Maximizing Space

When I was organizing our junk drawer the other day (you can read about that here), I was once again struck by the resourcefulness of the carpenter who installed our kitchen.

I shared with you our kitchen remodel and some of the things that we did to maximize space.  There were also a couple of little things that our carpenter suggested that I thought I’d share with you.  These are fairly easy (I don’t think that I have the skills to make it look as finished as he did) steps that can be taken today without a full remodel but will truly make these spaces easier to use.

The first area was our junk drawer.  The drawer is actually underneath our cantilevered breakfast counter.  I love the breakfast bar but was very disappointed to see how much of the drawer was not usable.  My biggest concern was the all the stuff we put in the drawer would get shoved to the back where we would never be able to get it at.

When I shared my concern, I was told “not to worry” because he would take care of it for us.  What he ended up doing was creating a false back for our drawer.  Using spare pieces of wood (plus the extra door from the project below) he created this drawer stop.  The unfinished pieces keep the finished front from sliding back allowing us a much smaller but more usable drawer.

As you can see, when the piece is in place you can’t even tell that isn’t the original drawer size!

The other thing that the carpenter did was open up one of our cabinets.  We had a similar cabinet as below in our old kitchen and found it completely unusable.  The cabinet itself was huge but the small opening made it pretty much impossible for easy access.  Unfortunately when we placed our cabinet order we found the the new cabinet was pretty much going to be the same.
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When I whined to shared my concern with the carpenter I was once again told “don’t worry, I’ll take care of it”.  He certainly did!

To solve our dilemma he cut into the cabinet, opening the door opening by about two inches.  He ordered us a new door front to cover the larger opening. He stained the freshly cut wood to match the existing finish.  The stain is not a perfect match but it’s so close that you probably wouldn’t even notice if you didn’t know.  Plus, it’s inside the cabinet so who is going to see it?

The cabinet is now big enough for me to get my mixer and food processor out without any problems!  There is additional storage to the left which isn’t very convenient so I store items I use infrequently.

Moral of the story?  1) A good carpenter is worth his weight in gold.  2) It pays to speak up and express concerns to a person who has the ability to solve your problems!

You might also like:

Belle’s Vanity Table
Solving the Wall Phone Dilemma
Decorating with Wall Words