5 of the best-designed kitchen accessories of the year

Off-the-shelf blenders and toasters can be useful, but as products they aren't often all that inspired.

For people who want to take their kitchens into a more stylized realm, the International Design Excellence Awards, put on by IDSA, are a good place to start.

The awards showcase dozens of products that have achieved feats of design, including consumer gadgets, industrial tools, children's toys, and more. Only a fraction of those won top honors for their ingenuity and beauty at this year's show in August.

Here are a handful of the kitchen accessories IDSA considered worthy.