Kitchen makeover!

Long time no post, I know. But my plan was to do over my kitchen and post before and after photos here. So! I have a very small galley kitchen, and when I moved in 3.5 years ago, I put the most relevant furniture in it. This included a drop-leaf table that was given to me by a professor who wanted to get rid of it. The table came with 4 folding chairs, but there wasn't any room to unfold the table and have the chairs around it at the same time. So I kept 2 chairs at the table. I never ate at that table, although at one point I did take LSAT practice tests there because that was the only place in my tiny apartment where I could sit upright and write on a table.



As you can imagine, I was frustrated with the lack of surface space for food prep in my kitchen and the dearth of storage space. I wanted to redo the kitchen with the following criteria: 1) spend as little as possible, 2) create as much space as possible, 3) find items that would create horizontal space for more storage.

I found a piece of furniture at IKEA that was perfect! FORHOJA promised to provide a butcher-block kitchen cart that was the right height for food prep with adequate drawer and shelf space. Unfortunately, it was out of stock for months, so I patiently waited. Once it arrived back in stores, I bought and assembled it, an ASPUDDEN cart to hold other things I stored in my kitchen, like purses, hats, gloves, and bike accessories, and a basket for my recycling. I assembled these in my tiny living room/study/tv room/dining room and got ready to move the old stuff out of the kitchen.

I sold the kitchen table and chairs (and a few other things taking up space) on my friendly neighborhood Craigslist, so the money I got for the table offset the cost of the new furniture.

And the piece de resistance: my neighbor is a handyman, and he had painted one wall in his kitchen a lovely warm gold which really dressed it up. He provided the paint and the labor for a small fee, and now I have a pretty accent wall in the kitchen as well. I splurged on a poster for the wall, and now my new kitchen is ready for whatever meals I want to prepare in it.