One year into home ownership, we have come to end of our kitchen tweaking! We're really happy with how it turned out. First, a look at where we started:
The previous owners remodeled the kitchen and included a breakfast area. The TV was mounted on a shelf and a 6 foot folding table stuck out into the kitchen--directly into the path between the back door and the hallway door.
We knew immediately that this wouldn't work for us. So, we asked you, Internet, to give us ideas for how to improve this nook, way back in this post. Then we clarified that request with more pictures and diagrams in this post.
We tallied the votes and formulated our plan: make the nook into a drink station. Our hope was beer/wine/dr. pepper fridge below, coffee pot, french press, tea pot, hot water pot etc. above.
Well we finally made it happen! Only took a year after we originally decided on our plan!
We really love it. It's been installed for about a month, and it is so handy.
We researched several options including having cabinetry built in, cutting the Corian ourselves, and more. This set up ended up being the most cost effective and the most manageable.
The Corian shelf is from our original island. When we took it off the island and Kyle installed the new, larger countertop, the Corian sat in a closet for a while. It was too wide for this nook, but we knew we wanted to reuse it. First, it's a great material in good shape. Second, reusing it would repeat the Corian around the perimeter of the kitchen, with the butcher block only on the island. We thought it would make the whole rearrangement look intentional.
We finally found a Corian installer who came and measured the spot, took the piece away and cut it down, and came back and installed it. He did a beautiful job and he built us a steel support, so the Corian is securely floating. The drink fridge doesn't support any weight.
The final piece was that little rolling cart that we got last weekend on a road trip. Again, we considered several complicated built in options until I ran across this Ikea cart. It fits perfectly!! It was only $50! Its shelves house coffee, tea and filters on top; coozies (and some bananas) in the middle; and lots and lots of potatoes on the bottom. We have gotten a TON of potatoes in the farm share this year. As the kids get older, I can see this being a snack station too. It rolls out smoothly for access and tucks back in perfectly.
We researched several options including having cabinetry built in, cutting the Corian ourselves, and more. This set up ended up being the most cost effective and the most manageable.
The Corian shelf is from our original island. When we took it off the island and Kyle installed the new, larger countertop, the Corian sat in a closet for a while. It was too wide for this nook, but we knew we wanted to reuse it. First, it's a great material in good shape. Second, reusing it would repeat the Corian around the perimeter of the kitchen, with the butcher block only on the island. We thought it would make the whole rearrangement look intentional.
We finally found a Corian installer who came and measured the spot, took the piece away and cut it down, and came back and installed it. He did a beautiful job and he built us a steel support, so the Corian is securely floating. The drink fridge doesn't support any weight.
The final piece was that little rolling cart that we got last weekend on a road trip. Again, we considered several complicated built in options until I ran across this Ikea cart. It fits perfectly!! It was only $50! Its shelves house coffee, tea and filters on top; coozies (and some bananas) in the middle; and lots and lots of potatoes on the bottom. We have gotten a TON of potatoes in the farm share this year. As the kids get older, I can see this being a snack station too. It rolls out smoothly for access and tucks back in perfectly.
For the final touch, Kyle installed his bottle opener on the cabinet next to the cookbooks.
We are really so happy how it turned out! The kitchen works really well for us now, and after a year of having this hole serving no real purpose, it's great to have everything looking so neat and organized.
Now if only everything we bought at Ikea had worked out so easily...
[dun dun dun! Foreshadowing!]
Neat!!!