Wall-hung dish racks are the secret to keeping your kitchen clutter-free – I'd never buy a regular dish rack again

There's nothing that disrupts a beautiful kitchen quite like a dish rack piled high with plates. It's a real eyesore that ruins a tidy, clutter-free sink area, making the space trickier to navigate. Luckily, there's a solution - the wall-hung dish rack.

Whether you want to improve the appearance of your sink area or need an innovative storage solution for your small kitchen with limited worktop space, a wall-mounted style solves many problems. However, you might be wondering, how can you dry dishes on a wall-hung storage unit?

It can be a little confusing to picture, but the wall-hung dish rack needs to be positioned above a sink, allowing the plates to drip down. Alternatively, the rack will have a built-in drip tray that you can empty. It's much less visually intrusive, as it looks like the pretty, traditional plate racks that act as a decorative kitchen storage idea.

When you're planning kitchen storage solutions, it's important to consider the overall flow of the space. Having to traverse a kitchen and bypass those cooking to put away crockery will grow old quickly, so ensuring you have storage in the right place will make tidying up so much simpler.

Dish drying racks are never the most aesthetically pleasing. Even if you choose carefully and pick one of the most stylish options, whether it's a chic brass style like this one for £24 from Next or a clever Joseph Joseph extendable dish rack, dishes will still be cluttered on the side of your worktop.

The solution, a wall hanging drying rack, is really quite simple but feels innovative. It takes up the same amount of space on a wall that might otherwise be used by a cupboard, but has the dual purpose of drying and storing crockery.

Particularly if you have dead wall space near your sink, as pictured below, it's the perfect way to create a clever little washing up zone that is self-contained.

While there are specifically designed wall-hung dish racks for drying plates, there are decorative styles too, if you're more of a dishwasher household. These styles of plate racks have an inherently traditional aesthetic and are well placed in country kitchens where eclectic storage options are used to add character.

'They bring a sense of heritage and craftsmanship to a space, but they are also incredibly practical. By keeping plates within easy reach, they free up valuable cupboard space and add a touch of everyday theatre to the kitchen,' explains Richard Davonport, managing director at Davonport.

'When painted in a soft, tonal colour or paired with glazed cabinets, a plate rack can help soften a kitchen’s architecture and add character without overwhelming the overall design,' he adds.

It will also help to free up space within a cupboard, so you can keep less attractive pieces of kitchenware hidden and your pretty plates on show - and close at hand. Choosing between a drying wall-hung rack and a regular storage rack will depend on what works best for your household and kitchen. If you're constantly washing up and dislike the look of clutter on worktops, I'd recommend opting for the former.

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As a small kitchen dweller myself, I would love to try out this wall-hung dish rack idea - it would give me valuable worktop space back that could be used for other purposes.