Wildebeests: Kitchen Potrack

...and now that the kitchen light works, I can take pictures of the finished potrack, and the furthering of my kitchen designs.

When last we met the kitchen, I had a cramped pantry, a wasted space between it and the refrigerator, and a trash can that moonlighted as a dog buffet:

Which is hard to see in this picture - easier to look at the plans I drew up for using the space better:

The "before" is the teeny tiny little sketch in the top right of this picture - and you can see the after.  The pot rack was built in stages over the last month, as time and tools would allow, and went from this...

To this:

Granted, something needs to be done about The Magnet Situation here (there are over 300 words on the front doors alone).

I've screwed some small cup-hooks onto the side to hang a dishtowel on (after I took the photo, whoops).  I may also repaint it at some point - I couldn't decide what color to paint it, so I went with gray to match the walls.  I wanted it to be fun, but I just couldn't decide.  Now I don't have to, for a while, anyway.

Meanwhile, two shelves full of pots and strainers in the pantry have been cleared, and the pantry re-organized into something that makes sense, and is very handy to use!

Next stop:  Laundry Room!


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Pardon Our Dust...

What was I thinking, when I thought I was going to build a whole shelf in one evening?  I swear.  Glue has to DRY, hello! 

So I built half of the pot rack last night.  I'll finish it tonight, and then get started painting.

I have learned something about myself, though:  I hate putting joints together with dowels.  I always try to incorporate a new method or technique when I build something, in order to learn new things and broaden my experience - really, I'm still pretty much a novice carpenter, so I like to stretch my carpentry muscles as often as I can.

So, I'd never joined an entire piece with dowels - I used some when I built my bed, but for the pot rack, the entire piece is going together this way.  No screws, no nails.  Just wood and glue.

In the plus column:

• no visible hardware
• smooth seams/joints
• very sturdy end product, if you do it right

But then...

• this is totally a pain in the ass!  ARGH. 
• I have arthritis, and a very heavy drill.  So....OW!!!

I like my big heavy drill, though.  It was a gift from my ex-father-in-law a few years back - it was his favorite drill, and he liked it so much that he got one for me for my birthday that year.  (Anything with the Dad Seal of Approval is okay in my book!)  It's heavy, but it's also powerful and fast.  Mwahaha.  *flex* 

But I do wish, half the time, that either (a) it was lighter or (b) I had still a cordless to use for things that don't require the power of my big drill.  I  had a cordless once - two, actually.  But as always happens, the charger broke, and by the time I needed a new one, they didn't make that style anymore, and it wouldn't fit the universal chargers they sell, so I had to buy a whole new drill.  For some reason, this happens all the time with Black & Decker, but I've never had that problem with any other manufacturer's cordless tools.  So guess what I won't be buying, ever again!  o_ô

ANYWAY.  Half a pot rack: done.  More news as the situation develops; stay tuned.  I have to say, I'm enjoying working in my shop again.  I haven't done it in forever.  Mostly because my garage has been so messy I couldn't even go into it without wanting to run back into the house to hide.  Clean shop = awesome.



P.S. - drill or no drill, you know what I need to break down and buy for myself?  BAR CLAMPS!   I'm almost embarrassed to admit that I use nylon towing straps and weights to block joints together while they set up.  And last night?  I couldn't find my straps anywhere.  I ended up resorting to...wait for it...tape.  *facepalm*  


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♪ A Few of My Favorite Things ♪♫

Okay, so two of my favorite things:  PAINT and LUMBER! 

Having sold that antique vanity earlier this week, I found myself in possession of a small amount of cash.  I decided not to get fabric for the couch - I could only have gotten about half of it, and I'd rather buy it all at once so that I don't have to worry about going back and it not being there any longer.  That would suck.

Instead, I got materials for two projects:  new paint for the common areas of the house (half price, baby!) and lumber for the kitchen pot rack project I keep talking about but not really talking about.

New Living Room, Party of 1 

Here's a shot of the current wall and ceiling colors in the living room :

 

The ceiling looks really dark in this pic; but the wall color is pretty much spot-on.  I call it "Matagorda" - I mixed it myself to match some sand I collected the last time I was on the beach in Matagorda, TX (which was waaaay too long ago!)  I like it, but an entire houseful is getting to be a bit...beige. 

Here's the paint I brought home earlier this week - and the actual color of the ceiling. 

"Wood Smoke", by Glidden.  The paint I brought home was another brand, I forget which (American somethingorother? *shrug*). 

The color is darker, and grayer - not by much, but just enough that it'll change the entire character of the room.  I really can't wait to get started.


The entire common area of the house is painted all the same color, ceilings and walls: the entry hall, dining room, kitchen, and living room.  Since all four areas are open to each other, I went with one big color scheme when I painted the Matagorda, and I've really loved how harmonious and smooth the effect is.

The "crown molding" that you see in the first picture?  Is totally just white paint on the ceiling and the top of the walls.  And it's not fooling anybody - it's not meant to.  It serves the same purposes:  it's a visual divider between blocks of color, it calls attention to walls shapes and angles, and it creates the illusion of a higher ceiling.  Someday it'll turn into real crown molding, when it grows up; but today is not that day.  For the time being, it pleases me.  I'm actually thinking about expanding it - only by 3" on the ceiling, but extending it down the wall a good 8" or so, as though it were a dropped ceiling, and doing a stencil or trompe l'oeil border across the bottom to make it look even more like molding.  I honestly haven't decided yet. 

Which is one reason I'm not starting with the painting tonight, like I want to.  The other reason is that I'm going to just blow my kitchen UP if I don't do something about the storage in there...



My Queendom For Some *$%#2@ Storage

So, tonight I'm building this:

In the teeny-tiny inset in the top, you can see a hint of the situation now:  there's a trash can wedged between the fridge and the wall of The World's Most Annoying Pantry.  The trash is crammed in there in an attempt to keep my puppy out of it (which doesn't work);  the pantry would be great if it weren't crammed with WAY too much junk. 

Enter the pot rack - which actually is basically one of those over-the-toilet shelving units that you see in bathrooms.  Trash can underneath (with a lid that I'm hoping will prove to be puppy-proof), pots and pans and bakeware - and maybe the coffee/tea stuff, too - on the upper shelves.  And two empty shelves inside the pantry, yay! I don't know whether I'm more excited about building stuff, or about re-organizing the pantry afterward. 

The only problem is that I haven't decided yet whether to:

• stain the rack to match the kitchen cabinets, or
• paint it gray "Wood Smoke" to match the new walls, or
• paint it white to match the trim and the fridge.

Staining the rack to match the cabinets would balance them out across the room.  But it would also be a big, heavy block of darkness on that side of the room - I moved the fridge the other day when I got the new trash can, and I'm loving how huge just that small change makes the kitchen look.  It has me wondering about cluttering up that space again with a big obvious piece of furniture.  So maybe the white. 

What do you think?

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