Here is ours...
The first picture is the electric on back wall of the cabinet to get port station.
Second picture is inside cabinet electric to wall electric.
Third picture is an angled plug strip.
The forth picture shows the water proof flexible electric line used behind drawer. This line is weighted the same as a pull-out faucet is under your sink and moves with opening drawer.
The fifth picture is the finished product in a drawer above the trash pull-out next to sink.

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I'm just planning on placing a power mat on a shelf. I think they are wonderful. Link below:

Here is a link that might be useful: Powermat

jterrilynn! I've always wondered how you did that! I want one in the kitchen for charging station and also one in the bathroom so I can leave my hairdryer plugged in for ease of use. I mentioned the plug-in-the-drawer idea to a cabmaker recently and he looked at me like I was nuts! So the cord doesn't get stuck or caught on anything? That was my worry.

And did your drawer have to be made short to accomodate this? From your pics it doesn't look like it, but I have to ask.

We put ours in a pantry cabinet along side of the sound system. As you can see it also is a place to store the remotes for sound system. It is great to have a place that is not on the counter for all these items. I bought the charging station from the Sears.com website. I think it was about 20.00

Blonde--you bought a Powermat for $20!! I spent about $100 on ours last Christmas. Your post reads as if you wanted to post a photo. Do you have one? Can we see it? Thanks!

Hi Breezygirl, no I didn't need a special size drawer because I had a little gap between end of drawer and cabinet. You don't need much. I have soft close drawers and it just goes back in place like it should and you do not even know the flexi electric cord is there.

Sorry the photo didn't post last night. For some reason the site would not accept the photo or a follow up post. We did not get a powerpad for 20.00, but a wooden charging station box, that holds a power strip in the back and has 4 places to plug in in phones, etc in the front. It just help keep all the cords controlled. A power pad definitely sounds like a great idea though.

We ended up with a charging station in a drawer because I thought it would be a good idea to get it off the counter.

In reality, it is one thing I could do with out. I end up plugging my cell into the plugmold and letting it set on the counter to charge still.

For my work, I need to have access to the phone when I am at home, so I discovered I have to have it out to hear it. Everyone else in the family charges their cell phones in the bedrooms.

Just offering another perspective;)

Another idea for you, though I can't yet give feedback on how well it works: I'm going to charge my phone on a shelf. (It's the lowest of a set of four shelves, that will fill a 24" wide spot between a window and a wall. The upper three shelves will hold cookbooks, and perhaps a teapot or two.) This will be the dedicated spot for me to drop my phone, keys, and wallet, handy but not on a counter nor in a drawer. I may get a shallow tray for them. The charger, when not in use, can go into a nearby drawer, if we find it's too visible there.

Our land line phone will live on that shelf, too. We had an outlet put in just above the shelf height. No phone line was needed since it's one unit of a wireless system and the phone wire comes into the house elsewhere.

My husband charges his in a bedroom, and when the kids are old enough for cell phones, I imagine they'll do the same. They could use the kitchen shelf, too, if they wish.

Ok, it's not "another" idea, since blondie had already mentioned a shelf. Call it "another vote" for a shelf, instead.

no pics, but ours is just a power strip with an on/off switch on a pantry shelf. The on/off switch will prevent your chargers from becoming "power vampires" when nothing is actually charging, so I recommend that feature with whatever set-up you choose.

Charging stations are designed around the idea that a cellphone is like a hat. Something you put on when you go outside, then toss in a closet once you're home.

But landlines are disappearing fast. More people are relying entirely on cellphones. If that happens in your house, nobody is going to want to leave a cell phone in a kitchen overnight; they'll go by the bedside.

Technology is changing, too, so your cell phone may end up in a docking station someday, where it connects to all the phones in your house.

The only point I'm making is, be careful about going to too much expense or trouble in custom-building part of your kitchen to accommodate the way you use a cell phone in December of 2010. Otherwise you may end up with the equivalent of an 8-track tape holder.

Similar to Mnerg, I have a charging station, along with a landline outlet, in a small cupboard at the base of my cookbook shelves. (All in a furniture-style hutch.)

Well, the kitchen has been finished for almost a year and we have never used it! My kids (teens)and I charge ours on our nightstands and my husband plugs his into an island outlet next to where he leaves his briefcase. I now know that it just would never work (for us) to have the electronics hidden away out of sight.

The power pads are a great idea, and keep the electronics more accessible while they are charging. So if you are designing a special spot, you might want to consider a nice little power pad shelf. (-:

So glad you started this post. I was just talking about a charging drawer with DH last week. I like the sound of a powerpad drawer instead.

Our kitchen is all open to the family room and before we remodeled we had a raised breakfast bar that was a catch all for junk and cell recharges. My husband thought the tall barstools perfect for hanging his suit coats on after work or slinging a jacket. This drove me mad. When we did the kitchen we made the peninsula all one level and have cool new stools. My husband is proud of the drawer cell phone port station we made. Husband is allowed to put his suit coat on the chair at a near by desk but not the kitchen stools. If his cell phone is not on his person it is being recharged in the drawer. My kitchen counters are free of any clutter (a thankful nod to the nook he made me for tea condiments). We still have land lines. For now, for us, with today's technology, we but especially "I" love my little drawer port and all the little things that help keep clutter down. I love walking through my kitchen and seeing the pretty granite and everything in order. However, if I didn't have a small kitchen and instead had a medium or large one with a pantry or spare shelves that would have been good too for a port.

*sigh* I must be sooooo behind the times.

Charging stations....I've heard about and seen them and in theory, this would be a perfect solution to all of our sketti wire messes all over the house.

The charging pad? WOW....never even knew that existed until now. What a neat concept.

Again, in theory this would be perfect.

No landline here so everyone has their cell phones, Ipod thingys, earbuds, etc everywhere....wherever there is an outlet that is convenient/within reach, you can almost expect something is charging from it.

I didn't want mine wrapped up in everyone elses mess so in my bedroom....where it's the most convenient of all places to charge my cell because I need it "on" and need to be able to hear it in that end of the house even while charging, I came up with a somewhat neat plan to disguise the cell and cord while charging.
Actually, I'm sure the plan is everywhere, it's just that I hadn't seen it yet.

Yardsale: purchased a sweet, medium-sized oval Shaker Hat Box for a buck.

In the back of the box, using a very sharp utility knife, I cut a small square out of the -I think it's like- Balsa Wood.

Ran the little plug that goes to my cell through the hole. Plugged my cell in, put cell in box, lid on top.
Hat box is on my nightstand.
Cord/plug runs out of the back of the box and down my nightstand between bed and nightstand, and into an outlet.

You'd never know there was a cell phone charging in that Hat Box.
It's much neater looking and less chance of my phone getting tangled up with everyone elses electronics that need charging, in the house.

Did the same for Mr. Amity's phone since his whole life seems to be on his nightstand (keys to auto, keys to the shop, keys to storage, nitrate bottle, change, money clip, wallet, glasses, a red tiny chunk of stone kids gave him while in hospital)...it was the most logical place to put it.

I had wanted so badly to be 'organized' when we first got the kitchen in a working mode.
I set up a surge protector inside a decorative 'empty' book and tried this for 3 weeks....I ended up doing more nagging than anything else. Wasn't worth it as everyone wanted their cells in their bedroom at all times.
But the rest of their electronics, they plug in wherever there is an empty plug. *sigh*
The Cleavers, The Nelsons, we're not. LOL

We have had the hairdryer plugged in the drawer for years and I think the cord tangled only one time! The outlet is on the inside back wall and the cord goes up into the drawer. Because there's plenty of cord near the outlet it stay stationary as the drawer goes in and out. Wonderful to not plug and unplug. But I had a friend whose father was an electrician say it should be unplugged for safety reasons. Guess we are "risk takers!" lol

On the phone charger- I keep my purse out on a desk area in the corner of my present kitchen. Like to have it handy. In our yet to be built house, I thought I could plug the cell phone into an outlet on the desk and put the phone back into the purse, so as to not forget it if I am going out. But the pad thing sounds cool! Nice Holiday gift idea. Isn't technology amazing!

These are all great ideas - I hadn't thought about how rapidly technology is changing, either, and a charging station may be obsolete in a few years.

I also found a great link for a "charging shelf" that isn't quite as permanet:

Here is a link that might be useful: Charging Shelf

Just please remember that if the charger is plugged into the wall, it's drawing electricity! If you're not actively charging something, you really should unplug it - or use an outlet strip/surge protector with an on/off switch. TONS of electricity gets wasted every day int his country by things we're not even using! Same goes for electronics like tvs, game consoles, etc. At the very least, try to select items with energy-star rated chargers.

I like that charging shelf idea and the power mat. We charge things in the kitchen and they get in the way so the shelf would be great.

We have a rule that the kids' cell phones get charged in the kitchen overnight. I was surprised at how late some other kids were sending them texts, so the 'no phones in your rooms at night' rule was started.

I have the same rule for their laptops after talking to a teacher who said she saw Facebook postings from kids, posted in the middle of the night! She teaches grade school, so these kids are young.

this is a GREAT thread! we are also contemplating a charge station. like jterrilynn we have a small (actually very small!) kitchen & do want to show off our new granite

if there are any new pics/ideas pls add!

Ours is similar to jterrilynn's. We put an outlet in the back of the cabinet and just plugged the surge protector into that and it lays in a drawer. Our IKEA cabs have enough gap behind the drawer that there isn't an issue with binding. But, if technology changes, I unplug it and get the drawer back -- easy peasy.

Keep in mind you might have other things that need charging - bluetooth ear pieces, cordless screwdrivers, digital cameras. This is a handy place to charge them and keep the cords all in one place. Before we had one camera on DH's desk, one on mine, my cell and earpiece on the kitchen counter, DH's on his nightstand, the screwdriver on a closet shelf . . . you get the picture. Much neater now.

There is definitely an out-of-sight, out-of-mind issue, though. Although my purse usually lives on the end of the counter right above the drawer, I have been known to leave the house without pulling my phone out of the drawer. But that doesn't happen very often.

very good points! i love the idea of using a drawer, we might do that too.