Like most city-dwellers I know, I am cursed with a particularly tiny kitchen. As such, I’m constantly struggling to negotiate what little space I have, both to work effectively and to turn out a decent-looking and -tasting product, be it a layer cake or a fried egg.
My creative process is usually divided, more or less equally, between the kitchen table, where I hunch awkwardly to make a batter, and the sink area, which has the closest outlet for my hand mixer or food processor. Imagine how pleased I was, then, when Sal transformed my ugly shelving unit, languishing in the corner, into a workstation with storage underneath.
A piece of furniture I inherited with the apartment, it has 3 shelves and is waist-height. I had been using it to haphazardly store pans and flour and other odds and ends; it’s one of those pieces that I looked at so often, I couldn’t imagine using it for anything else. However, with a pair of fresh eyes, its top became a workstation, the perfect height for mixing, measuring, and pouring. I’ve left my hand-mixer on top, plugged into an extension cord that runs behind the stove to an outlet. I also have a canister of tools, such as spatulas, within easy reach. The shelves below now house flour and sugar and the like, with pans and bowls on the bottom.
The whole project took about two hours (including obsessing and tweaking time), and I bought nothing. Most people I know have one of these ambiguous shelving pieces, usually storing books or acting as a base for lamps and such in bedrooms or living rooms. Why not turn it into something really functional? Admittedly, mine is nothing to look at; at some point, I’ll probably sand and paint it, or buy a new, nicer one altogether. To further beautify, I could hang a curtain or other pretty fabric in front, suspended by a tension rod, to hide the stuff inside. But, aesthetics aside, I have allocated a specific area in my kitchen for baking purposes. My messes are more contained, and it makes me so happy to look at my pretty (relatively speaking), organized workstation.
Comments 1
This looks very cool! Not only efficient, but homey. And I know how getting an organized space just makes you feel better. I built a similar shelving unit just for additional kitchen storage and put some industrial-style wheels on it that I got at Ikea. It usually stays put, but sometimes I move it up to the tiny kitchen table to have everything right at hand. Mostly, though, the wheels just make it look cool, which is okay too.
Posted 25 Jul 2007 at 5:30 pm ¶Trackbacks & Pingbacks 1
[...] is more of a toy than a nuisance; it’s really fun to weigh things! And it fits into my workstation perfectly; I can store it on its side or set bowls on top of it. All in all, a necessary [...]
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