I'm always so inspired by dream kitchens like this cottage kitchen in Maine or any one of these gorgeous, glamorous spaces. I appreciate the details, materials, the layout, all the finer things that make it special and swoon-worthy. But sometimes too much day dreaming can make me feel a little deflated when I walk into my thoroughly average and unspectacular rental kitchen. Has that ever happened to you? Most of us probably don't cook in our dream kitchen. Instead, we deal with our kitchens' quirks and inconveniences on a daily basis.

But your kitchen can still be a place that you love and cherish, a place you enjoy, not merely tolerate. These 10 small changes are easy upgrades, but they'll go a long way towards making you feel more organized and uplifted in your kitchen. More

If you like the no-fuss functionality of restaurant equipment, you'll probably love this stainless steel wall-mounted dish rack from French design company Tsé & Tsé. It's advertised as a dish drainer (all the shelves have holes in them) to be hung over the sink, but I honestly think it'd work better as a dishware cabinet in a small kitchen, don't you? You could even get a couple and hang them side by side for a wall of open cabinetry. More

I do not have a dishwasher, which means all the dishes get hand-washed in my house, so it's not uncommon for the dish rack to be under quite a bit of strain from the day's plates, glasses, and pans. We went through two replacements of this wooden dish rack from IKEA, which warped and cracked both times. Fed up with "disposable" dish racks, I knew I wanted something sturdy, reliable, long-lasting, yet aesthetically pleasing. This dish rack from Simplehuman fit the bill. More

When Design Mom posted this over at the Kohler blog, she called it the "dishrack of your dreams." We seriously think she may be right. More

Q: I found this absolutely beautiful dish rack on a website but unfortunately it's sold out.

I can't seem to find any other dish racks like this online. Can you help me find something similar?

Sent by Jamie More

We're not blessed with the luxury of a dishwasher, so we're heavily reliant on our dish drainer rack. Right now we have a very simple rack, but we've found that in the case of drainer racks &mdash the simpler the better! Drainer racks come in many different shapes, sizes and materials and we're not sure which material is the best. More

Q: My boyfriend's apartment doesn't have a dishwasher, and with all of his roomates living there, and everyone cooking each night, dishes are a real problem. There is limited counter space as well, so we are trying to find a multi-level dish rack — hopefully something with at least two full levels if not more.

Short of building shelves for multiple standard dish racks I haven't seen anything. There is no cabinet above the space next to the sink so height isn't an issue, but the space isn't much bigger surface wise then a standard dish rack from Target.

Sent by Laura More

Spacesaving, good-looking, genuinely functional dish racks are hard to find. This new folding dish rack from black + blum hopes to fill all those requirements, and more. More

We get a lot of questions about two things that tend to take up excess room in the kitchen: storage canisters and dish racks. We've explored dish racks with small footprints, but here's one that looks even better, along with some really intriguing stacking canisters — all from smart design firm Urban Kitchen. More

Here's a good question from Tina and Phil of 30 Bucks a Week, a blog about living on $30 a week in groceries. They're looking for a good dish drainer, and they ask:

Just wondering if there were any good ideas on dish drainers. We'll be moving into a new apartment and while the kitchen is cute and has counter space, it has zero when it comes to the sink. Any advice on a dish drainer or will we be stuck with washing and drying the dishes forever?