Renters kitchen: A new dilema.

As you know we recently moved and one thing we discovered while trying to unpack is our new kitchen is equip with remarkably tiny cabinets. Which when they were empty we didn't notice.

Here are a few photos of the kitchen layout, our entrance is on one side of the kitchen along a big stretch of empty wall and the rest of the kitchen is built along the adjacent wall.

It looks decent enough, until you attempt to place diner plates or pots into the cabinets. The drawers you see there can only hold 1 large or medium size pot (which is inefficient so I am trying to find alternative places to store them, notice they are hiding with the bowls.).

A common theme with the storage for cabinets here is narrow but deep. Special award to the tiny areas next to the oven. Which are about 2-3 small tinfoil rolls wide but a good 2 feet deep. Normally I put baking trays in the warming drawer of my oven but the cabinet there is so narrow I am unsure what else would fit.

In fact we have a really nice deep pantry just next to the fridge. Seriously its almost 4 feet deep!

However as you can see things can get a bit lost in there and you kinda have to pull everything out to get what you are looking for or even see what you have. Thankfully my large dry good storage jars help a lot with this process but I am looking to the internet to find solutions that don't loose us valuable shelf real estate.

Hallway Closet of appliance banishment.

So far I am negotiating to get my pegboard approval to make use of the giant empty wall and provide a home to pots and pans.

I have also bought a small kitchen cart on wheels to hopefully reclaim some of the counter space and we have put an industrial shelf into our storage closet down the hall to house the appliances.

So if anyone out there has any brilliant ideas or solutions to my ever dwindling counter space or spice storage I will take all the help I can get!!!

VeganMofo: The construction of a Vegan Kitchen part 1

Greetings mofo'ers!

As vegan mofo begins I'll be working on my new kitchen getting things unpacked, organized and built for maximum vegan goodie production. As such Mofo so happens to fall shortly after move-in, which brings me to our very first Mofo post: Vegan Kitchen construction an epic adventure in culinary spaces I hope to keep you updated on as mofo progresses.

Give the massive scope of our accumulative kitchen gizmo's we realized that appliance access and storage was going to be one of our main concerns. As such I decided to convert one of our two coat closets (who puts a coat closet in the kitchen?) into an appliance cabinet. And as such our very first bit of kitchen reno began (oh lord, I might be turning into my mother).

After gaining the needed approval of our landlords we set to work one of the easiest (while remaining sturdy) method of cabinet installation. Essentially, your entire shelving unit is composed of one pieces of 8 by 3 4 ply ply wood and some deck screws.



Party watched while we did all the work.


Once the shelves themselves we cut the remaining board was cut into two inch widths and cut to the depth and length of our closet space. After helping Adam get the drill adjusted properly we measured our appliances for height and set the boards accordingly.

We downloaded an iphone app to help with the levelling, which is one of the most important steps. However, if you happen to find yourself with an uneven shelf don't panic. You can easily remove and readjust or use scrap pieces of wooden shingles to adjust to your desired height.

The support boards where then fastened to the wall and our shelves sat on top. For added support we chose to nail our boards down, but this isn't necessary. The selves will sit just as well without being nailed down and give you the flexibility to adjust, add or subtract shelves.



Finally because we opted for the cheaper untreated, unfinished board we'll be purchasing contact paper to cover the tops of our new shelves to make a nice finished surface for our appliances.




And voi-la instant kitchen storage. This space could also be used as a pantry for dry goods, baking supplies and any other necessities.




Another storage utility are peg boards, which can be used to hang pots, pan and baking equipment. We've only just begun to fasten ours to the wall but I will be sure to update you guys on the finished product. Be sure when you are hanging your peg board that you have something to space it off the wall. Something as simple as wine corks cut into quarters or halves and glued to the back of the peg board should be enough to lift it off the wall.

Hope you've enjoyed this little work in progress tour and early mofo sneak peek. See you all tomorrow for another day of Mofo'ing.