Plaster & Disaster

My impending kitchen renovation is still top of my mind. But as we start looking into our first steps (like new appliances) we’re turning from the fun of inspiration to the hard task of making some real decisions. What a bummer! That’s why today I’m asking for your help on the first big decision that we need to make: what to do with the fridge wall.

This is the biggest pain point in our current kitchen (at least other than the handles in the middle of the cabinet doors, which pain me deeply). It is our main pantry storage space, but it totally doesn’t work. The shelves are deep. They have to be tall (so you can reach the back given how deep they are) but that also means that they’re inefficient on space.

Also, the fridge juts out into the kitchen like it doesn’t belong, dominating the view.

In a relatively small kitchen like this one which is open to the rest of the house, we really can’t afford to waste storage space or have such an unpleasant view!

We’re keeping the appliances in just about the same place, and buying a new fridge and stove is one of the first decisions we’re going to make so we can build around them. However, I don’t want to pull the trigger on buying a new fridge without at least knowing the overall plan for this wall.

A lovely commenter (hi Lisa!) suggested claiming some extra space by taking over the hallway behind the fridge to push it back and also create some extra closet space. An awesome idea, but not one that will work with our floor plan, unfortunately, as that hallway is the main thoroughfare to the rest of the house and that doorway to the hall gets a lot of traffic.However, that idea made me realize that there are probably a lot of other things I could consider in the kitchen layout and the use of this wall in particular, so before locking it in I wanted to open up that question for advice. I have a few initial ideas that I’d love you to weigh in on, and then would like to hear whether you can think of anything else in the comments!

Option 1: Wall Cabinet

My most likely path is to simply rebuild the current configuration but much nicer, with a built-in fridge and a full height cabinet built in next to it with sliding shelves and maybe even the microwave built in. This would probably maximize storage (yay) but may come with some of the same challenges as we have now (i.e., storage that is hard to access and use). It could also look bulky.

Option 2: Cabinets and Mini-Counter

Another option I’m considering is similar but a slight variation: to accomplish a cabinet wall with a base cabinet and then small counter with cabinets above it. This would give more surface space and would even open up some cool appliance storage – the option of an appliance “garage.” However, it might look odd/busy there, and be a little harder to pull off right.

Option 3: Free Standing Piece

The final option I’ve considered is trying to find a free-standing piece to fit into that space, giving me the look that I so love from my inspiration images. This would then probably have to be paired with open shelving over the fridge, and require that we buy a nicer fridge that doesn’t need to be built in to look OK, AND be dependent on finding the right piece. But wouldn’t it look awesome?

So that is what is on my mind as I consider what to do in this spot, but I am sure that you have other ideas! Please let me know what you think of my ideas below and give me more to think about in the comments!

This is part of our Tiny House, Tiny Bloggers series, in which we turn over Plaster & Disaster to some VERY tiny bloggers to tell their own story of transforming an ugly, old (doll)house into a fresh and modern (doll)home. Follow it from the beginning here.

Disclaimer: Inclusion on this blog is not an endorsement by Plaster & Disaster of the tiny blogger’s methods or design decisions. Plaster & Disaster cannot be held responsible for your terrible decor choices after reading one of their tutorials. All opinions are their own.

Happy Monday! We hope spring has arrived wherever you are; we’re lucky to have relatively mild winters because Sage’s guest room is heated, but we definitely have hot summers since she doesn’t have any AC on her second floor. This time of year tends to be particularly lovely, and we even get treated to a nice breeze if she bothers to open a window for us.

Anyway, today we’re here to share another project update in our master bedroom. I know we’re bouncing back and forth between living room and master, but once we started working on both these rooms we didn’t want to stop.

As a reminder, we were living like this for almost two years:

And then last we shared, we’d added a new DIY upholstered bed to replace the bare mattress on the floor:

It’s been a game changer — even though the mattress is made of wood so our sleep is a little fitful, it looks soooo much better. And that’s what matters for internet photos!

Next up, we finally wanted to add some curtains to the space to dress it up a little and add some pops of color. First up we needed to make curtain rods, since the rods that originally came with the house are way too short. As you know, when it comes to curtains it’s all about hanging them high and wide to make your windows look bigger!

The supplies we gathered for each window were a wooden shish kebab skewer Sage already had (but you could use a regular dowel), little silver jump rings (which we found at Michaels in the jewelry-making section), two small eye hooks to hang the rod, and finials that we took off the too-short rods original to the house. If you didn’t have access to actual tiny finials, medium-sized beads could work well.

First up, we used needle nose pliers to open up the eye hooks so that the rod could rest on top of them once they were mounted on the wall.

Then we cut the skewers to length and hit everything with a few thin and even coats of oil rubbed bronze spray paint, but you could use whatever finish you want for your hardware. No photos of these steps, sorry — blame Sage and Naomi.

Before we went further with the rods, we needed to make the actual curtains. We used fabric Sage already had that was pretty neutral but with a bold pop of orange we love. We sewed four rectangular panels, two for each window.

Next up, it was time to add pleats. We did this with an iron, gradually folding the fabric like an accordion or paper fan and ironing each subsequent layer flat.

We repeated this process with all four panels.

Next up, it was time to hang the curtains on the rods. This is where the jump rings came in — using needle nosed pliers, we opened the rings slightly and then pinched them closed again around the top of each curtain panel, one ring at the back of each pleat.

Once all the rings were in place, we slid two panels onto each rod:

And then glue the finials on the ends of each rod. Don’t do this step before putting the panels on if the finials are larger than the rings.

Then it was time to hang them! We measured where our eye hooks should go to get the right curtain height and width, drilled tiny holes for them and screwed them in, and then placed the curtains rods and panels. Here they are:

We love how they add some color to the room without being overly bold, and once we add in the rest of our furniture and decor I think they’ll look great.

The rug is a placemat Sage and Naomi picked up at Target. It’s a little big, but we think it will be right for the room once we trim off the outer ring. We’ll see — it’s always a little hard to tell about a rug until the rest of the furniture is in a space.

In the meantime, we’re thrilled with how the curtains turned out!