattern. I cut into each piece about half-way at the points where they meet so that they would overlap well.

The cardboard was trimmed to form a grid-like pattern.

Again, I cut the cardboard snugly enough that it stood on its own, and didn't have to be taped or glued in place. I unloaded the silverware into these vertical compartments. Now, this didn't last long. The weight of the silverware knocked over the grid almost immediately. I realized I needed a little more support/reinforcement. So I added the third piece of cardboard spanning the width of the drawer (see below photo).

Vertical silverware holder, Calphalon lids placed behind them.

I was able to fit all of the lids in the drawer still. I know that I should find a better place for the lids and use this space for other stuff, but I am seriously limited with space in my kitchen.

I left the silverware tray in its original drawer, but I pushed it back and decided to use that drawer entirely for my measuring cups, spoons, and extra knives that don't have a rack.

Measuring instruments, knives and stuff!

For now, the cardboard tray is working just fine! Matt mentioned picking up a portable silverware basket to fit in the drawer and look a little more attractive... Yeah, we'll see if that ever happens!