Sunday, November 23, 2008

Homemaker Monday: To Design a Kitchen - Part Four

Welcome to...


Thank you for joining us! If you're new to this carnival and would like to enter your post, please check HERE for the rules and regs. (By the way, if you have been featured on Homemaker Monday in the past, your name is on my left sidebar. Check it out!)

YOURS: This week's "YOURS" was posted by Kathryn over at The Kahumoku Ohana. She shows us, step-by-scrumptious-step, how to make lasagna...


This is making my mouth water just looking at it! She has some great ideas on how to make the process go faster and easier. Now that's my kind of recipe! Thank you so much, Kathryn, for joining us here on Homemaker Monday and please feel free to grab the "I was Featured" button on my left sidebar. For Kathryn's entire lasagna post, Click HERE. We'll look forward to visiting your blog often for some more great tips!

MINE: Part Four - The Food Storage Centers: The food storage for our family is located in three places throughout our home. Long term storage, such as wheat (which can be stored for 30 years or more), is kept in the basement. Bulk food storage, such a canned goods, paper towels, condiments, etc. is stored in a small room off of our kitchen. Everyday items, such as cereal, cooking oil, snack foods and peanut butter are stored in our kitchen right next to the fridge. Here's the set up...



This area was something I had a little trouble with and we didn't get it resolved until near the end of the planning process. I wanted a counter-depth fridge to give our kitchen a more custom, built-in look. I really didn't like the idea of having that stainless steel behemoth sticking out over a foot from our granite countertops, taking attention away from the design along that whole wall. John humored me and we went shopping. There were many counter-depth, stainless steel refrigerators at reasonable prices, but there was a down side. These counter-depth refrigerators were up to four cubic feet smaller than their full-size counterparts.

I begged John and reasoned with him that it would be okay, that we would just have to organize more carefully and we could just keep the extra stuff in our second fridge in the food storage room. He tried to talk me out of it, but I wouldn't listen. In this case, form would proceed function!

Then it happened. John performed the magic that he always does and fixed the problem. We could purchase the full-size fridge and have the cabinets custom-made to fit around the fridge. Our design would have all the glamour of the built-in, with the larger size our family needed. Have I mentioned before that my husband is a genius? Well he is... a genius...

The first thing we did was to have the carpenter make a two-inch wide, three-foot depth support on the left side of the fridge to support the upper cabinets...



He did an absolutely beautiful job of the hickory paneling.

Next, we asked him to build a 3' x 8.5' (3' depth) cabinet on the right side of the fridge, with a 2.5' x 3' (again, 3' depth) connecting the left support and right cabinets. Here is the side view of the cabinet on the right of the fridge...




We decided to use the back one foot space as a broom closet (as shown in the second photo above). Having cabinets 3' deep would have made it too difficult to access our food storage. We did, however, choose to leave the 3' depth in the overhead cabinets, as this makes perfect space to store tons of boxes of cereal from Costco. Seasonal and rarely used items can be stored above the fridge.

Here's how the pantry looks in use...


My favorite part about this pantry is the hinged shelf. Check it out...


My carpenter is amazing!

All righty then, that's it for now on my food storage. Next week we'll talk about the island!

If you missed any of the previous "To Design a Kitchen" installments, click below!
To Design a Kitchen - Part One
To Design a Kitchen - Part Two
To Design a Kitchen - Part Three

OURS: Okay, now it's your turn! Search your archives or write a new post especially for today and link up! If you have something holiday-y, we would LOVE to check it out. Thanks for coming today and have a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving!




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12 comments:

Kathryn said...

Thank you so much for featuring me! I am so excited about it! I love your kitchen food storage. My favorite parts are the swinging pantry shelves and the broom closet on the side. Clean and handy. I love it!

Anonymous said...

What a lovely kitchen and a great fix!

CompleteLee Blogger said...

Love the broom closet!

threesidesofcrazy said...

Every week I fall more deeply in love with your kitchen!

laurice. said...

I love your kitchen.

I set my blog to private and I sent an invite to you but it says it hasn't been accepted. I might have sent it to the wrong e-mail. I think I sent it to John (I got the e-mail off the ward e-mail) anyway e-mail me @ laurice415@gmail.com with your e-mail and I will send it again.

Anonymous said...

Great kitchen planning! You have it so neat and organized .... I LOVE it! Can't wait to see the island.

Barb J. said...

Those cabinets are beautiful!

Jen - Balancing Beauty and Bedlam said...

I added mine and then realized someone else had posted about bread...oh well...maybe that's just the encouragement someone needs to try it this week. :)

Grammy said...

I did not do a home makeing post so I did not like up. We took a trip today so I did an adventure post. I would love it if you redo my kitchen. Happy thanks giving.
Grammy

Anonymous said...

Jen, I have been down from a surgery since last Thursday. I In the hospital I kept thinking that about your blog...sure missed your daily positive uplift!
I love your husbands bright idea.You guys make a good team!

Love Ya

Rhonda said...

I wish I had a basement!! Our long-term storage (as I acquire it..baby steps here!) will go at the top of children's closets because that's the only place available with 8 of us in a 1,700 sq ft home. I am converting our wasted space in my laundry room that's right off my kitchen to a "canned food" storage. I'm just working on trying to find a system to make it easily rotatable. We have a big shelved area that is stacked with old games we don't play anymore and we need to purge and organize. It's on my list of things to do. Your post makes me eager to get it done!

We'll be awfully glad when the time comes that we NEED all that stored food!

Jill said...

This is a great storage system, and attractive too! I too have food stored in 3 places. Thankfully, they are within steps of the kitchen. Love those hinged shelves!