Here’s a picture of my kitchen a few days ago:
That rickety plastic shelf is holding a lot of stuff up; it looks kind of unkempt and it’s pretty wobbly, especially when there’s something heavy on top of it. Not pictured is our pantry cabinet that’s almost overflowing with stuff and the kitchen cart packed to the gills. It’s hard to find things easily in both locations. Notice the huge amount of empty space to the left of the shelf, above the cat food bowls. I devised a plan to take advantage of this area and add a ton of new storage space to the kitchen.
Here’s the result:
The old plastic shelf was moved to the dining room and in its place is a shelf/sideboard unit that I made myself. It’s made with 2×4 and 4×4 lumber, so it’s pretty chonky, but it’ll never collapse. The shelf surfaces are covered with peel-and-stick vinyl flooring, which was an incredible pain to cut, but it looks and feels great. The effect of the extra storage capacity cannot be overstated. The pantry cabinet and kitchen cart are now uncluttered and much more usable. The overall look of this thing could be charitably described as “rustic,” so I got some dark stain that I’ll be applying as soon as the driveway is dry-ish for a day. I’ll also be adding a paper towel holder above the trashcan and a bar with S-hooks for oven mitts. I’m really pleased with the results, and I think it’ll be even better when it’s totally finished.