Inspiration Struck? Maybe...

I happen to be going through old photographs at my work when I came across something I found very interesting.

Check out that floor!!  Is she not pretty or what?

Clint and I have been searching for inspiration for kitchen flooring.  You see, the floor that is in there now drives me Charlie Sheen CRAZY!  The design is ugly and it is the worst to clean.

When we did a small, much needed, makeover to our kitchen a few years ago, flooring was not in the budget.  We decided to suffer with it till we could afford something better.  Plus we had no idea what we wanted.

We had to take many things into consideration.  We have a galley kitchen.  It is also the walk through to the basement.  So, the flooring gets a lot of foot/paw traffic.

• We thought about hardwood, but realized it would not hold up very well. 
• We considered stone/tile, but it would just be too cold in the winter and I did not want to be on my hands and knees scrubbing grout.  
• Cork flooring seemed to be a good contender, until we saw the prices.

Then, one day, while strolling through Home Depot, I ran across vinyl tiles.  Not the peel n stick kind. The kind that you use adhesive with.  Our home was built in 1948, so staying true to the home's style is important to us.  We considered doing a check board pattern, but I just was not completely sold.

That is when I ran across the chevron pattern in the photograph above!  It just feels fresh, yet vintage.  AND with the tiles costing close to $1.00 a piece, it is right up our alley!  Plus, they are completely doggie proof.

What do you think?  Opinions please....

Broom Closet/Pantry Storage Tips

Back in the good ol days, they had what was called a broom closet.  It is actually one of my favorite features of my home.  We use it for all sorts of storage in our kitchen.

It sits right next to the basement stairs and our breeze way.  It's not a walk-in closet, but provides lots of room for our recycling, cooking books, and food storage.

The recycling stuff. Here is where it use to end up.

Yep, on the counter, in a pile. Usually, our counter space is over flowing with items to take out to the recycle bin.  Yes, we are that lazy.  I mean, we have to walk through the breeze way, press the garage door opener, unlock the door, THEN put it in the bin.  What a hassle!

Our bottle returns usually ended up where ever there was room in the closet. When we opened the door to the closet, usually one or two bottles end up falling out and rolling down the basement stairs.

The Solution! 

 

I found these babies at Crate and Barrel for about $9 a piece (the smaller ones)!

Now our broom closet looks like this....

Recycling on top, bottles on the bottom.

Food Storage.  With only one cabinet to hold snacks, we needed another place to store ingredients, such as flour, brown sugar, tea, etc. 

These handy containers from Crate and Barrel are great!  The only compliant I have about them is the lids are hard to clean.  Other than that, I love them!  The best part is being able to stack them.

To hold recipes and smaller cook books (top shelf), I invested in the Flyt magazine holders from Ikea.

We also house any plastic bags that we collect in this handy holder from Bed Bath and Beyond.

In our home, this does not stay full for very long from all the dog pooh.

On the hook, where a broom should go, we hang our flash light, in case of a power outage.  You may ask why we do not have a broom in our kitchen.  Remember, it's the world's tiniest kitchen.  It is very hard to swept with a broom in there.  So I generally run a hand held vacuum in there.  Much easier and less mess.

I hope my tips were of use to you. 

Tell me how you handle your small spaces!

Solutions for a Small Kitchen

We have one of the world's tiniest kitchens.  Therefore, we have to take advantage of all the counter top and cabinet space we have.  After our mini redo, that made a huge impact, we discovered so many different ways to use the space we have.  Now, these ways may not work for everyone or may be common sense to some, but I thought I would share what works for us!

Clint and I are huge fans of no clutter.  The only items we keep on the counter top are a couple cutting boards, our compost bin, canisters, and my lovely orange Kitchen Aid mixer. 

Even though we have a dish washer, sometimes hand washing a few items is easier. 

This dish rack, purchased at Bed Bath and Beyond, fits perfectly in our sink!  It even collapses flat, to store away under the sink!

Even the sponge holder is hidden away by this handy holder from Bed Bath and Beyond. 

We had registered at Crate and Barrel for our wedding and received these canisters.  Not only are they pretty to look at, they are very helpful with holding coffee, flour, and sugar.  Frees up cabinet space and is less messy.

I wanted to, "keep it real" here.  Yes, it is a little messy and not very organized.  Under our sink, we store our garbage can and cleaning products.

    

Gotta love Ikea!  We found the Grundtal kitchen wall storage and knew it would work to our advantage!  The sleek design makes it not only handy, but appealing.

Even for our Utensils!

Ok, this is not an awesome storage tip, but I had to show off the cool bread box that was left with our home.  We use it to store dish towels and oven mits.

Who would of ever thought wine glasses would not fit in a cabinet??  Well, that happened to us.  Luckily, I found an under the cabinet wine glass holder that worked perfectly!

As you can see, we like to keep everything within reach.  Besides the counter top, using the walls really helped maximize our tiny kitchen.  I know larger spaces are more appealing, but something about our kitchen makes it cozy and perfect for us.

I will be back next week with tips for your broom closet/pantry.

Fin-a-lly!

The kitchen remodel is complete! Well almost. Still some small things to do, but our hard work has paid off!!

Let me show the before:

Yuck! So ugly and outdated. The way our kitchen is laid out is our stove and dishwasher is across from our sink. Very small kitchen. There was country wall paper on the wall and fake wood counter tops and back splash. The cabinets were still in great condition, just needed to be freshen up.

Here is the finished product:

So much better. We painted the cabinets, added new hardware from Restoration Hardware, a new faucet, new granite counter tops, and a new over the range microwave. This is truly my dream kitchen. To save space, we hung bars near our stove to hang our utensils. We also did a subway tile back splash. All together our kitchen remodel was near $3,000.00. Not bad for a pair on a budget!!

We must explain that this remodel was a little stressful for everyone. We had to live out of boxes for two months and really did not have a workable space to cook or prepare meals. When we got the cabinets finished, our animals were very happy! At least DJ was :-)