Itty Bitty: The Kitchen

Now that I've told you about our itty bitty rental, I thought I'd finally get around to showing you some pictures of the place!  If you also live in a small or temporary space, you might be able to pick up a few ideas from our life in 800 square feet.

I'll start with the kitchen since it is my favorite room in the house and also the only room in which I have done any real decorating (i.e., hanging things on the walls).  Somehow these photos make the kitchen look larger than it is.  Rest assured that it gets very cozy in here!

Here is the view from the front door/living room, and a look at my best piece of organization/storage/decorating advice for small spaces.  Store stuff on the walls!  Sure, my collection of pewter platters looks decorative, but I really hung them up just to have a place to put them.  I have always been nervous to hang dishes on the walls and was so surprised by how easy it was.  I used spring loaded plate hangers from Lowe's and "gorilla hooks" that hold up to 50 pounds.  It was so easy that I was embarrassed it took me so long to do it; these would have looked so pretty in our Memphis kitchen!  

  

Here is the actual kitchen.  A nice, cozy little galley.  The cabinet space is just right for everything we need, and I have a bit of space in the garage for all of those kitchen things that I use less often (the blender, electric griddle, bundt pan, cookbooks, etc.).  

Now here is the big frustration with the kitchen that you probably didn't even notice.  If you look closely, you will see that the cabinets are very low.  So low that you cannot fit ANY appliance under them!  I can't even have my coffee pot out on the counter!  What is sad is that they could have easily mounted them to the ceiling, but since they centered them you can't really use the space above or below the cabinets.  Oh, and the landlord cheaped out on his kitchen renovation and opted for the "modern" look of going sans drawer or cabinet pulls; it may look nice and clean, but it sure is annoying!

The cabinets on the stove side are a smidge higher and can fit my Kitchenaid mixer, but of course there is no outlet on that wall!  Any time I want to bake I have to move the mixer across the kitchen, but I have to have pulled all of my ingredients out of the cabinet first because once the mixer is over there I can't open the cabinets without moving the mixer again!  I've found my groove for working with it now, but the first few attempts at cooking in here involved a bit of cursing ;)  

The kitchen was the only room in the house that did not have blinds.  We needed a window treatment for privacy, but I did not want to spend much since it is just a rental.  I opted to buy a couple of cute tablecloths from Target for about $16 each and used them to make curtains.  For the window behind the table I just cut one tablecloth in half lengthwise and hemmed it to form two panels that we mounted as curtains with clip rings.  

 Over the sink, I cut the tablecloth to the size of the window, hemmed it, and sewed a pocket in the top for a tension rod.  I then placed two more tension rods further down the window and draped the panel over them to form a faux Roman shade.  

 That door goes to the garage, which is ironically not large enough to hold a car!  That's fine with us since we needed the space for storage anyway.  My washer and dryer are out there too, and I have to say that my motivation for doing laundry has been pretty low with this cold weather lately!  Thankful to have a washer and dryer though, so I'll count my blessings!  

Now that Rhett is eating solids (p.s. the babe finally decided to eat!  Hooray!), the high chair is in that chair at the head of the table, so you get to do a cute little shimmy between the wall and the high chair if you want to get to the garage :)  

And here's my fun little chalkboard which enjoyed a past life as an ugly print from Goodwill.  I typically use it to write Riggins' little memory verses from BSF so that we can practice them during meals, but right now it's just spreading some Christmas cheer!  

Photos of the rest of the house to come!