So, after I refinished the cabinets, we put them back up – except we moved them right up to the ceiling. I’ve always been told that cabinets going up to the ceiling makes a room feel taller, but I really didn’t understand that until I did it. The room looked SO much taller, and there are only 8′ ceilings!
I’m a big, huge fan of open shelving in a kitchen. I think things like plates and bowls and glasses are beautiful, and I want them on display. Plus, it’s a pretty decent visual of when you have to do the dishes.
“Crap. The shelf is empty. We can’t eat.”
I understand that some people don’t like having dishes and things on display, but since I have a touch of type-A personality, it works perfect for me to keep it all organized. Shelving also makes a nice break form the heaviness that ultimately comes along with cabinetry. The plan all along with moving the cabinets higher, was to build shelving underneath. I was OK with just a shelf – Doug wanted to make the shelves more built-in, as though they were part of the cabinets and not separate. He was on the right track, for sure. I made some sketches, we got on the same page, and got building.
We started by building a basic box. Or, a basic U-Shape. I painted as we went along. Marina, however, was not helpful. She just chose to photobomb.
Seriously. She’s not helpful. All she does is lie on the floor and remind me HOW MUCH I HATE THAT FLOOR.
We decided to do a beadboard for the back of the shelving, painted the wall color. I loved the idea of adding the texture of a beadboard, but I was just a bit hesitant about more black paint – I thought it might turned into a dark hole of sadness (which is dumb. Have you SEEN the windows in there?). I thought the green would freshen everything up a bit.
I bought some fancy-schmancy iron brackets to hold up the shelving, and we began eyeballing where everything would go.
The brackets went on…
…and up went the shelving.
We added the trim and front pieces once the basic box was up.
Once I painted it out, it looked they had always been there. With the brackets and the trim, the cabinets look way more like a hutch or a piece of furniture to me. I LOVED them!
On the stove side, we opted to add utensil storage instead of open shelving. We mocked up some shelves, and they were just not right. So, we decided to add beadboard and small metal spice racks. With the stove and the microwave, I painted this beadboard black – it just made more sense.
The beadboard up (with the new stove and microwave!). Also, notice the electrical outlet that’s black. It’s super incognito.
We decided to spend our “This Old House” prize money on things for the kitchen that we didn’t originally plan for. We added a sink, a faucet, and a pot filler. A pot filler is the dumbest and coolest thing that ever existed.
“You don’t have to carry the pot from the sink!”
Ummm, true. But you have to drain it sometime. So, you still have to go one way with it.
But it’s JUST SO COOL! We found a really heavy-duty and expensive one on crazy clearance, so we went for it. The plumbing was easy-peasy with a bathroom right there, and the basement stairs behind the stove. As ridiculous as it was, it really was nice when we did our massive soup parties. Or, you know. For Macaroni and Cheese.
So, here’s the finished product on the stove side :
And the finished product on the other side :
It’s coming together! (And remember, this is our former kitchen. See the current one in the new house here!).
