Kitchen re-do

We spent the last five days moving into a new place. It is slow going. I'm getting too old for this and, if I'm too old than JR is way too old. We are both exhausted. It is not just the moving as it is the packing, the unpacking and the cleaning of the last place that is the killer.

This new place has a very small kitchen with a small breakfast room attached. We decided that this breakfast room was too small for a family of four to actually use efficiently so we turned it into another part of the kitchen. By adding the 36 inch corner cabinet (it has a lovely lazy-susan inside), the 2-24 inch cabinets and the 12 inch open shelving we doubled our storage and countertop space.

Since, any cabinet that we screwed into the wall the apartment complex felt became their property we didn't actually screw them into the wall. We decided to dry fit them,then screw them together but not screw them into the wall. With the weight of the countertops and the stuff inside they shouldn't shift. Then when we move out we can disassemble them very easily. Neat trick, huh?

 

We bought pre-built cabinets (20% off this weekend only, so score!) so the only piece that we had to assemble was the open faced shelving unit. It had 6 pieces and I still think we did it wrong. I hate the instructions that come with these types of things. 6 pages with no words, just pictures. I don't know about the rest of you but we always have a couple of pieces left over when we are done. This time it was only a few screws and some dowels. I've decided that they were unnecessary. It's not like it's not standing upright or anything. The countertops are pressboard with a laminate top. They are very heavy. Which is a good thing since I have them barely screwed in. I didn't want to get too crazy because these are not meant to be permanent.

The decorating theme I'm going for here is yellow, white and black with a touch of orangy-red as an accent. We'll see how that plays out for me.You can't tell from these photos but the walls are a creamy yellow and the new countertops are a whitewashed white. The cabinets that came with the place are white and the contertops are blackish. All in all, it is coming out pretty well and looks like it was planned. No easy task when you are working with someone else's  kitchen or you are as scatterbrained as I am.

We are not done yet. We need to install the knobs, put the kick plate along the bottom, tack in some quarter-round where the countertop meets the wall, and hang some art. We may hang another shelf or two above the espresso machine. I haven't really decided yet. Knowing me the place will be a work in progress for at least 6 months. I tend to re-arrange things for a while until I feel settled in. Do you do that? Or am I the only one that makes their loved ones crazy by changing up the furniture, art or where the clean towels are located?


Love,
M