In case you’re wondering what the mostly finished kitchen looks like, here’s a few photos…
As you can see, we still don’t have the counter top but we’ve covered the open spaces with boxes and that’s working out pretty well for us so far. We do have all the doors finally which makes us very happy and the only thing missing now is a few of the blinders for the sides of the cabinets which are not against walls. And we need to put on the blinder at the bottom of the cabinets so the dog fur doesn’t collect under there…but these are relatively minor things for us at the moment which we’re not overly concerned with right now.
Here’s my spice drawer next to the stove. Believe me, I have a Monica moment (Friends) every time I think about this drawer. We actually partially got the idea from the cooking show “A Perfect Dinner.” They have a German version with German “stars” and one of them had a huge drawer under the stove which held what seemed to be about 100 of these little jars with spices. We have 27 (I accidentally broke one already) but will get another 8 which should cover just about all the spices we use on a regular basis…and some we don’t use that regularly either but probably should lol.
Here’s my full wall cabinets with the built in microwave and new oven. We’re still learning how to use the oven. Last night was our first attempt at doing a pizza and it didn’t seem to get quite as warm as it should have but I guess I’ll pull out the manual to figure it out. As you can see, to the left of the appliances is the majority of our glassware and some serving dishes and pasta bowls.
The right side of the cabinets has become my pantry space which most everything fits in very well. Of course I have one drawer specifically for American products and other things that aren’t carried everywhere which I need to stock up on from time to time…and a drawer just for dog food. I’m rather nervous about overloading these drawers but they say they’ve tested them for over 50 pounds so I guess they should manage ok.
And after some deliberation, I finally found a good place for the baking sheets and such. And the shelf at the top allows the perfect spot for the large roasting pan which doesn’t get much use but came in quite handy at Christmas this year. It was just a tad too wide to lay beside the other baking dishes but sticking it on top actually works out even better for me and uses up the last shelf we had laying around.
For the first time since I bought my china 7 years ago, I finally have all of it out of the boxes…well all of the plates and bowls at least. We rarely use the cups & saucers so I figured I would leave them in their boxes for now and should we actually have an occasion where I need them, I’ll just pull them out. Formal plates on the bottom, every day stuff on top. And eventually we’ll be getting plate racks from IKEA to hold everything in place.
Outside the kitchen door is another storage area and overflow of the kitchen. In particular, I’ve put things in here that I don’t need on a regular basis and things that just don’t need to be taking up space in the kitchen itself. As you might notice, we haven’t really had the time to give this area a good cleaning but most of the stuff doesn’t require a pristine environment so it’s all good. Perhaps this weekend we’ll get around to it…
Behind the door I’ve got the garbage cans and most of the beer and drink cases. Bottles and cases come with a deposit here so all these go back to the store when they’re empty and get replaced by a new case. (Katie, please notice the case of Schneider Weisse on the bottom lol)
And on the other wall we’ve got the laundry area and storage for other stuff like paper plates for parties and so on. We’ll also be getting some storage containers from IKEA to make everything look a bit more uniform in here and really optimize the storage space. Yes, the similarities to Monica are frightening lol…
