#73 - A Mutt Kitchen

I'm looking forward to enjoying a unique kitchen in our cabin. It will be awesome to finally enjoy the chance to build custom storage space, the kind that's not typical in a cookie-cutter home. After scrolling a few thumbnail pictures on-line for cabin-style kitchens, I decided to highlight the kitchens below as prime examples at what strikes my fancy. I don't know who or where these thumbnails belong, but they were available for sharing, so here they are...

These kitchens look WORKABLE. However, I have unusual tastes. For instance, I love the Julia Child peg board organizer for all of her cooking tools. Remember this awesome "high-end" feature in Julia Child's kitchen? Her husband laid out all of her cooking tools on the pegboard and outlined them with a magic marker so she and kitchen visitors would know exactly where to put what. Genius!

That peg board mesmerized me. My husband was sweet enough to hang one on the high wall in our master closet for my special purses and scarves and other things rarely used. Peg boards are a thing of beauty, not to be exclusively used in a tool shed.

I am one of these people who is a solid creature of habit and most items frequently used in our house must be stored in the same place, every single time. If there is a pile of papers that looks haphazard, I still know what is in the pile. But, having to search for that slotted spoon makes me grumpy. As far as I'm concerned, a Julia Child kitchen peg board is a piece of organizational heaven.

I love this tight cabin kitchen, this might be what our
guest quarters might look like. Functional and Fun.
Heck, this might end up to be similar to our main kitchen.

In our current home, the kitchen cabinetry shelving was constructed with the storage shelves spaced too far apart. If we had some shelves placed closer together, then we wouldn't be forced to stack, unstack and re-stack pots and pans to get to the one on the bottom. I'd rather have more shelving built closer together with an OCCASIONAL shelf large enough and spaced far enough away from the next shelf to accommodate a dutch oven, pasta pots and countertop appliances instead of fewer shelves built farther apart. The picture below is a perfect example of the shelving idea I'd like to build.

The hanging pot rack is used wisely---saving an enormous amount of shelving space, but it's a bit too crammed with pots for my liking. I could see myself standing in that kitchen trying to unhook the little saucepan...I'd be smashing pots against each other while wrestling to free the pot that's stuck tightly in between its clanging brothers as I issue sounds similar to a quasi-sailor.

Pots aside, I do love this style of country kitchen cabinetry.

I really do like the style of these cabinet doors, but not the handles.
I think I'd want some kind of whittled wood handle.
I adore the thin shelving layers for all of those dishes.
And look at those pots handing everywhere!

In our country kitchen, I'd love to have vertical slat storage zones with a little lipped ends to hold lids of various sizes upright so they aren't stacked...I always have a jumble of various sized lids all over the place. It's kitchen craziness. A larger version of the same kind of storage will hold cookie sheets.

And, I can't help it...the functionality of hanging pots is brilliant. However, I want sturdy waist-level shelving to hold my cast-iron cookware, shelving that is built close together so I can store each iron skillet and pot single file. I have a good-sized pantry at this time, but I can picture a revamped pantry with floor to ceiling shelves smartly designed to store food and cookware.

My bottom line is that I CAN'T STAND to have bulky things stacked. I'd rather have shelves carefully designed so that each shelf has its own pot or maybe two stacked pots. No more than two.

Having to dig through skillets stacked 10 deep is enough to make me batty. Of course, Murphy's Law shows that you will usually need the skillet tucked beneath layers of other heavy skillets. Not fun.

Since Deputy Dave is a big kitchen fanatic and I like cooking certain dishes, we must have a kitchen layout that provides each of us easy access to all kitchen cookware with a thoughtful layout. Having an organized kitchen is a hissy-fit topic for me, especially since this has been a major struggle ever since Hurricane Ike ruined our home. Dicky-Darn-Darn...I don't like searching for a kitchen tool...the kitchen scissors are kept in the same drawer, in the same spot inside the drawer and neither one of us likes to look for them. Put it this way...those scissors better be in that drawer...or else.

Or else my fangs and claws protract and I become a lion-bear-sloth hybrid. I had to throw in the sloth, they are my all-time favorite animals.

Re-claimed wood and left over log cabin construction scraps
used for cabinet doors and facing. Nothing from the fancy
lumber/hardware store.

Our future kitchen can store highly accessible and organized kitchenware without expensive expenditures. Big money? Absolutely not. We simply need to wisely layout organized shelving, hanging racks, hooks, etc., and enjoy using our unconventional kitchen.

The unconventional kitchen. That's what I want...a kitchen that doesn't lose its functionality in the effort to be flashy and pretty; I want our kitchen to be all about what works best for less. Just like the mixed-breed mutt is usually a better dog than the fancy AKC breed, I know our mutt kitchen will be good to us. I've seen kitchens worth more than my house and they are often overstuffed chaotic disasters that only work well on paper and as a showcase. No thank you.

Having good appliances matters, but the rest of the kitchen does not have to be dressed out with Gucci Cabinetry and Cadillac Countertops for it to be my dream kitchen. I especially want Deputy Dave to be happy in the kitchen, so he'll most likely have a granite island that's always cleared off and ready to meet the challenge of his baking urges. Believe me, keeping the island cleared off is the biggest challenge of all.


Another Favorite of mine.

The deal is...kitchen storage solutions do not necessarily have to come from a kitchen supply store, we can use other items to create organized space. I saw a pair of horse-shoes used for towel holders, such ideas are interesting, useful and I enjoy the re-purposed usage of such country items.

If I could have any kitchen I wanted, the below picture would probably be close to the layout I'd choose. I love the huge window over the sink with the smaller windows along the countertop providing additional natural light. I love the large sitting island which also functions as workable space in the kitchen to allow easy visiting with guests. We have regular gatherings at our house and everyone migrates to the kitchen. It's a natural thing to do. So, it's better to work this fact into your kitchen design. Did I mention that I just love, love, love this kitchen?

I am positive that our country kitchen will be warm, welcoming and perhaps a bit quirky.

During our gatherings with family and friends, everyone will be happy and safe, as long as they put the wooden spoon back into its proper place.