213 Gardenia, Part 4: Ekby Bjarnum saves the day!

When we bought this house, I was very excited about a lot of things. However (oooooh here we go), I was more than a little hesitant about one of its vital spaces: the kitchen.

While one side of the kitchen lures you in with a new dishwasher, two-bowl stainless sink, freshly painted satin black solid wood cabinets, brand spakin' new countertops, and even a pretty little lamp light over the sink, the other side is... more than lackluster. Crowded out by the laundry room and its folding shutter doors and the fridge that is quite tiny (thank goodness there's only two of us!), the previous owner opted to furnish the rest of those 5-6 feet of empty space with a round kitchen table complete with two chairs.

While that worked for them, it's not really my thing. And we only have one table to eat at anyway, and it's "borrowed" from my parents, and it's in the dining room. Basically, my kitchen is totally lopsided. While I can work in there with a sort of efficiency because there's nowhere else to go, I have a hard time doing more than one thing at once... because there's nowhere to put multiple things! To fill in the empty wall space where a kitchen table could go, I have had the trash can, multiple empty cardboard boxes that once housed various Coca Cola products as well as Budweiser beverages, and a 7' shutter-style separation wall thingy. While it filled in the empty wall space, I was getting tired of it just... being there.

(Before paint and shelves)

While my grand plan for making this place awesome calls for a stretch of base cabinets, a long length of counter space, and open shelving above with a pretty light fixture that matches the sink light to replace the ceiling fan... oh! and a new light fixture to replace the gross-neon-ultraviolet-old-school florescent rectangular box that stretches across the kitchen ceiling --  that's not all in the budget as of yet. (Remember the Dave Chair? That sucker wasn't exactly cheap. Neither was the sofa. Or Carlton's Barcalounger. And that stuff was first on the list, definitely!) The cabinets and countertops and electrical work might have wait a little bit longer, but I figured I could at least get started by painting the kitchen (a long standing desire of mine) and installing the open shelving along the wall. Right?

 (Before paint)

Well, my opportunity came quicker than I thought while I was enjoying my BFF Weekend with my BFF Chelsea (okay, I'll stop with the links already). Our shopping trip to Ikea opened my eyes to the perfect shelves for my kitchen. I found some simple, straight stainless steel wrapped shelves to hang on the kitchen wall with low profile hardware, and they were exactly what I wanted! I purchased two of the Ekby Bjarnum "Mossby" shelves for $44.99 each and the hardware to secure them to each other as well as to the wall in the kitchen.

I've gotta say, with the walls painted (more on my obsession with Benjamin Moore's paint color Revere Pewter in the near future) and the shelves installed, I don't think I could be any happier! I can just see it now: this kitchen may be a wonderful place to work after all! That is, once the cabinets and counter tops are installed. For now, I can just sit back and work in the kitchen with a little bit of open space and fresh paint on the walls.

I staged the shelf for pictures, but as far as the kitchen goes... well... I tidied up a little bit. But I was also prepping supper, so try to give me a break guys! Below is a picture I took of the counter next to the stove, where there was once an empty wall. I purchased 8 of these pretty little lace cut-out dishes using a Christmas gift card from my parents last year, and finally hung 3 of them in the empty wall space. Perfect! I just love the different lace embellishments around their edges. I had painted one coat here and was re-patching some old nail holes in the wall, so that explains the spackle here:

Now that I've got this strong start on making this kitchen into what I really want, I'm so motivated to keep the pace going! Next up? Cabinets and a counter top!