Kitchen Storage

Your lot buys furniture.  My lot inherits it.

-Lady Mary Crawley, Downton Abbey

I'm very lucky to have a great relationship with my landlords.  As you know, we have some combined space; my kitchen is also their laundry room, so we run into each other regularly.  Plus, I babysit for the kids a few times a month, and we occasionally have an evening drink together.  It's really a lovely set-up.

the pumpkin that I carved with Alfie, aged 5, over Halloween weekend

Because the shared room was converted to a kitchen - with the fridge and oven installed for my arrival, though there was already a sink next to the washer. - we've had to do some creative tweaking over the past few months to make it truly cooking-friendly.  I've added a trolly for storage, for instance, and I've been hanging my pots on coat-hooks.  The biggest adjustment, though, is that we recently had an extractor installed over the stove.  (I would just open the front door when cooking recipes that were overwhelmingly fragrant, but that isn't really be an option anymore as it's gotten colder.)

I'm thrilled with this development, but it means that we've lost the use of a wall for storage.  I'm not sure how involved I'll be able to be in coming up with new options - the landlords have acknowledged that something does need to be done, but they might make an executive decision as it's their house - but I'm having fun researching the possibilities!  I'm especially a fan of open shelving, even though I am down a wall...

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(Side note: when Jon and I went to Ikea last weekend to replace bathroom things that were destroyed in the Great Halloween Spew, he pointed out a display as an "aspirational kitchen."  I love that he looks at showrooms that way!  Clearly I got a good man, don't you think?)