HGTV's Erin Napier Shares A Kitchen Organizing Tip For The Tea Lover In Your Life

It turns out that tea is HGTV's Erin Napier's — well — cup of tea. Eagle-eyed fans know that when the "Home Town" star gathers her girls for a tea party, she prefers a cup of decaf Earl Grey. Napier is no stranger to designing spaces for her fellow tea aficionados. When the farmers from Longleaf Tea Company needed help transforming a six-generation farmhouse into a public space for tea tastings and special events, the aromatic drink inspired many of Napier's design choices, from paint colors to the watercolor-inspired artwork she and others created using brewed tea. And as tea leaves probably could have predicted, her "Home Town" team built an eclectic, English apothecary-style home for a young couple that included a special tea station in the kitchen.

Earlier this year, Pinterest predicted that homeowners will ditch home bars for a cozy alternative. Alcohol consumption is going down, especially among younger generations, who are drinking more coffee and tea than ever. Pew Research Center studies suggest that billions of people around the world start their day off with these hot beverages, and that tea is actually more popular than coffee worldwide. It's also an important cash crop that helps families in developing countries. With dozens of delicious options readily available, from oolong to rooibos, matcha to mate, there's never been a tastier time to add a tea station to your home.

"We know how much you love your tea. We wanted to make sure you had an organization system," Erin Napier told the overjoyed homeowners as she showed them around their new kitchen (via YouTube). Napier had carpenter Daniel "Stubbs" Lucas create a custom lower cabinet that pulls out to reveal two tall shelves. The top shelf accommodates several glass jars full of various tea bags and loose leaf tea, while the lower shelf has space to store an electric tea kettle out of sight. The cabinet also has plenty of room for a box of sugar cubes and a honey jar. There's also room to store other tea accessories, like infusers and steeping balls, which are critical to brewing a good cuppa, especially if you like to grow plants that are great for homemade herbal tea.

Having a smart storage solution for your tea makes it more likely you'll enjoy the process of selecting the perfect blend, heating water to the ideal temperature, and sweetening your cup to the perfect flavor. You can easily recreate Napier's tea station by repurposing a kitchen cupboard of your own. If you're an English breakfast fan, make sure your dedicated cabinet is close to your refrigerator so milk is nearby. After clearing it out, add lidded glass jars that will keep your tea fresh and a few of your favorite mugs. You should also include a small container for discarded leaves, which you can use to make DIY fertilizer teas that nourish your garden.