Joanna Gaines' Stylish Pots & Pans Storage Solution Frees Up Space In Any Kitchen

It can seem like even in the most organized kitchen, pots and pans can be a hassle to access and store. Between cooking meals and cleaning up, you might find yourself stacking them in your deepest cabinet, and having to bend down, reach into the back of the cabinet, and unstack to find the one you need. If you've experienced this struggle, you might want to take a page from Joanna Gaines' design playbook. 

The star of HGTV's "Fixer Upper" and one-half of the dynamic Chip and Jo Jo Gaines design duo, Joanna Gaines is known for her functional and attractive remodels, and her design solution for storing pots and pans is no exception. On "Fixer Upper: The Castle," Gaines' debuted a smart storage solution that keeps pots and pans handy, frees up cabinet space, and looks amazing too — an above-the-range pot rack.

Gaines' castle kitchen only included lower cabinets and a hutch for storage, so space for pots and pans was limited. "The kitchen was originally a dining room," she says. "It's a smaller footprint so what we had to do there is get really creative with our space." Although her gorgeous brass pot rack is custom-made for the space, you can steal her elegant look and add this Joanna Gaines' kitchen design tip to your arsenal without having to build a custom rack yourself. Below, we share the details about this space-saving hack, as well as some advice on stealing Gaines' look on a budget.

Since there wasn't as much room for cabinetry in the "Fixer Upper: The Castle" kitchen, Joanna Gaines makes this small kitchen feel more spacious by creating an alcove for the range, installing a custom-made pot-rack above the range, and moving most of the kitchen cabinet storage to the butler's pantry in the room next door. On Instagram, she shared how the space constraints of the small space allowed for new creative possibilities to bloom. "This forced us to get creative with our choices—like turning the dumbwaiter into a spice rack and the fireplace into a nook for a new range."

This hanging space for pots and pans frees up the minimal lower cabinet space in the small kitchen to be used for other items. The rack also looks incredibly stylish as it's sleek and simple, and matches the other brass finishes in the kitchen. And, Gaines isn't the only one who loves keeping pots and pans in view: Martha Stewart's favorite way to store pots and pans also keeps them out of cabinets and hanging for easy access. Gaines' rack uses one brass bar plus brass s-hooks. This allows the homeowner to move pots and pans around as needed, add or remove hooks, and not be constrained by permanently placed hooks. To keep the look coherent and harmonious with the rest of the decor, the hanging pans and utensils are all matching aged copper-tone pans.

If you're inspired by the simple and elegant look and hoping to steal the HGTV star's hanging pots and pans rack idea, we have a few tips to help you make the hack work. First, even though Joanna Gaines' stylish, useful solution for more storage looks easy, you'll want to do some planning in advance. First, use a stud finder to find your wall studs so you know where your rack can be drilled into the wall so it can bear the weight of pots and pans safely. Ensure that you have enough space to hang the pots and pans where your rack isn't directly above the burners, as this could cause pots and pans to become grimy from cooking happening below them. As Gaines did in the castle's kitchen, ensure you have proper ventilation above your range.

If you don't have ample space above your range, you can hang a pots and pans rack over countertops, something Gaines has done in other remodels. Before installing, you'll also want to make sure you choose a tone of metal that goes well with the other metals in your space as she does. If you want to level up the look, take a cue from the designer and hang matching pots and pans in the same color. But, if it's above a range, skip hanging towels and herbs so you don't create a fire hazard when you cook.