I have a small section of counter (21" to 24")above a stack of drawers at the end of my pantry/frig run. The phone hangs on the wall there, along with the calendar and a message board that I still need to hang. The counter is where all the mail and junk collects. The drawers hold mailing and school supplies. DH and I also each have a drawer to store things that come in that need to be kept handy, but not dealt with immediately. That is the one flaw in the plan. Nothing ever makes it into DH's drawer. Oh well. If I can keep all the mail clutter confined to one little area I guess I have to be happy. In our old kitchen, it took up most of my limited counter space.

Totally Confused

What about your family room? On a side table?

Ours is on the message center. Like ejbrymom we have a phone with a base in the kitchen. The base unit with the answering machine is in the "office."

Thanks for responding cat, ejb, and tc...

This might sound strange but there just doesn't seem to be any place in the other downstairs rooms for a phone. So I'm left with the kitchen.

My DH and I prefer to have at least one phone with a cord..We have cordless phones upstairs.

Anyone else want to chime in on this? I always am open to suggestions.

Thanks again!

What about having your corded phone upstairs (I'm with you, I like to have one, and it's my bedside phone as I use it the least) and having a cordless base somewhere downstairs, and just having a headset somewhere in the kitchen?

I'm putting in a desk in my kitchen, so it will be there.

We have a corded phone in a small office. The main base for the cordless phone is also there. We have one of those sets that came with a total of 4 cordless phones (Panasonic, from Costco).

I have a charging base in my room. There is usually a phone charging there and one charging in the office. The other two float around the house, with one definitely in the kitchen area. I just alternate them so that they're always charged. That way I don't have anything plugged into the wall in the kitchen or a station sitting on the counter. We decided to remove the phone jack in the kitchen which would have been where the backsplash is. Don't miss it at all.

You defintely need a corded phone somewhere in the house in case of power outage.

In my old kitchen, the phone also hung on the wall. I didn't want it back on the wall, though, or on the countertop. It's easier these days of cordless phones with a base set which can go somewhere else. So, now I have a cordless phone in the sunroom next to the kitchen, which I can easily use in the kitchen. This plan works for me because the kitchen is a small galley, and the sunroom is just steps away :)

>You defintely need a corded phone somewhere in the house in case of power outage.

Very true, but it doesn't have to be hooked up all the time. I just keep one where I can easily find it in the dark and plug it in while the power's out, which happens quite frequently here.

Of course, a great many people don't have land line phones at all anymore these days. A neighbor recently dragged me over to look at the townhouse he wants to rent and I noticed there wasn't a phone jack in the place. He said, "Âbut everyone has a cellphone now!" when I mentioned it. It made me laugh, because that may be true, but it doesn't alter the fact that I have to drive 6 miles to get any kind of reliable reception.

I keep a charging base for a cordless extension phone on a side table in the living room and just bring the phone along when I want it in the kitchen, but I have a very small house.

We have one corded phone in the Library/Office and one of those 4-phone cordless sets...one primary base w/the answering machine and 3 "satellite" phones with a small base for charging.
We have the primary one w/the answering machine in our Message Center Niche located b/w the Kitchen and FR and where it can be seen from both the front door and garage door when coming into the house.
One satellite in the basement in my DH's new "man cave"
One satellite in our upstairs bedroom
One satellite on the peninsula b/w the DR and kitchen. That one's there b/c when I work at the peninsula when I'm working from home and the speakerphone function (for meetings) is better on it than on my cell phone.

I have an older picture of the Message Center Niche that has the old phone that was similar to the new 4-phone set we just recently purchased. The new one is actually smaller so takes up even less space in the Niche.

I have a phone jack at the back of my island, above the attached table area. The phone usually sits there. I like a regular phone with handset for the kitchen beccause it's much easier to answer with goopy hands.

I also have a small message center cabinet for pens and pads, which has a phone jack and a couple of outlets, where I can hide the phone when I don't want it in my way.

Okay - I thought this was a great idea - or maybe I'm totally crazy - but this is what I did - in one of my pantry cabinets I made a "recharging station" - with an outlet and phone plug. I'm putting a plug strip in there and plan for that shelf to be where things - including the phone - get plugged in at night. So the phone docking station will live there. Then in the morning I'll pull out the wireless phone and that will be on the counter (or where ever it ends up as I walk around the house!)

I'm a cell only person. I also didn't bother to wire the house for a standard phone but I DID locate 2 outlets (2 actually for me and another 2 for DH) in the upper cabinets of our kitchen that are placed to be used with my cell charger and laptop.

I live in a metro area so power outages are extremely rare and not a concern at all. However, even if we have one I'd just avoid using the cell. It lasts 2 days? or so if it's not being used and I have much bigger issues if my power is out for two days.

Something else to note is that my dad (who lives in a rural area that does have regular outages) discovered the other day that at least the model of phone he was using (wireless with several bases around the house) did not provide enough power to charge the phones so he could use them. Only the old fashioned kind that has NO battery would work. That was something they hadn't counted on. So now he keeps a plug in phone in a drawer.

I too wanted a phone in my kitchen as that's where I spend most of my time. I have a phone jack above the corner base cabinet next to my fridge, under my microwave.

We have an old-fashioned black wall phone in between breakfast nook and kitchen. I can tuck it between my ear and shoulder while I am using the range...this doesn't work with my cellphone or our cordless. I'm usually on the cell for incoming calls but I like the IDEA and look of the wall phone!

marcy I love the look of that phone...so fun! Takes me back to the days when we had party lines...

I really appreciate all the responses, and I think you all had some interesting ideas for me.

I guess though, that I'm a bit old fashioned when it comes to certain things. So I am having my corded phone hanging on a wall in my kitchen.

But I think now that I've seen marcy's phone, I will have to shop for a phone that is interesting and fun! Yay, more shopping!

Oh excuse me...It's shanghaimom's phone that I was admiring....sorry about the mix-up!

Our land line phone jack is in the office, the kitchen has a wireless. I would have loved to have everyone on cell only, but realize that a land line may be necessary while my kids are still in elementary school. Once everyone is in Middle-High School, I have a feeling we will be land-less. I am a huge believer in using those headsets--I could not make it through either my mom or sisters yakking to me while I am cleaning or cooking if I was holding a phone. I look like a Bell operator, but I can totally go about my chores while my mom talks endlessly about Aunt Whats-her-name......it's the best solution to the problem of "I've got to get things done vs. my relatives wanting to chat" dilemma.

Yes, phone charging stations in the pantry are a common thing on this site. Another location is in a drawer. In my case, though, "out of sight" means "out of mind"...so if I charge my cell phone out of sight, I will forget it when I walk out the door. So I charge mine in my Message Center Niche with the keys...hard to miss/forget it then!

Everyone else charges their phone and/or iPod in a charging station in a corner. I didn't want to take up valuable space in my small pantry for a charging station, but my pantry does have a phone jack & outlets for the Message Center Niche that's recessed into one of the pantry walls (the cords/cables are fed through a small hole in the pantry wall and comes out behind the phone in the Niche).

I have my eye on this little beauty:

Here is a link that might be useful: PhoneCo

A Big Thank you to bmorpanic! Here I was thinking I wanted the phone to be as unnoticeable as possible. And now I'm thinking I would love to have something funky and old-school that will be a nice detail to my kitchen!

Thanks to all who participated in this thread!

>Something else to note is that my dad (who lives in a rural area that does have regular outages) discovered the other day that at least the model of phone he was using (wireless with several bases around the house) did not provide enough power to charge the phones so he could use them. Only the old fashioned kind that has NO battery would work

It's not a question of the phone batteries, but of the fact that the part of the phone that broadcasts the signal does not have any kind of battery. If you are on a cordless and the power goes out, your call is done, even if your batteries are fully charged. You do need a real old-fashioned one if you want to use a landline when there's no power, as they found out.

love the retro phones, but you are aware that you can get a hands free headset for most cordless phones? To me that is much easier than standing with your shoulder crimped to the phone, but then I'm a very chatty person. :)

I know, I know!! I should have a headset!! (Actually do have one but never use it--I need to just get it out.)

Writersblock,

That's an interesting take. I can only tell you what my father told me at the time, which is that the cordless phones worked after the power went out but only until the batteries died. He may have meant something else but I took his words at face value.

We do agree though that if your phone runs off a battery instead of being directly into the wall it will not work!

That's really interesting, morgne. My panasonic phone is toast as soon as the power goes. The handset will light up and all, but there's no service when there's no power, even if you're in mid-conversation when it goes. I'd like to know what they have that would do that.

Some base stations have a battery pack and will continue to work for a short period of time until the battery runs down.

When we had one, I think it lasted a couple of hours?

I have formed a hypothesis! My father is NOT phone talker so he rarely, rarely uses the phone. So I'm wondering if he saw that the phone was ON, because of the battery, and just assumed that it was getting service. That would explain why he thought it worked until the phone display itself died.

Hmmm...

OO. Bmore, that's great! It makes my dad look like less of a schmo. LOL!

I put my phone inside the message cabinet that is on the end of the uppers. It's a secondary phone that only needs an electrical outlet. The base unit is elsewhere. I looked for the smallest phone I could find that would fit in the message cabinet. It's sitting on the bottom shelf. It works great. It is behind a door which is unusual but we can still hear it and everyone in the house knows where it is. I like not having to see it. We put in multiple outlets so this cabinet is also where we charge cell phones, headsets etc.