A Secret In My Kitchen

So, I am curious, have you ever wondered what is behind those doors, there on the right of my kitchen?

Well, one of them is my “garage” of sorts. When we designed the kitchen I knew I wanted a place for the coffee maker (or as it has become, makers), blender, toaster, etc. So, this is what you will find in the right cabinet. Nothing too scandalous.

Above it is everything related to coffee or tea – all in one convenient place.

Moving to the left a bit, you will find my spices and such conveniently located near the stove, and of course the toaster. We do make sure to have the door open when toasting!

It is behind the next door that things get interesting…

Yup, that is a big ugly furnace pipe.

It used to be hidden away in our old pantry closet. When we began redesigning the kitchen it became clear that this pipe wasn’t going anywhere. To move it would have required roof work, ripping out part of my master closet and lots and lots of money.

So, with the exception of being shimmied over a few inches, it is where it always was, just hidden behind door number 1. Our contractor fitted the cabinet with a divider and shortened shelves so the right side of the cabinet would still be usable.

I do sneak a couple of trivets in there for storage, but than that it is just a pipe. We may have to close it off a little more down the line because the amount of dust generated from the there is a bit challenging and the drafts are pretty bad, but for now it is behind a door.

So what about below.

Well, that is where my contractor shows off how fancy he really is.

You see, he took the existing drawer and rebuilt it so it goes right around the pipe. Admittedly, this drawer is not the most sturdy so I use for the “not everyday” type items. 

Below, on the right there are two pull out drawers with pots and such.

On the left, again our contractor created a divider and rebuilt the pull out drawers to fit just on the right side of the cabinet. 

He closed in the pipe below and put shelves in that conveniently are just about the same depth as Keurig boxes for additional storage. We also keep the kid’s hot chocolate mugs and supplies where they can easily be reached down here.

So, here it is – The Full Monty!

I am showing you my deep dark cabinet secrets!

So, if you run into a challenging aspect of your home, don’t give up! There may well be an option to camouflage it.

This is not a solution we came up with right away, it took several ideas and options to consider before we came to this decision.

So, don’t give up hope, don’t get frustrated with your home – embrace it for all the possibilities that lie ahead!