Hanging Your Knives Like Julia Child Might Be The Kitchen Upgrade You Need

Julia Child is known for many things, like saying you should never cook with cheap wine, and helping to bring boeuf bourguignon (the French stew that she called the best in the world) into the homes of Americans. While known for her food, she's also famous for her kitchen, which was inducted into the National Museum of American History in 2001. It was designed with practicality at the forefront of every decision, with every cooking tool placed in the optimal location for a busy cook. So, of course, we're interested in how she stored ... basically everything.

Julia Child, who preferred carbon steel knives over stainless, also uniquely hung them. While many people use magnetic strips for knives, the norm is to have the strip running horizontally, with the blade on top and the handle at the bottom. When looking at images of Child's kitchen, you'll notice she also has a magnetic strip for her knives, but she has it running vertically instead. This allows her to keep the blade on the left-hand side while the handle hangs out on the right. She arranged them gradually from smallest to largest, making it both easier and safer to grab.

If you want to replicate her idea exactly, she also kept the knives right above the sink. A woman who loved practicality in the kitchen, she did this so that she could easily get one, clean it off after use, and stick it right back up in its place.

With about 1,200 individual items recorded in her kitchen, it's no surprise that Julia Child had to come up with unique ways to save storage space. One of the most famous ways was using a pegboard all over many of her walls. This allowed Child to hang all sorts of kitchen tools within arm's reach, like pots and pans, and various cooking utensils like whisks and ladles — we definitely recommend it as an easy kitchen decor upgrade that doubles as tool storage.

Regarding flooring, Child recommended having a material that's easy on your feet, especially since you'll likely be moving around on it often. In her own home in Massachusetts, she had linoleum flooring, which is known for its comfort. This material is soft and also provides some insulation, so you don't have to walk on cold floors (which tile is known for). While many of today's kitchens have an island, Child instead chose to use a classic table in the middle of her kitchen. It's a multifunctional tool that she used similarly to an island, but she could also sit down at it to comfortably do many of her cooking tasks, like peeling potatoes. A large, rustic table works particularly well in an unfitted kitchen.