The 10 Best Hanging Pot Racks
This wiki has been updated 34 times since it was first published in October of 2016. The quickest and cheapest way to get more cupboard space in a kitchen is to store all your pots and pans overhead or on a wall. These hanging racks offer not just that practicality, but also lend an attractive, stylish look to any cooking area, becoming an important design element. When users buy our independently chosen editorial recommendations, we may earn commissions to help fund the Wiki.
1. Kinetic Classicor
2. Old Dutch Rectangular
3. Cooks Standard Wall Mount
Editor's Notes
July 12, 2019:
When it comes to any important element in a kitchen, form and function are equally important. We evaluated hanging pot racks considering both standards equally, taking into consideration that many kitchens are an extension of the home's overall style and not just a place to cook.
The Kinetic Classicor reflects the popular, sleek professional look that homeowners love in their remodeled kitchens and is constructed with the high-gauge metal to last through its 25 year warranty.
We also added the Old Dutch Rectangular to provide a high-end option for kitchens with a more traditional style. One of its best qualities is that it holds a hefty 120 pounds, so it's not just hanging there for its good looks.
Special Honors
Hi-Lite Sonoma If you really want to dress up your kitchen island, Hi-Lite Manufacturing creates all of their hanging pot racks from start to finish in the United States. This allows them to fully customize any of their products with luxurious materials like copper and even leather accents. hilitemfg.com
4. Franklin Iron Works Eldrige
5. Enclume Rack It Up
6. Concept Housewares Ceiling
7. Cuisinart Chef's Classic
8. My Gift Designer
9. Lyon Gourmet Wall Mount Rail
10. Contour Essentials
A Brief History Of Kitchen Storage
Throughout the ensuing centuries, hooks, handles, and dowels have remained popular choices for storing one’s cookware in proximity to all manner of heat sources.
Back when cooking was done outdoors over an open flame, storage for your cookware could be as simple as leaving it dangling over the dying embers at night, ready for use again the next day. As food preparation methods became more sophisticated, and those open flames moved indoors, space was necessarily allocated for growing assortments of pots and pans to cool their heels between sojourns over the fire. While some well-equipped medieval kitchens might have featured shelving or cabinetry to store a host of cooking implements, pots and pans were often simply suspended from the walls or ceiling, along with arrays of dried herbs and other culinary staples.
Throughout the ensuing centuries, hooks, handles, and dowels have remained popular choices for storing one’s cookware in proximity to all manner of heat sources. Even as various types of kitchenware have faded into the history books, modern cooks have continued to embrace some form of overhead storage as a practical and convenient option. Now that all but the most devoted raw-food enthusiasts are accustomed to victuals prepared in a vast array of modern and traditional cookware, the demand for ways and means of storing our meal-preparation toolkits just keeps expanding.
Some items, like espresso makers and pressure cookers, require dedicated counter- and cabinet-space, while cast-iron skillets and saucepans lend themselves to a variety of storage solutions. You may want your favorite cookware right at hand when you’re ready to blanch, broil, sauté, or simmer, but you won’t want it hogging your workspace when it’s not in use, and — depending on how frequently it’s used — letting it disappear into the depths of a hard-to-reach cabinet as soon as you’re done with it may be particularly inconvenient.
Benefits Of A Hanging Pot Rack
Not only does a pot rack offer the potential to keep cookware handy and within reach of the kitchen area where it’s used, but it also protects pots, pans, shelves, and other culinary essentials against the scuffs and scrapes of bumping up against one another. There are plenty of shelf organizers for sorting and compartmentalizing the contents of your cabinets, but stacking pots and pans together always runs the risk of damaging nonstick coatings or marring the finish on some of them.
On the other hand, preventing close encounters in a hanging storage solution is a simple matter of moving hooks around to accommodate the different sizes and shapes of its contents. As long as the suspension height places items just above the cooks’ heads (thereby reducing the risk of head injuries among taller occupants), the possibilities are virtually endless. For shorter cooks, even the need for a step-stool to reach a hanging assortment of cookware isn’t as annoying as wondering whether the skillet that’s gone missing is just hiding at the back of an upper shelf, out of sight and out of reach. Either way, ducking and reaching for a particular item in a highly visible display may be preferable to the What’s behind door number three? alternative, not to mention that it just looks cool.
If you’re preparing meals in the early morning, cleaning up from dinner late at night, or trying not to bang around too much during someone’s naptime, it’s a lot easier to put away and retrieve items quietly from a hanging rack than a cluttered shelf or drawer. And when your cookware can simply air-dry on the hook where it’s stored, you don’t have to worry about blackening your kitchen towels to dry it by hand, although you should still make sure cast iron is properly seasoned first.
Don’t Skimp On Hardware
Racks for hanging up your cookware can be made as simple or complex as you like and made from almost any sturdy material. In the time-honored tradition of repurposing, discarded wagon wheels have historically found new life as kitchen racks. Today, any number of ruggedly built artifacts can be repurposed for decorative and practical storage. But if you’ve got your heart set on something shiny and new, you won’t be disappointed. There are semicircular wall-mounted racks, cantilevered units, and racks designed for installation on the ceiling in any number of sizes, shapes, and configurations, many of which have room for lid storage, too. Just be sure that the one you choose, and the surface you intend to attach it to, are capable of bearing the weight of your cookware, with a healthy margin of error — just in case.
Today, any number of ruggedly built artifacts can be repurposed for decorative and practical storage.
Kitchens with exposed beams are a great place to attach these units because they provide a sturdy foundation to connect the bolts and anchors, but as long as you choose a solid surface on which to mount your rack and use appropriate hardware to install it, you shouldn’t have to worry about it falling down. What constitutes appropriate hardware may be anything from the brackets and bolts that came with your shiny, new installation kit, to specialty anchors and fasteners rated for heavy loads and the type of material to which you'll attach them. Power tools will almost certainly be involved in the process, so be sure you have the right equipment on hand and expertise to do the job yourself, or consider bringing in reinforcements to get it done right.
Speaking of reinforcements, depending on the type of material you’re attaching the rig to you might need to provide additional support to ensure you don’t end up with a pile of cookware on the floor and a gaping hole in your wall or ceiling. In the absence of a sturdy ceiling joist, you can add metal brackets or wooden blocks to help distribute the weight of your setup evenly and across a broader area, and toggle bolts or other specialty fasteners could come in handy for some installations.
Tina Morna Freitas is a writer who lives in Chicago with her family and three cats. She has a B.A. in anthropology with a minor in English, and has built a freelance career over the years in writing and digital marketing. Her passions for cooking, decorating and home improvement contribute to her extensive knowledge of all things kitchen and home goods. In addition, her 20 years as a parent inform her expertise in the endless stream of toys and equipment that inevitably takes over the homes of most parents. She also enjoys gardening, making and sipping margaritas, and aspires to be a crazy cat lady once all the children are grown.