Coffee Station in a Cabinet {Organizing Project}

Project Time: About 1 hour

My coffee station cabinet may very well be the most important elements of my kitchen. Every morning around 6am, I stumble blindly up the stairs and make a beeline for this cupboard. I’m usually pretty groggy at this point, so having my mugs, and K-cups all in a nicely contained area is essential.

Have you ever considered moving your coffee supplies up off the counter and into one dedicated cupboard like this?

Maybe you’re interested but find yourself thinking “There’s no way I have an open cabinet for a coffee station!” If that sounds like you, I challenge you to take another look at the way you have organized your upper cabinets. Literally! Open all the cabinet doors and stand back to take a look with a fresh perspective. What is currently being stored on the lowest shelves? Those should be your everyday essentials- things you need to have in easy reach and use almost daily.

If you review your kitchen storage and find a bottom shelf housing items that you use infrequently … then you can probably make room for this project by shifting things around. If you don’t see an obvious possibility, here are a few other suggestions to help you reconsider your layout:

• Are there any shelves with things that I no longer use? (purge)
• Are there shelves that could be better organized to hold more? (i.e. maximize vertical space using a riser or stacking boxes/bins)
• Can I consolidate any collections onto a single shelf?
• Can I move any infrequently used items elsewhere (garage, basement, that awkward cabinet above the fridge)?
• The cabinet pictured in this post was intended to be a pantry (and I desperately needed pantry space). But life is about sacrifices, and I decided this was one I had to make.

Not only do I have limited cabinet space, I also have limited counter space around the perimeter my kitchen (read: no good place to park a coffee pot). I have to work really hard to keep my counters uncluttered! Clear counters are a priority for me since I have an open concept living area.

We installed this cupboard over an existing outlet in our home, so I had the installers cut a hole that would allow me to have electricity to plug in my coffee pot.

If you don’t have an outlet in a cupboard, don’t worry! Just pick the upper cabinet shelf directly above the place where your coffee pot lives on the counter… it will work just as efficiently! Although you won’t eliminate the actual coffee pot from the counter, you can store EVERYTHING else above it. You will be creating a streamlined system for accomplishing this daily task; that is the purpose of this project after all!

Maximizing Storage

First, I had to figure out a way to get the most storage possible out of this deep cabinet. I would need to use up quite a bit of the vertical space in order to accommodate the coffee pot, but I didn’t want that space to be wasted in other parts of the cabinet. The solution? A simple shelf riser pushed way in the back. It allows me to store twice the amount of supplies in the back of the space.

I recommend risers any time you have a deep cabinet.

Risers lift the items stored in the back up high enough for you to see them well. They also give you a second layer of storage space underneath to keep “sometimes” items neatly stored in sight but out of the way.

Organizing the Essentials

Next, I added in the coffee pot, grinder, and mugs. I use the space under the riser to store travel mugs (not pictured). Since it’s a little harder to access, it’s best to store less frequently used items here.

Finally, I added another row of frequently used items in front of the riser. Coffee/tea items have a home, and there is room to store a French Press and a canister of ground coffee.

I really enjoy this Coffee Stack K-Cup holder because it holds the cups compactly, vertically, and allows me to stack my tea box on top for even more storage.

I’ve had this set of white porcelain canisters forever, and they’re great for keeping foods fresh. I’m currently using the rest of this guy’s family to store brown sugar and walnuts in my “oatmeal station”. I may or may not be station crazy… but grouping your kitchen by function is the key to more efficiency so I’m ok with it!

What Do I Store In A Coffee Cabinet?

If you’re a big coffee drinker, here are some suggestions for which items to store inside your coffee cabinet:

• Mugs/Travel Mugs
• A cute container of stir sticks or teaspoons
• Sugar/Creamer Packs
• Coffee Grinder
• Filters
• Flavoring Syrups
• Frother

Remember that the goal is always to keep ONLY WHAT YOU USE! I drink my coffee black, so I don’t need most of the things I listed above. Whatever you do, please don’t run out to buy a bunch of coffee props because they look cute. They will never be used and useless clutter is the opposite of organized.

Think Beyond The Brew

Maybe you drink coffee occasionally, but not enough to devote an entire shelf of precious cabinet real estate to it. Consider expanding the concept to a “beverage” station. You could include additional items such as:

• Tea Bags
• Cocoa Mixes
• Marshmallow Jar
• Drink Mixes

I’ve seen lots of creative coffee carts and cute coffee bars, but in my opinion, a coffee station cabinet is hard to beat. Everything is neatly tucked away right where you need it, and patiently waiting out of sight when you don’t.

If you complete this project, let me know what you think! Share a photo and tag me on Instagram or Facebook! I love seeing your photos and completed projects and would love to share your accomplishments with the rest of the community.

Happy Organizing!!

About the author: Suzette is a Northern Colorado professional organizer providing organizing services to Loveland, Fort Collins, Greeley, Windsor, Timnath and surrounding areas. She subscribes wholeheartedly to the idea that smart systems and some up front organizing work make more time for busy women to enjoy doing what they love. She has been married for over 10 years and is a mother of 2 school age children.