Build a Pair of Shaker Doors

I’m going to end the year of 2018 with a long-lost home improvement post -- DIY a pair of Shaker doors for our kitchen cabinets!

The story began this summer that we tried every means to move the microwave into one of the kitchen cabinets. To make the whole cabinets look nicer,

“Off” the Counter Microwave

Due to the lack of experience, we hired someone to remodel our kitchen. We weren’t given many choices. We gave up a lot of ideas, like open up kitchen, peninsula island dining area, and quartz countertop… Our countertop is divided by three sections, which is hard to keep things together and organized. I often found myself finding stuff in the kitchen :( Countertop space is precious!! especially when the kids and I practice cooking together. If any chance we are able to redo our kitchen, I’ll definitely hide the microwave somewhere that is NOT on the counter or maybe consider a built-in microwave.

Under-cabinet: image sourse

Where to Hide the Toolbox

Charles, as a handyman, can’t get too far away from his tool bag. Where to hide the toolbox in the house? We thought about hiding it in the garage with the rest of the big tools. But our garage is a detached garage; it just takes too much time to get a few household tools. The toolbox had been sat on the floor in our laundry nook like forever. A few months ago, I finally came up with the weirdest idea, which we would not recommend to anybody, but somehow it works for us: We hide the toolbox in one of our kitchen cabinets

Charles bought a set of soft close drawer rail to make it retractable:

Repurpose Ikea Spice Racks

這張小小的 Ikea JOKKMOKK dining table 目前是家裡唯一吃飯的地方, 有點小但還過得去...自從恩仔加入餐桌後, 他面前方圓50CM的東西都得收好, 所需用品也越來越多, 於是堆在桌面的東西把整張桌子都填得好滿...

Ikea 便宜又好用的 BEKVAM Spice Rack 又派上用場! 量好位置在櫥櫃側面鑽四個洞

Being Organized in the Kitchen

I’m definitely not a clean freak; however, keeping the house organized and neat is one of the challenges that I wish one day I can be somewhat closer to that goal. Here’s a start:

I remember when the kitchen layout designer that we hired back in 2012 asked us if we are certain to have the big wall cabinet with glass doors. I’m sure the solid doors make things easy. We can toss anything in the cabinet and hide all the mess; but I’m glad I say yes to the glass doors because being organized actually saves more spaces and keeps the kitchen more delightful. I love how our retired Starbucks mugs are displayed in the cabinet:

Since we started with this one organized cabinet, why not being organized for the pots and lids that hide inside the doors as well? We bought Rev-a-Shelf at Lowes. They are not cheap; in fact, quite expensive, so we only bought one of them to try it out. 

There are two tiers that operate independently: up for lids and down for pots. The pull-out basket design makes the pots and lids very easy to access without scratching each other. Because they are pretty expensive just for organizing purpose, we only keep this one, which carries 70% of our pots and lids anyway.

Doesn't it feel good to be organized?

Kitchen Window Treatments

不提完不了工的浴室了... 記得好久以前動工的廚房, 也是 thechusweethome 第一個大改造的地方, 面街的大窗戶一直遲遲都是紙糊遮蓋著, 最後終於用最原始的方式把 "窗簾" 給 "黏" 上去了:

Original Post:

說是窗簾, 其實這是一張桌布; 因為一直找不著和另一邊窗戶上部的短幔同樣 Bistro 調調的窗簾, 好不容易在 Amazon.com 找到喜歡圖案,又與這面窗的大小大致吻合的一塊桌布

不過這塊桌布有點薄, 從街邊望進來晚上透光可以直透裡面, 在不會裁縫又懶得學的狀況下只好在裏層再黏上一層 sheer

本來打算只是暫時用用, 也過了數月了, 希望有朝一日可以改成 Roman Shades, 可以拉起來觀賞外面的街景: 

Source

或著改成可以打開透風的 Bay Window!!

Source

Debt Free Kitchen

在查理斯還沒發現他自己這麼會動手改造時, 我們做了一個錯誤的決定: 在沒有完整的規畫下, 我們雇用了一個(非常之差勁的)承包商, 開始我們的債務之旅, 經過一年的償還, 今年八月底終於解脫了!!! 慶祝廚房零負擔!!!

其實雇請承包商不是件錯誤的事, 只是一個承包商的好壞得用時間和成品去證明, 所以第一次碰運氣的成分很高; 這名承包商用他的三寸不爛之舌說得我們放棄了預算下做不到的構想, 雖然重新翻修結束的滿意度有達 60%, 可是許多都是犧牲想法的妥協...

較為令人厭惡的是, 簽下合約後就再也看不見此人, 從沒見他來監工過, 需多細節還得自己提點, 材料顏色等選擇性極少, 最氣得還是諸多計較的金錢考量, 多有想法就是多砸錢... 拿了錢就拍拍屁股走人, 我們若干月後才發現市政府居然還要作最後一次的檢查, 實在很不負責!

在此次經驗後, 我們選擇自己開工, 歷時半年的家庭電影院完成, 若不計算後添傢俱, 包括影音器材總金額約為 $4K 起; 當然廚房和客廳論工時算材料當然差很多, 不能蘋果比橘子, 但能自己 DIY 完成成就感很大而且可以自行發揮, 自己開工的缺點就是工程時數有限, 開始到完工時間頗長, 但省下的可是一筆大數目! 就看看屋主本人能不能忍受長時間的施工了 

這一年來我們為廚房添加了一些 Bistro 小物件:

• 小咖啡鐘
• 廣告收信木夾
• 餐桌小物

老式門鈴奇奇怪怪地裝在廚房裡, 我選用一幅小廚師, 後面釘上一條棉線, 掛上遮起來~

就是當年那紙糊的窗簾還是一個慘樣...

Hang on the Wall

Finally I made more progress to decorate our new kitchen like a cute little bistro!


I used to decorate my former condo kitchen with these sassy little chefs on the wall. I liked them very much and decided to do the same to our current kitchen.

Our kitchen is much bigger but unfortunately less wall spaces for the two ladies (11" x 14"). Therefore, I replaced them with three little fat chefs with smaller frames. 
 

I also got this coffee silhouette hook from Amazon and hung some little cute accessories: (from left to right) a tiny cup from a capsule toy, Charles’ bottle opener, a California souvenir key chain, and a miniature wooden spoon.

You might spot the chef decor here and there already:

The clean/dirty sign for the dishwasher was surprisingly Charles’ idea and I found this cute little chef one on ebay! 

We shopped the valances in Anna’s Linen on black friday weekend. We had these two choices in mind:

 

and we both preferred the brown one with the cute variety coffee cups

Need to tie it up one strap at a time

Oh, by the way, Charles has fixed the window I broke months ago so the cardboard cover has been removed. XD

Maximize the Dining Area

廚房大工程結束後, 一直想放入一張大小合適的breakfast table, such as...

www.onhomedesign.com

總愛先從Ikea下手, 想要購入的drop-leaf table因為價錢太高($169)遲遲下不了手的小桌, 前一陣子居然停產了! 正在尋尋覓覓中沒想到Ikea又重新包裝了一番在上個月推出新品:

Meeting New Friends in our Kitchen

This sarcastic strip is from a Taiwanese blogger who precisely describes the durability of different appliances and very much favors 大同電鍋.

 

After Kitchen Becomes the Heart of the Home

(80% Complete)

千呼萬喚, 歷經一個多月的工程, 外加額外推拖拉個兩三個星期, 我們的新廚房終於初步完工!! 至少到此為止不會再有陌生人進入了!! 話說放棄了昂貴的開放式廚房, 一樣為了減少支出, 瓦斯和水管管線都維持原位; 曾經一度想硬把4~6人的餐廳空間劃進來, 但這麼一來幾乎沒有儲藏的空間, 於是大體上沒有做出大規模的改變...

最大的改變就是那只大冰箱的位置, 打掉了原有的早餐區隔牆, 空間加倍;

Before Kitchen Becomes the Heart of the Home

(0% Complete)

本來和查理斯最初想動工地方是希望那唯一的大浴室可以一拆為二, 以增加房子本身的價值, 結果搬進來後用了兩個禮拜的廚房, 每次做菜血壓都會升高, 心情都會很壞…  基本上這個廚房還停留在50年代的模樣, 塑膠地板配上老態龍鍾的圖騰, 老舊的櫥櫃和泛黃的磁磚流理臺面… 我強烈的懷疑這個廚房從來沒有被翻新過…就連本來設計放入冰箱的空間還停留在過去單門冰箱的狹小尺寸… 讓人匪夷所思的是 前屋主很天才地把空間不夠的部分硬生生地切割過去, 造成更加狹窄的通道和一個偌大的冰箱卡在同為後門和廚房入口處的窘境…