Jan 20, 2012

Kitchen - Small Update; HUGE inpact!

I haven't really talked much about our home. It's a very nice home .... at first glance. It's one of those great First Impression homes. When you first see it, you think Wow! What a cool place! If you lived here, you'd have a totally different story. I showed you the Austin Powers carpet that's in my laundry room here. I'm pretty sure it's original to house from when it was built in the late 1970's, as is the beige shag carpet in the living room and dining room. That one is tolerable for now, but will also being going buh-by in the next couple of years, now that our daughter is at a more responsible age.


I showed you the little lighted display cabinet we did a year ago in the kitchen. I love it!


We've had & still have several storage dilemmas in our house. It has no secret hiding places basement or attic.  We're forced to be a little creative, and let's face it, we're not all that great at having the funds to be as creative as we want, even in our thrifty world.


However, we get lucky sometimes and things work out like that's how it was supposed to.


Let's see if I can explain this. We have a lower kitchen cabinet that is on one side of a corner, but not a lazy susan cabinet. (sorry no pics, but our cabinets are fugly and I'm not showing the world until they look better.) The inside of this cabinet goes waaaaaaaay back to the wall. It's basically dead and wasted space. You practically have to crawl in the cabinet to get anything that has been shoved too far back. I don't know about you, but I'm on the back side of 40 and this ol' gal can't crawl in a cabinet anymore. My daughter could get back there, but too many mysteries could be lurking back there in the dark. know what I mean? eewwww!

We had many discussions on how solve that problem. We came up with the idea to see if we could create 3-4 panels that would match the dark walnut finish. We could make the necessary one be an actual functioning door, while the others were just for decoration. I wish I had some Before shots of what it looked like, but I wasn't THAT into blogging so much a year ago and it was just a strip of smooth paneling.

We went to the local Habitat for Humanity ReStore to see what they had there. We had just been in there a couple of days earlier and they didn't seem to have what we were looking for then. But this time we figured, what the heck?

Wouldn't you know? They had FOUR dark walnut cabinet doors with no holes drilled in them in the perfect size! Right out in front and only $4 each!! At that exact moment, the clouds parted and sun shone down from the heavens and I heard Angels sing. Well, maybe not so much all that, but it was a glorious moment!

You'll have to excuse my photo taking skills, or lack of them, but here are the panels as they look now. Not to mention that it's not a good light day here either.


This is the only functioning door and it lets us get easier access to that area and it's no longer a scary place.


My hubby even put in 2 outlets to accommodate some cheap nightlights so we can see what's in the cabinet better. One for each shelf.  Oh, and he didn't finish off the edges of the opening or anything fancy, it's purely functional here. However, someday I'd like to add something dimensional to the centers of each door panel.


So, if you have a dilemma like this and you have access to the backside of your cabinets, add some doors. It's easier and cheaper than putting in pull out shelves...which I would love those too. ;^)


God bless and have a great day!



PhotobucketI'm linking up to these parties:


 

12 comments:

Tracy said...

Great idea.
I have 2 corner cabinets on either side of the kitchen that the kids and I would hid in during our hide and seek games. Hate these cupboards, but sadly the wall is on the other side.
Good for you to have easier access to the contents.

KimMalk said...

What a great solution. I totally cannot believe you had such phenomenal luck finding those doors! We don't have much in the way of secret storage space, either. I miss my basement!

Decor To Adore said...

How smart are you with the nightlight? Very smart! :)

Christina at I Gotta Create! said...

What a great solution! Thanks SO much for sharing it at the Kiss & Tell party over at I Gotta Create!
<3 Christina

Anonymous said...

I love ReStore! Great solution,,,,I wish it would work for me but I would have to create an access door through my garage. I also think it was a great idea to install lighting.

Crystal @ 29 Rue House said...

I LOVE the Restore! You never know what you're going to find!! Thanks for visiting my blog and I'm your newest follower!

Beth said...

Yeah unfortunately, the circumstances have to be right for this to work. The light is definitely a good thing!

Beth said...

Thanks for stopping by and signing up to follow me! Hope we can inspire each other!

Anonymous said...

Very Cool! We have 2 of those scary cupboards in our kitchen, I can't stand them! I'm glad you found a great alternative to yours!

Thanks for visiting my blog, and your great advice with the distress ink! I really appreciate it, and will for sure use your advice of using makeup brushes. Love it!

Leanne @ Because (I think) I Can

gail@My Repurposed Life said...

very clever! It's great that you can now have access to your storage, and the nightlights? very smart!
thanks for linking up and linking back to catch as catch can!
gail

Beth said...

Thanks Gail! Love the link party!

Fabrik ETC said...

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