Yesterday, I shared my present plan for extending the use and performance of my kitchen into the breakfast room with out doing any main transforming that will require transferring water traces, jackhammering up a concrete basis, or repairing and changing flooring. Should you missed that plan, you may examine it right here.
As I shared yesterday, the primary drawback with our present setup is that these again cupboards on the peninsula are presently used as our meals “pantry”, and it’s simply not handy in any respect.
The principle recurring suggestion that got here from commenters on yesterday’s publish was that I ought to transfer the meals to the pantry, and use these cupboards for storing small home equipment which might be presently within the pantry.
Belief me, I want it had been that easy. However there’s one drawback with that plan. These cupboards on the again of the peninsula are solely 10 3/4″ deep.
And this, in a nutshell, explains the issue with my complete kitchen. A few individuals commented that I presently have loads of storage, and I simply want to make use of it otherwise.
I do know that it might look like I’ve loads of storage, however appears to be like might be deceiving. Your complete again wall of my kitchen has these similar shallow cupboards which might be solely 10 3/4″ deep. And what’s worse is that eight of the cupboards on this wall are solely 9″ broad on the entrance facings, and 10″ broad inside the cupboards. I can’t even match a dinner plate in right here, a lot much less an equipment like a blender or air fryer.
These cupboards had been labeled as 12″ deep and 12″ broad at House Depot, however these are the skin measurements of the entrance facings, not the within usable area. And once more, I’ve eight of those cupboards on this again wall. These are just about ineffective.
So whereas it might seem like a wall of helpful storage, about half of is simply taking on invaluable area that could possibly be used a lot extra effectively with cupboards I might truly use
And of the remaining cupboards on that wall, 4 of them are solely three inches wider than the tiny cupboards, however they’re the identical 10 3/4″ depth. So that is very inconvenient for meals storage. It’s barely usable for something, so I’ve made essentially the most of them, however I’d eliminate them as we speak if I might.
However anyway, again to the cupboards on the again of the peninsula. These aren’t deep sufficient to suit any of my small home equipment. Right here’s my Instantaneous Pot inside the cupboard…
And the door received’t shut all the best way…
My air fryer is even bigger than the Instantaneous Pot.
And the meals dehydrator is even larger.
So storing small home equipment in these cupboards isn’t an possibility. These small home equipment belong on this cupboard that I constructed particularly to deal with small home equipment.
Right here’s the image that I took proper after I completed the pantry and loaded up the cupboards and drawers. Since then, I’ve acquired extra small home equipment, however I’ve gotten rid of a number of the objects pictured beneath that I by no means used. However this cupboard continues to be excellent for my small home equipment.
However ever since we began having individuals over to our home recurrently, and having meals collectively as soon as every week (and sure, we’ve an precise meal, not simply snacks), I’ve began utilizing this cupboard to retailer paper plates, napkins, cups, forks, spoons, bottled water, and many others.
So the small home equipment have been displaced, and now reside on the countertop. However I needed to decide as as to if I would like the paper items out on show or the small home equipment out on show. Clearly, I’d relatively have the paper items hidden behind closed doorways, however that is simply cluttered and ugly.
I would like my equipment storage again, and I would like handy storage for our meals, in addition to the objects I now maintain available for our weekly gathering and meal. The paper items might go within the cupboards behind the peninsula, however then I’m again to needing a spot to retailer the displaced meals.
So far as the opposite areas within the pantry go, this was by no means meant to be a meals pantry. This was all the time meant to be extra of a butler’s pantry, the place I retailer the overflow of kitchen objects that I don’t use recurrently. And I designed it with that in thoughts. There’s a spot for every part, and every part is as a replacement. And that features custom-made storage like this…
The large drawers within the center part on the lengthy wall include a 16 place setting of dinnerware that received’t match anyplace else (and for which I particularly constructed the large drawers). The opposite cupboards with pull outs maintain giant pots and different objects that merely received’t slot in these cupboards on the again of the peninsula.
So in my thoughts, it makes completely no sense to take these items out of the cupboards that had been constructed particularly to deal with them, when I’ve no different place to place them, simply to place meals in right here when this pantry was by no means meant to be a meals pantry. Eradicating all of these things (and even a big portion of them) from this pantry when I’ve no different place to place them would simply be creating chaos.
In my thoughts, the best choice is what I discussed yesterday. I’d exchange the entire tiny nugatory cupboards that I’ve now in my kitchen with purposeful and environment friendly cupboards. Even IKEA’s 15-inch wall cupboards could be an enormous improve from what I’ve now. I’d achieve 4 inches of depth, and I might use widths which might be truly usable, like 30″ broad cupboards, which have 28.5″ of inside usable width as a substitute of the ten″ of inside width just like the eight cupboards I’ve now.
Actually, the one handy cupboards on the again wall of our kitchen are the decrease center cupboards.
These are so handy for glasses and dinnerware, and I’ve every part organized similar to I would like it. I used to be beforehand utilizing these two cupboards as meals storage, they usually simply weren’t sufficiently big. I stored having to search out area for overflow, which is how the meals ended up on the again of the peninsula within the first place.
So there’s the within scoop, and a bit extra perception into my thought course of. Which leads me again to this plan…
It’s in a handy place and would give me a ton of storage for meals, paper items, bottled water, and many others. This plan, together with altering out my present again wall of ineffective cupboards for cupboards which might be truly usable, appears to be the proper resolution to make my kitchen a lot extra usable and environment friendly.
Addicted 2 Adorning is the place I share my DIY and adorning journey as I rework and adorn the 1948 fixer higher that my husband, Matt, and I purchased in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do bodily work, so I do the vast majority of the work on the home on my own. You’ll be able to study extra about me right here.
