Slogan stolen from Tim Gunn of Project Runway.
As I mentioned, my new kitchen is not ideal. One frustration was a lack of places to store my pots and pans. I had a cabinet over the wall oven where I could stack pots and pans, but getting out the one I needed was a sometimes dangerous proposition, the cast iron pans are heavy and everything was at eye level or above and stacked requiring unstacking to get to.
Well, I have a kitchen and I have to make it work, since I’m not running out today to redo my kitchen cabinet situation. I took a page from the kitchen of Julia Child, I remembered seeing her kitchen in Julie and Julia and thinking “wow, that pegboard thing is a cool idea!” The pegboard can be seen here on the far wall.
Julia Child’s kitchen, from the Smithsonian. Photographer F. Deventhal, CC, from Wikimedia commons.
I had a bit of wall space on the chimney in my kitchen, and a pile of pegboard that was left in the garage by the previous owners. I had my husband cut it, painted it the primary red accent color I have for my kitchen, and we hung it on the chimney. I bought $15 or so in pegs for it. The results turned out pretty awesome, I think.
My new kitchen, with pegboard on the chimney to keep pots, pans and utensils!
Also in the shot you can see the garbage can and two pails. The enameled pail holds the dirty dishcloths and dishtowels that are changed out daily, and the old galvanized one holds rinsed out cans/bottles for recycling before they’re run out to the larger recycle bin. The cheap wood cabinet from a craft store was in the attic of my old house for years, I had forgotten I even had it. It’s now a spice cabinet holding my herbs, spices, salts and a few empty Ball jars/lids. On top is my oils/vinegars, which I hope to put into nicer looking reusable decorative bottles when I can afford some and find ones I like.
So, cabinet full of pots/pans has been refactored to make use of the previously bare/unused/awkward chimney walls. much easier to find what I need quickly. Also found a home for many items from a jar of utensils that was taking up counter space, to a pile of oven mitts that had no home, to two aprons I had no place to hang.
In my mind, the challenge in this kitchen is to think out of the box, look upwards, and make good use of the space I’m given. And I think with this idea it’s working quite well.