Now that I am ready to return all (well, not everything.. some will get tossed) of my "stuff" to the cabinets I am thinking about the way I am organizing it. I have moved the refrigerator from one side to the other. added a stove where the wall used to be, a whole row of cabinets on the end of the kitchen, removed the patio door and replaced it with a single swinging door to the deck, so, with more space to keep things grouped together in a more organized way, I am wondering how do you do it? each cabinet dedicated to a particular method of cooking? baking items in one cabinet, spices next to the stove?, small appliances in one cabinet where possible? What works for you and if you could do it differently what/how would you do it? I'll post a finished project as soon as I can..
Hey Carolyn. My kitchen is so small that I do not really have choices. hahaha. But what I wanted to ask was for you to send some pics of your new arrangement. It sounds fab! The swinging door idea sounds cool. You said that the opening led out to the deck. Does that mean that there is always an opening open to the out-of-doors? Surely not. Tell.
Morning S, My kitchen was a decent size but poorly laid out, designed and functional. there wasn't much in the way of counter space for cooking or baking, I had no drawer for silverware or utensils, the "traffic"flow through there.. wasn't, I keep my staples in the laundry room and all of my canning in the basement... up and down the steps for every meal and I cook a lot. Right now I am cooking everyday for kevins parents, not that it is lot more food, but I have to think a little more to get it done so I know they are getting food that isn't high in salt or fat or too spicy or too much dairy.. totally not the way I cook. Anyway, always there has been a door there. It was a 6' wide patio door. 3' was stationary glass and the other 3' was the swinging patio door. A terrible waste of wall space. I needed the wall space more than I needed a wall of glass, Here is the door area that was changed. Pantry and utility cabinets added. Trim isn't finished in here, but it is now. Boy, does the time of day make a difference in the color the camera records. I had one picture that looked like my walls were electric blue... ghastly. eww, after I posted this I see the paint behind where the refrigerator is going to be... ewww. That is supposed to match the paint on the rest of the wall. ewww. it doesn't look so bad in the daylight. I can see a tiny bit of difference in the shade of it but it isn't enough to bother me since it is behind the appliance anyway.
Carolyn, what will you do with all that cabinet space? You certainly have improved your kitchen. Keep the photos coming because we love to see your progress. Does Maya approve of the new door? I think it's wonderful and so much more useful. We have a double sliding patio door out of our kitchen, which I would never have chosen, but it was here when we bought the place, and removing it and adding a sensible door like yours just isn't in our budget!
Actually Jane, the door was way more reasonable than I thought. It took the men about 1/2 day to do it. We had all of the siding saved from our addition from years ago... never throw anything away if you can store it, you may need it for a repair later... And the door was maybe 200.00 at menards. A patio door is a terrible waste of wall space... Maya likes the door as long as she is allowed back in each time she goes out. I'll take pictures of the cabinets filled up after I get finished. The middle one is specifically for my sweeper and cleaning materials. I found cute little 1/2 cup jars at Walmart with shaker lids for the spices and such. Since I buy most of my spices at the farm market up the road they will be perfect for storing them in. Most of my spice cupboard is refilled. I now have a drawer for dish towels...IN the kitchen. a drawer for my saran wrap, foil, papers, boxes of bags etc... Now back to that useless/unwanted/unused thread... my Pampered Chef Stoneware... hmmm. I didn't think I would call it that, but I really don't use it as much as I should. It is heavy and takes up a lot of space as none of it stacks very well. I have 4 bread/loaf pans, 2 muffin stones, 2 mini loaf pans, 2 wooden trivets, a couple pizza stones and the wicker trays to carry and pass them and two covered baking dishes... This all takes up too much space. More than the NEW cabinet over the refrigerator.
