This is something I’ve been so excited to share with you. This is my son and daughter-in-law’s kitchen in their first house. It was a charming turn of the century craftsman bungalow.
Most of the house was in beautiful original condition with gorgeous quarter-sawn woodwork throughout.
However, the kitchen had been re-done in the 1980’s. Unfortunately that re-do stripped out all the original charm of the room.
This set of very shallow cabinets with lights, and glass doors was on one wall of the kitchen. We can’t figure out what the previous owners would have stored in them… they’re only about 4” deep… perfect for a soup can, but that’s a lot of soup cans, and would you really want them on display like that? Honestly, to me it sort of looked like something in a doctor’s office. Whatever its intended use was, it wasn’t working so well for our couple.
The cabinets were built to be only 4″ deep because they were right next to the glass door and sidelight… it just felt like a lot of glass… and with all white cabinets, along with the navy blue strip details and navy blue floor, this room seemed really cold.
Here is what my son and daughter-in-law did to change this odd ‘Dr. Office Display’. First they took off all the doors, filled the holes, primed and painted the plastic/laminate on the top which was a navy accent running across the top of the cabinet, (as well as the stripe running along the front edge of the countertops, you can just barely see it on the bottom right of the above picture)
Next, they wood beadboard backing. Then, matching the new hardware they put in the rest of this kitchen, they put the same dark finish hooks on the beadboard to hold the pots and pans.
And see the clever way they keep the pot lids? That is just standard plumbing fixtures: copper piping and fixtures. I had some chemical tarnish liquid that I had bought 15 or 20 years ago, they tried it on the copper pieces and after rubbing it on for a while, it darkened it beautifully.
Here you can see the simple plumbing fittings and not only how great they look, but how great they work for this purpose!
My son simply sweated the joints on the ends to hold caps in place, but you could glue them on if you didn’t want to actually sweat a joint. He really liked the authentic look of the little bead of solder.
Even the baking pans and colanders with handles are stored here… really saves a ton of cabinet storage too.
This is one of my favorite pot rack displays I’ve ever seen! I love that it looks so absolutely wonderful, but how great that it actually adds to the function of the room, and used what was a sort of strange configuration to start with, but now it’s perfect. It’s that amazing combination that makes it so attractive!
Here are more carpentry tips and ideas:
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