Showing posts with label kitchen organization. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kitchen organization. Show all posts

Thursday, November 3, 2016

Farmhouse Kitchen Reveal:Part 2

I'm going to share our lighting, the sink wall and the island.  



These two central schoolhouse pendants give tons of light. The white globes reduce glare and it gives a warm light with the LED bulbs we chose.
The back on the left are the  exhaust fan lights. I had been cooking in the dark with light sources always behind me. The back lights on the stove lasted a year and then conked out.


The new kitchen did not align with the existing light box, it was off center and too close to the fridge. So, Hubby, built this long box from the ceiling headboard with trim and finials that match the woodwork in the rest of the house. Inside is the new wiring hooked into the old electrical boxes.


Now the entire kitchen even the eating area is centered. It wasn't before.


The existing refrigerator is only a few years old, we chose to use it and build it in. The overhead cupboard is deeper and is finished off on the right side with a floor to ceiling panel that matches the cabinetry, a filler piece has been added since this picture. Now the upper cabinet.


I really don't have to get on a stool for this, as with the organizational racks from IKEA, we used 5, all my flat pans are organized. This will work unless something gets pushed back. I really love this. If you bake, can, or cook for crowds, this organization is wonderful.


Hubby finished off the back hall with wainscoting from bead board. My antique and family collections are displayed here. Down the stairs is a section with bbq tools, etc. on the right.
I'm going to look for a great GREEN recycling bin in wood or tin for here. 
We recycle tons of stuff and sadly fill one up every two weeks with just the two of us.




My roaster shelves are still there. Wall treatments are still up in the air here and on the eating end of the kitchen. 


Starting on the sink wall, we have the coffee shop. I still haven't made the magnet/picture to go on the coffee pot. We use this machine constantly, in the afternoon I have instant hot water for tea. It's ugly but super! 


The cabinet above holds our teas and coffees and servers.

'
Below is our metal shelves that are currently holding large bowls, strainers, breads and vegetables.


I could have done a smaller cabinet, but on paper we had room for this. I'm going to look into all one color bins. But this is what I had without new purchases. 


Next to the right is MISCELLANEOUS drawer. We are still trying to find things. So right now this is the status of this drawer. Eventually it will be edited and reorganized. I hope to have all the things that I used to keep on the fridge in here.



This drawer looks a mess. Mostly because I have ALL my towels in here. These will be edited. 
A bucket of markers, soap and sugar substitute. Clearly drawer this needs some work.
Nothing like a photograph to show you glaring deficiencies you ignore.


The bottom drawer is deep and has some odd things together in here. Three crockpots, my graters, a bin of jar covers and some odd stuff, and the extra dish strainer which doesn't fit under the sink. 
Paper bags will eventually have another spot. 
.

This is what the sink usually looks like, always in use. Our old dishwasher is on the right, and is so quiet now that it is properly built-in.



We love the Vinyl Plank floors, but I chose some rubber backed rugs for spills and for safety. We are seniors and falling or slipping on water/grease is not a good idea.





The sink is oversize on the left and smaller on the right where the disposal is.



Under the sink, we chose pull-out bins on tracks for garbage and kitchen garden waste. THESE are worth every penny---silent and just slide back in. Plus behind the waste bin is our soap box for the dishwasher, out of sight from little ones.



Here they are pushed in. And the hardware is silent and runs so smooth.




To the right is a small cabinet with everyday glassware in it. The next cabinet area has glass doors.
This holds some treasures and on the bottom shelf my everyday mis-match blue dishes with a sprinkle of reds.
Inspire Me Tuesday

The counter top here keeps changing. This was an early picture before the tile.



I have six pictures of this area from the last month, and all different. The only thing consistent is the cookie jar and my favorite enameled tray. I'm going to find a spot for the chopper, though I use it almost everyday.


This cabinet is the dish/serving cabinet the drawer is 36" wide, but shallow---again you can't pile it deep. Here's the layout. Since it is to the right of the dishwasher it is really easy to put items away. So far, for a month it has stayed neat and organized. 



The bottom drawer holds serving pieces, while the next drawer holds smaller plates, bowls and some serving bowl pieces.



Here is the cabinet lighting during the day on low. 


This is on high...LOVE the lighting. Its warm and welcoming and we leave one section on at night.


I'm officially in love with the glass door cabinets. I know they will evolve, especially when I get into all my antique bins I still have in the basement/garage.


The island is the heart of the kitchen. It is the WORK area. So it has to function. The countertop is 5'x4' butcher block. The cabinetry consists of two 30" wide cabinets with three drawers. On the stove side are three stools which will be red or maybe replaced with white ones. Not sure yet.


The left cabinet is the baking cabinet. Top drawer is actual two drawers one hid inside the other. The top one holds all my measuring tools, spatulas, mixer tools..etc. Very handy. 

The second holds bowls, supplies, sifter, hand mixers and large measuring cups. I have a divider for here, but haven't used it yet. The square bins clam unto the side bars and hold smaller items


Here is a full view of the top drawer with the scale in view also.This drawer is working very well. 


This drawer is also convenient, I may find a container or two to control the corded items.


Now my bottom baking drawer needs some help. The black box is my hand mixer, the box may disappear if I can work the contents to the drawer above. Round canisters are useless. I hope to have matching bins here eventually. My large pantry bins were too tall for this drawer.


To the right in the lower drawer are all the small baking pans, a set of clear bowls, apple bakers and some miscellany. The divider is working well here. We will see what happens as it gets used more.


The middle drawer holds just food storage, rolled products, jar covers, bag clips, and garbage bags. It really is nice everything in those categories are here. 
I'm using one divider to control the items. 
So far, after we use the excess, 
I'm confident the drawer will be neater and less duplicates will clutter it up.


We looked at all sorts of knife drawers. I settled on these dividers, instead. So far it is working well. Anything sharp that cuts anything resides here plus the can opener and garlic press. 
This is really handy for the work station. 

I hope you enjoyed a trip through the almost finished/organized? NEW Farmhouse kitchen. We still have some choices to make. I will save that for another time. 


Resources: 
Cabinetry-IKEA
Cabinetry lighting-IKEA
Countertops-Menards and IKEA
Hardware-IKEA
Flooring: Menards
Bead board Ceiling: Menards
Exhaust fan: Menards online
Flooring: Menards
Dimensional Subway tile: Home Depot
Elbow Grease: Three Seniors and Family

Thanks always for visiting. 
I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question.

All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions or posts. Please do not use photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi Magle




Sandi












Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Farmhouse Kitchen Reveal:Part1


Is a remodeling project ever really done?
I don't think so.

July 5th of 2016 we began the cabinet side of our kitchen. NEW ceilings, lighting, floors and cabinetry. Phew! All done by seniors, even installing the heavy IKEA cabinetry. 
Honest, I'm not being paid or supported in any way from IKEA. We chose this for the economy of doing it ourselves and the construction itself. If a tornado comes through our house, trust me, the kitchen will be still standing.

So all of October we have been twiddling with our Farmhouse Kitchen with finishing touches. It seemed like everyday, the island was piled high with tools for the latest project, usually with one or two step-stools set up. Back in the right hand corner you can still see the edge of the compressor/nailer, blocking the back door.

This morning I decided, it was time to take pictures NOW as it is. 
We have been cooking, eating, rearranging and moving things around for a month.



http://oldnewgreenredoblog.blogspot.comption

Here was the plan I showed last Spring. This was to be my NEW dream kitchen with all the DRUTHERS! But besides being pretty, the kitchen has to function.

Did we stick with the plan, YES. We did flip the sink with the drainboard to the the left. The space above the stove fan was added and custom built from an extra cabinet and faced with a door. Same above the sink. Hubby was very creative and used matching pieces to fill in our problem spaces.

First a few OLD before pictures.

http://oldnewgreenredoblog.blogspot.com

I had never really showed a total kitchen picture of before. I always showed my kitchen in vignettes. 
Why, because it was dated(1974), dark, and depressing. 
My antiques were far more interesting than the room itself. 

http://oldnewgreenredoblog.blogspot.com

The room was cut in half by a soffit which also topped above all the cabinetry. 
Removing the soffits was shown HERE.
They are great for hanging plates, but were responsible for lots of wasted space storage space
Don't you love how the light bulbs stuck out of the old recessed lighting? 


http://oldnewgreenredoblog.blogspot.com

When I look at these pictures now---I think I cluttered it all
 in an attempt to disguise how horrible it was underneath.

http://oldnewgreenredoblog.blogspot.com


 I never showed the floor---LOL, this is the tile that was on the floor.
 I used a new piece or two in the Barbie house.
Installing the subfloor and vinyl plank flooring was covered in this post, HERE.


http://oldnewgreenredoblog.blogspot.com


No matter how many light fixtures were turned on, 
or how much I lightened pictures -the OLD kitchen was dark.

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The corner cabinetry was a dead space, no cabinet access to the corner. 
Don't you love the Mediterranean hardware? The worst part was all the lower cabinets had added wire baskets, but shelves were stand-on-your-head/twist-and-reach. 
We are not really able to be pretzels in our late 60's anymore.

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Looking toward the eating area. All my strainers hung from the ceiling, no place else to keep them.
The island always seemed to have an appliance on it, because of the hassle of putting them away.

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Black fronted stove didn't help. Every inch of counter was covered. I had no room for dishes; note the platters and plates on top of the microwave.

http://oldnewgreenredoblog.blogspot.com

My 18" OLD pantry which I never showed, totally crammed with appliances and food. 
Some of the containers are tipped in order to get the maximum number into the pantry.
Removing the wall to the left and the pantry was shown HERE.

http://oldnewgreenredoblog.blogspot.com

Here is the NEW 30" pantry now. Love the waffle iron, 3 electric frypans, and George Forman right where I can see them and USE them on the shelf.

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The pantry is located to the left, we stole a bit of space from the clothes closet at the front door. 

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I love the lower drawers, more room for small appliances, staples, and my grinder/sausage maker, which I may now actually use since it isn't buried in the basement. 
Homemade chicken-sausage anyone?


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The middle drawers hold smaller food items.

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They hold canned goods, packets, etc. This is still a work in progress. I have more dividers to use when I figure out what works best. A real plus with the IKEA system is everything is flexible and inter-changeable. 

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Top shelf in the pantry, a big soup pot and my woks.
We are going to lower this shelf, I think.


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Hubby still has some cords to bury, and a bit of finishing behind the stove. 
 I love the new extended fanhood that works well with my double oven stove. We did not do new appliances as all of ours were less than 8 years old. 
He still has a panel to add to the left side of the stove. 
The microwave cabinet is wonderful and was an existing shelf in the IKEA shelving 
department and rated for the extra weight.
One drill hole for electrical access and it's a microwave shelf.

http://oldnewgreenredoblog.blogspot.com

Under the microwave, the cabinet drawers hold the glass covered dishes I use in the microwave.
Note all the 'vintage' cookware, yes, when you are married in 1968, you have some vintage.

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Below that is a lid drawer for with dividers and a frypan.


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All the drawers are pull out, no more standing on your head 
and twist/reaching to find something buried in the back. 
The top drawer holds tools for cooking, I missed taking a picture of that.

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To the right of the stove is this handy pullout shelf system for those bottles you use all the time, 
with room on the bottom for the large ones 
which originally lined the stairs to the basement (which was so attractive).

Above that is is a spice cabinet and two shelves, which is a work in progress.
 I think that will need some creative solutions, when I solve them, lol.

http://oldnewgreenredoblog.blogspot.com

The corner cabinet which was dead space before, now has a 'LOVE the carousel' filled with my pots and pans. We added rack divider on either side for the large electric griddle that replaced our old ones and the large boards and stove griddle. 

http://oldnewgreenredoblog.blogspot.com

I still have my mixer on the counter. It just doesn't quite fit anywhere
 because it doesn't come apart, but I use this quite often. 

I plan to edit the countertops, as we get used to having a place for most things. 
After two weeks with no blue jars on the counters, I had to put them out, lol.

We added a divider rack to the right of the mixer for cutting boards. Putting them away in the pantry was a pain, and overhead was dangerous when a second would come out. 

http://oldnewgreenredoblog.blogspot.com

My large spices work on the upper cabinet carousel, with tall plastic containers and pitchers working well on the top. I still have space on these shelves.

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In the cabinet next to the refrigerator, the lower two drawers hold glass oblong bakers, 
potholders and plastic food containers. Here are the top two drawers with cooking related tools.
I love the drawer within a drawer. Shallow drawers are un-crammable, 
you can't help but be organized. I bought organizing trays at IKEA for under $3.00
 and smaller ones at the Dollar store.

http://oldnewgreenredoblog.blogspot.com

This is an early picture as I started to stock the glass doored entertainment cupboard.

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The glass shelves are 36" wide and can only hold twenty-four pounds, 
so stocking them is a bit tricky. We still are working on this. 
I need color in my world, and balancing that with displaying some of our 
favorite things is still a work in progress. I expect they will get a REDO several times a year.

Add captionhttp://oldnewgreenredoblog.blogspot.com

Here is the finished cooking side of the NEW kitchen. We added clear silicone counter protectors found online for the edges the butcher block counters. They also cover the edge for crumbs or tools from falling between the stove and cabinets.

 The under cabinet lighting is a wonderful addition and can dim or brighten. 
They turn on and off with a small remote disk switch. 
 Hubby turns them on and off---all the time. 

We have had the island counter for four years now with butcher block and loved it. Hubby did give it a light sanding and an oiling when we did the other counters. We did mineral oil, until the oil sat up on the wood and no longer would be absorbed. We add a new oiling maybe three times a year.
So we did the counters for the rest of the kitchen.
The woods makes a nice connection with the vinyl plank flooring and the trim throughout our home.


Stay tuned for Part 2: The Island, Lighting, and the Sink wall. 

Resources: 
Cabinetry-IKEA
Cabinetry lighting-IKEA
Countertops-Menards and IKEA
Hardware-IKEA
Flooring: Menards
Bead board Ceiling: Menards
Exhaust fan: Menards online
Flooring: Menards
Dimensional Subway tile: Home Depot
Elbow Grease: Three Seniors and Family

Thanks always for visiting. 
I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question.

All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions or posts. Please do not use photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi Magle




Sandi