Pot Racks Useful Kitchen Fixtures and Fittings for Decoration and Practical Use

The pot rack.

What springs to mind when you think of pot racks?

My impression is a wrought iron hanging rack over a kitchen island with dangling copper pots and pans.

That is one image, but there are so many varying materials and designs.

As I mentioned above, the hanging pot rack. These generally hang from the ceiling on chains or rods over kitchen islands, counters or stoves.

These do not work in low ceiling kitchens for obvious reasons. In a high ceiling kitchen they do require you to be able to reach them so if you hang them 6 to 10 inches above the average height of a person 5 feet 6 inches then you should be able to reach the utensils but not bang your head on them!

There is the corner pot rack. This works well in a small kitchen where storage space is at a premium and often incorporates additional shelving.

There is the straight pot shelf with a rod underneath to hang kitchen utensils. These are usually in stainless steel.

The materials are generally stainless steel, chrome, wrought iron or timber.

Some are not solely pot racks and have additional features like grids for holding pot lids, cookbooks, kitchen utensils, even pot plants for a bit of greenery!

Pot racks are normally seen in country kitchens, French provincial kitchens and rustic kitchens, as they become a feature of the style. They are rarely seen in modernist kitchens as they provide a clutter aspect not required in this style.

I am not a fan of pot racks after having one in a home with a kitchen island that had a gas hob below and a down draft extract system. The pots and pans and pot rack were always “tacky” from the cooking vapours and then became a great place for the dust to stick! This was probably just a bad placement issue but it did help define the kitchen space in a high ceiling open plan living space.

So whatever the application there is probably a pot rack to suit you kitchen, now you need to go out and look!