Dish Drying Racks, Revisited

My friend Angela recently wrote, “I just washed some dishes just for the excitement of using my beautiful new dish drying rack.” Of course, I had to find out which rack that was; it’s the Yamazaki Tower, a two-tier customizable rack. That looks like a great drying rack: it’s attractive and it’s good for small spaces, like her Paris kitchen. The reviews are full of other extremely happy customers, too.

And that made me think: It’s been a long time since I last wrote about dish drying racks. A lot changes in the product world in 11 years! I updated that old blog post to fix broken links and such, but I have more suggestions now for those who want dish racks that fit small spaces or that are attractive enough to leave sitting out — or both.

If you’d like something small but don't need the space of a two-tier product — or if you want something you could tuck away in a cabinet when not in use — you might like the compact dish drying rack from Brabantia, available in dark or light gray. It’s currently available from Williams-Sonoma, Crate and Barrel and Pottery Barn.

Another compact option comes from mDesign, which notes the rack can be used on a countertop or in the sink. Note that unlike the Brabantia rack, this one does not have a drip tray. So if you were planning to use it on a countertop you might want to get one of the company’s drying mats to put under it — or just use a towel. You could even place it on an attractive tray, as long as the tray was waterproof.

 

You can also save space by using an over-the-sink dish rack, like this one from Neat-O. It doesn’t have a silverware holder, though.

If you get a dish rack without a silverware compartment, you could always get a separate piece for this, if you feel you need one. The whimsical one from Peleg Design caught my eye.

Yamazaki also has an over-the-sink dish rack; this one goes up from the sink rather than down into it.

Another type of space-saver is the madesmart collapsible dish rack. You could keep it, uncollapsed, in the sink — or stash it away somewhere else. It’s sold many places, including The Container Store.

But Surpahs roll-up over the sink dish drying rack must be the rack which takes up the least storage space!

Dish racks are usually rectangular, but they certainly don’t need to be. The Chef'n Dishgarden is another compact dish rack that can fit in the sink, if you wish. The Wirecutter review says, “Though its circular shape might seem like a waste of countertop space, this rack actually holds more than other compact racks of a similar size because of the cup holders around its circumference.”

A final option is to have a dish rack that you’re happy to have sitting out — and people who’ve bought Alessi’s (very expensive) A Tempo dish rack seem to be in that camp. It’s sold out many places, but for now it seems you can buy it at a few places, including RoyalDesign.com, Didriks and Hive — for widely varying prices.