Choosing Pot Racks
Kitchen pot racks are the perfect solution for storage if you lack cupboard space. Pot racks also solve the problem of digging through piles of pots and pans. They are great kitchen organizational and storage tools. With the overwhelming choices out there, some difficulty might arise when choosing the right rack for your situation.
Decide Where to Place Your Pot Rack
The first step in determining what pot rack is best for your situation is where to place the pot rack. For smaller kitchens, wall mounted pot racks work best because of their ability to fit into tight areas or kitchens where hanging space is limited. You may want to consider hanging a pot rack over kitchen islands, peninsulas, sinks or counters.
Knowing where the ceiling joists and wall studs are located is critical in choosing the location to place your kitchen pot rack. Consider the weight of the rack itself and the cookware to be placed on it. An installed rack should hold the hanging weight of a 200 pound person. Therefore, it is critical to thread the ceiling screw hook into a wood joist or the lag bolt into the wall stud. Joists are parallel beams from wall to wall to support the ceiling. Studs are the upright posts in the framework of a wall that support the drywall or wall covering.
Mounting racks into brick masonry or metal require special mounting considerations and additional hardware specific for that purpose, such as, masonry expansion bolts. Consulting a professional in your area to review all aspects of this type of installation should be informative and beneficial to achieve a proper installation.
What Size Pot Rack is Best for Your Situation
By measuring the area where you intend to hang your pot rack, you can determine what size rack will best fit your situation. The majority of hanging pot racks are designed for 8" to 9" ceilings. For shorter cooks or higher ceilings, extension hooks or chains may be needed for proper reaching height.
To figure out what size pot rack is right for you, you will need to know your ceiling height and your "reaching height"". Reach your arm into the air as if you were reaching for the bottom of a pot or pan. Remember, you do not need to reach all the up to the pot hooks on the rack. You just need to lift the pots and pans off the hooks. Now determine what the height of your arm is. This is also typically done adding 6" - 10" to your overall height. This is your "reaching height".
Subtract your "reaching height" from your ceiling height. This is the area where your pot rack, pots, and pans will need to fit. To determine if your pot rack will fit in this area, first find out the height of the pot rack you like. The height we list in our product specifications generally refers to the height from the bottom of the pot rack to the ceiling. Consider the lengths of pots and pans vary anywhere from 10" for a small pot to 21" for a large frying pan. Of course this is just an approximation, your pots and pans may be larger.
If you want to get very accurate measurements, add together the length of your pots and pans with the height of the pot rack you like. This gives you the total distance from your ceiling to bottom of your hanging pots. Next subtract that distance from your height of your ceiling to see if the pots and pans are in your "reaching height".
Keep in mind that pot racks hung over kitchen islands require approximately 6" of rack clearance on all sides. You may need to reach up and in to access some your pots and this will eliminate fighting with them to get them out. Just remember that many of these measurements you made are approximates, you may need to still may need to stretch a bit to reach smaller pans.
Choosing the Style for Your Kitchen Decor
We offer pot racks in a wide variety of shapes, finishes, and with a number of practical features, which you can mix and match to fit your kitchen's decor.