Oh, what wouldn’t we give for a few of these drawers in our kitchen? When she redesigned her kitchen a few years back, Ree Drummond (aka Pioneer Woman) installed a few of these to house her flour, sugar, and other baking pantry essentials. There are just so many things to love about this design!
First of all, the glass fronts on the drawers are genius. Not only can we see what’s inside for easy identification, but we can determine at a glance how much flour or sugar is left. Plus, we think it just looks pretty and inviting, like we could just dive in and whip up a batch of chocolate cookies any old time.
Drawers that easily slide open on runners also save us from having to lift heavy, awkward containers into and out of cupboards. Very convenient for baking with children, too, we imagine. And the drawers look like they’re located right below her work station, so Ree can always scoop another cup of flour if she needs to.
With a sliding lid over each drawer, Ree says she’s never had problems with bugs or other creatures getting into the drawers. She also says that she removes the drawers and wipes them down every now and again before refilling them with flour or sugar.
What do you think about this design?
Read More About It! My Flour/Sugar Drawers at the Pioneer Woman
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(Images: Ree Drummond/Pioneer Woman)
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I would love to have these in my house. I think I may have to redo my kitchen sooner than later!
This just makes me think of the time my husband dredged his scrapple in powdered sugar instead of flour before frying it because of my then-unlabeled clear storage containers. And then he did it again and was so disappointed that he got a bad batch of scrapple that "tasted funny". He was mortified when I pointed out his error.
Love the drawers, they are beautiful!
I'd love to see a kitchen tour of her place!
this has officially been filed in my dream kitchen folder.
It looks pretty, but it would be a nightmare in my house, especially for flour and powered sugar. The benefit of canisters is that it's easy to wipe down the countertops afterward. I'd definitely have messes on the floor and in all those crevices.
Since I buy flour & sugar in 25 lb bags from Costco, this would make my life so much easier! I wanted to do something like this when I renovated my kitchen 2 years ago, but sadly, my budget & the options at Ikea didn't allow for this. My dream kitchen will happen someday....
What about flour moths and other critters? I like my staples in nice tightly sealed canisters!
Beautiful - yes, but practical - maybe no.
I love this idea, but even though I like to bake--I don't think I go through any of these things quickly enough to make it worth it.
I'm with lazy_lurker on this one, I like a seal on my flour and sugar containers.
I'm with the canister camp on this one. I keep my baking essentials in glass containers on my counter top, and they're labled with vinyl lettering so no confusion. And I imagine they're easier to clean than a big drawer. It works great for us.
Cool idea, but I can't spare the multiple drawers this requires. Maybe if I had a bigger kitchen with more storage.
These drawers are an interesting and beautiful solution.
Air-tight storage might be helpful in keeping products fresh. With regard to insects in the flour, I'm pretty sure they're usually in the flour before it even gets into the container-- airtight or not.
definitely with lazy lurker on the fear of bugs there... still beautiful though!
So pretty! Reminds me of the Little House books with their barrels and drawers of pantry essentials :)
More decorative than useful, I think. I'm with the people who like a nice lidded, sealed container for flour and sugar -- bugs AND moisture are better kept out of staples. I like to finish off the canister and give it a good cleaning in soap and hot water and then air dry it in the oven.
Also, am I the only person who needs flour and/or sugar over by my mixer, and then also by the counter where I knead the bread, and then also by the stove from time to time? The canisters move around fine, although they live in a very handy drawer (sliding shelf? that thing in a pantry unit?) right by the mixer.
It could be I am just not clever enough to have designed a kitchen that allows me to do all these things without ever moving my feet.
Remember that Ree lives in Oklahoma - a state once called "The Dust Bowl." It's nice and dry there.
I have a hard time believing that these drawers would work well in the South or Mid-East, where it gets humid and sticky in the summer. Only airtight containers will work in these parts.
Oh, I know!! I SWOONED when I saw these!
I assure you Oklahoma has its fair share of humid and sticky weather.
I'm not a giant neat freak or anything, but it seems to me you'd want to empty these out and clean them every so often (especially if you do end up with bugs), and that seems like it would be a huge pain. Very pretty, though.
My guess is that Ree bakes often enough that she is replacing the flour/sugar fairly regularly, so she wouldn't have a problem with bugs.
I like how they look, but I need to keep all the flour and grains in air tight containers because eventually little bugs get in there.
The writer didn't mention that Ree had custom-built acrylic boxes put in those drawers. That's the key to the whole thing.
That's why Ree considers it sanitary. She takes the acrylic boxes, which are totally sealed and made to fit perfectly in the drawers, and cleans the whole suckers out. With the sliding lids, YES, the flours and sugars are sealed, though perhaps not perfectly air-tight.
A vanity item. Perhaps a fun idea if you're in sticks with lots o' space. 10 seconds of Oooo, then a big yawn.
These are great. But have you seen the swoon-worthy Le Creuset collection she's got at her lodge? I swear, if I ever had the chance to go cook at Ree's place... I'd die and go to kitchen heaven right then and there!
My stepmom has a great place for her flours—on a sliding shelf in a cabinet, she keeps her flour and sugar in those large, clear restaurant-style containers. The cabinet was custom-built to also house her mixer, which comes up on an arm, no heavy lifting required.
Has no one here ever seen a Hoosier Cabinet? These had flour bins built right in. So did The Step Saving Kitchen of the 50s. Flour bins with scoops were standard for years when people used to bake a lot and do it all from scratch.
And sorry to tell you but yes, the bugs come with the flour - if you get bugs in your flour or dry goods, you're keeping it too long, and overbuying.
Speaking of Pioneer Woman - there's totally a description of drawers for flour and sugar in one of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. I think it's at the end of "These Happy Golden Years".
My old kitchen had a drawer for flour. The drawer was lined with metal and had a tight-fitting, sliding lid (metal also). It was easy to keep clean.
Beautiful Kitchen but not practical. I'm with lazy_lurker and deb from Indiana, sealed and portable containers are for me too.
I'm with a couple of you on this one... I think it looks really neat and it's very innovative. I'm just not sure it's practical. I'm a super neat freak so I cringe at the thought of flour in all those crevices.
Even with tight-fitting lids and removable, rinsable boxes, I would think the scoops would cause a sanitation problem.
However charming, the metal scoops would transfer germs from your hands into the dry ingredients if their permanent home was inside of the drawers.
OH PUH-LEAZE!!! This is a great idea, however, not new. My grandmother had the same drawers in her kitchen on a Montana ranch - She had 6 kids, a husband and lots of hired help, and with all of the activity in her kitchen she refilled those drawers each week. She also never had bugs due to the turnover. Keeping things clean was never a problem because the flour and sugar drawers were located at the counter that the work was being done at OR you could take the mixing bowls to the drawers to fill. Germs from scoops ? Never a problem and she left a sifter in the flower box. I made many cakes and cookies in that kitchen during my youth and it was great! Ree's set up is similar and you would never find a cannister that would sit on top of the counter that would hold enough to make it worth the effort to refill. Most of us will never see a fraction of the amount of work that goes on in her kitchen and Ree has done a great job marrying functionality with design.
This looks so cool :)
In regards to Bugs in the flour. Yes, Flour, Rice, Pancake Mix, and Barly, just a few.
Years ago I read an article in Womans Day, How to keep air born bugs out of your kitchen. They showed picks of drawers in the back
corners of beige little bugs, that can just appear. They are called air
born bugs. Now for the flour, it has a long shelf life. I read if you freeze your flour, you will never have a bug. It works, because I have been doing it for years now. I only freeze it for a day or two then put in container. As for the drawers, rice, and barly.
I also read if you put a Bayleaf ( I keep rice, barly, oyster crackers
in glass jars) in with these, you will never have a Bug again in anything. In my kitchen every cabinet, drawer, and pantry shelf has
at least 2 or 3 bayleafs.
I hope you find this helpful, please try it, you will not be sorry.