I Fixed Everything That Was Bothering Me About Our Kitchen

This is our kitchen. One of the most used spaces in our house and one we've tweaked here and there but never really settled into. The space is fine but there are a few things that have been quietly bothering me. A full renovation or room makeover can feel really daunting and honestly we don't always have the time, the budget, or the energy to overhaul an entire room. So instead of ripping anything out, I wanted to work through some small problem areas. Cluttered counters, storage that isn't quite working, spots that are just kind of meh, and see how much of a difference we could make without changing the footprint or demoing anything at all. I'm going to tackle a series of small DIY projects that will make a big impact. No demo required and no pressure to think big picture, just thoughtful changes one problem at a time. Hello and welcome if you are new here. My name is Molly and today you are going to join me on a kitchen project journey. We are not renovating this whole space, not today, hopefully maybe someday in the future, but right now I need to focus on the little things. The little things that I've just put a box around and been ignoring for the last almost four years. I think we can do better. I know we can do better. So I want to kind of like chip a few of those things off the block and see what we can do to make the space feel a little cozier, function a little bit better, feel a little bit less cluttery, and just be a more enjoyable space to be in. We recently finished our laundry room and pantry makeover. That space is right off the kitchen and in there I built a full floor-to-ceiling shelving unit which allowed us to move all the pantry goodies that we stored in one of our cabinets to the shelves. So that freed up space there to move some of the things off the countertops that were kind of like just taking up space or not so pretty to look at. So we've already started to kind of shuffle things around and I want to see if we can keep the ball rolling. The first thing I would like to focus on is relocating the spices. So we currently have an entire drawer dedicated to spices. I really love the location. It's right next to the stove so it makes a lot of sense for cooking, but it takes up a whole drawer and I feel like we could use that space better. So what I want to do is build something that we can mount on the side of the oven cabinet which is otherwise kind of dead space so that we can relocate the spices. It's also in a beautiful display and then we can repurpose that drawer for something else. The first thing we need to do is head to the hardware store and pick up some materials so we can build a custom spice rack. I do not have a sketch so I'm definitely just winging this. Admittedly I don't always start with a plan but for me winging it is still a process. I'm pulling inspiration, thinking through the space, figuring out what feels possible, and somewhere in there the idea begins to take shape. I got inspired by vintage plate racks. That open slat structure that's functional but has so much charm. I used that as a jumping off point, added a curved detail to challenge myself with the jigsaw, and just committed to it. Worst case I cut another piece. It's just wood. You don't have to build something to solve a problem like this, but I love old things and finding the right secondhand piece doesn't always align with the timeline, and years of trial and error have made building a real option for me. That confidence came from doing it badly over and over and over again. Beadboard backer, paint leftover from my office, and my first ever set of french plates to mount it to the wall. One dead overlooked strip of vertical space. Actually useful now. All right let's see how it looks. I'm really happy with how this turned out. It looks so cute. It brings in a little bit of character and color and personality which I feel like this kitchen has just been missing for so long. We've made it work, it's been fine, but I'm ready to just like spice it up a little bit and make it feel more like ours. So now that this is done and it's painted we are going to fill it up with our spice jars. A few years ago I did a little project where I filled all these glass jars with our spices and I made these custom labels and then I made this cheat sheet here where I numbered everything and that way it made it easy to find what we were looking for. The labels have been beaten up a little bit over the last few years so before we move them over to the shelving unit I'm just going to print off some new labels and replace all these so we've got a nice clean set. The next problem area I want to solve for is our trash and recycling. Currently we have a trash can in one corner, a recycling paper bag in another corner, they're separate so you have to remember which direction to go to throw out which thing, and they are not the prettiest thing to look at. So what I'd like to do is sacrifice a cabinet. I know that sounds bonkers but remember we just freed up a drawer from all the spices so we can shuffle some things around and I do think that this will make like usability better and just kind of like work with our flow a little bit more smoothly and it will hide these things away so we don't have to look at them anymore and we can reuse the floor space that we were previously using for the trash can and paper bag for something else or honestly just clear space like better walkway space. The cabinets I am going to sacrifice is in the corner here. I feel like everything in here can A, be consolidated and B, be shuffled around and relocated so we can reuse this for the trash. The reason I like this location is because it's in the corner, it's also in a walkway so we can pull it out and still get around it versus if we did like this cabinet and the fridge is right behind it. If you open it up and you pull out the trash you're kind of blocked so I didn't love that. It's also being used by stuff that's like not super critical so we can find a better place for that and it's only a single cabinet so it has one door versus many of our other cabinets are double door and I don't want to sacrifice that big of a cabinet. I'm going to save all of the drawers and hardware so if it doesn't work we can always set it back up like this. I was able to find a slide-out unit with two trash bins that will fit in that size cabinet. The brand is Reva Shelf. First things first I'm going to empty that cabinet box out and take out all of the shelves, unscrew everything. Once we have an empty cabinet we can work on getting this installed and see how everything fits. I was totally prepared for this to be far more difficult than it actually was and it was literally four screws to remove the existing drawers and four screws to install the new drawer and now we have a functioning slide-out trash and recycling combo situation here which I'm really excited about. The one thing we're going to have to get used to is like the the height of it because it's much lower so like when I stand up here I have to bend down to reach this handle so I'm not sure if that will get annoying but we're gonna ride it out see how it works. There might be something we can add to this just to extend it a little bit and there is space down here I don't know if you can see like down here where you can put your foot on and just like pull it and push it back in so we might end up doing that more likely just because when you have your hands full you can grab it with your foot. I bias the installation of the drawer to the right so that we can maximize the space in the cabinet. I'm thinking maybe we could fit some extra trash bags and paper bags. I use the grocery store paper bags for the recycling so if we just store a few extra here it might make it easy to empty the trash and put fresh bags in so we'll see what fits but either way it's great to maximize the space and we have a little extra space if we need it once we reorganize some things. The next thing I would like to address is these bar stools. I still really like the look of these I think they're super cute I think they work really well in this space but they are not comfortable at all and we sit here a lot we eat dinner here we host friends here sometimes we just sit and chat and if you're going to spend that much time here you need a comfortable seat so it is time to get rid of these and bring in something new and by new I mean used because I just picked up a really cute set of solid wood bar stools from facebook marketplace okay we have acquired the stools naturally I was so excited when I spotted them that I just immediately messaged the lady didn't even read the full description didn't check measurements picked them up they were an hour away and got home and was like the problem with these is not their design but I will show you um it's the height it's the height we don't have a bar top height counter this is just a standard countertop height so we need standard countertop height stools of course duh so this is the stool or set of stools rather I got three of them they were $125 for all three of them they're solid wood the only problem is that they're too tall I will admit I just got a little too excited and completely forgot to follow through on the details but I feel like that was meant to happen because if I did see the measurements I don't know that I would have driven an hour to come pick these up so we have to give them a chance it wouldn't be fair to the stools we need to make a jig that's five and a half inches tall so we can cut that off the bottoms so let's give it a try and see what happens I'm working on the countertop because it's the most level surface we have it's just like a solid flat slab I've got my jig created I measured the wood to be five and a half inches and then we created like this little u-shape jig which I screwed together and now I have it clamped tightly around the leg so that we can slowly cut with a handsaw using these two like arms of the jig as our reference point so now instead of having to worry about the angle that I cut I'm parallel to the ground so when I cut the leg off it will be even and it won't wobble when we put it back on the ground my arm is going to fall off it's gonna work it's gonna work we're gonna leave that go to the next one I actually am liking these without this little like decorative foot it just kind of simplified the leg a little bit and I actually really like that okay now we just have to do this two more times okay now I want to see what this looks like sanded down I think it will look better with just like one solid color stain applied but I want to see it all sanded down to see if we want to go light or dark so the first thing is getting off the current finish here goes nothing all right we need to take a moment to reflect on what I just did because you guys get to benefit from the movie magic of it all I just spent a week and a half sanding the life out of these stools I don't know why it didn't occur to me that that would be very detail-oriented and time-consuming work when I first spotted them I was just blinded by their beauty but now I know and I am yet again reminded of why I do not purchase furniture to sand it down those tiny little crevices and these turned legs nearly broke me but I prevailed and we are now here with three fully sanded stools that are ready to stain I think I am going to be staining this early american it's the same color I used on our floating shelves which are also red oak I'm like pretty positive these are red oak because they have a slight pink undertone and if that is the case then it technically is the same species now of course this color might look a little bit different but I'm hoping it's close enough I do have other wood pieces in the same vicinity that are not exactly this color but I'm not trying to be too matchy matchy I just want it to feel like part of the dark stain family if you will I've also grabbed my pre-stain conditioner it says prepares wood for staining prevents blotchiness the only reason I'm wanting to use this even more so than when I normally do things because like most of the time I just skip this step and say like whatever it's fine but I just spent so long sanding these that I don't want to risk any potential mess-ups just because I skipped a step so we're in it to win it we're going all the way and I'm just going to apply this wood conditioner before I apply the stain to try to minimize any like defects in the application I'm no expert so we're just going to go with what the people say and the people say to condition your wood I don't have any more latex gloves so I've just wrapped my hand in a plastic grocery bag as a makeshift glove so we're just going to go with that and then I have some old cut up sheets here that I'm going to use as a rag to apply the conditioner well that's not the right color um okay this is not as dark as I was expecting it to be and I couldn't tell you why but I think what I'm gonna do is just stain the whole chair and then we'll go see what other stains we have downstairs because I want the color to be consistent and I'm not sanding this off so we're going to keep going I'm wondering if the wood conditioner made it like not absorb as much but which is fine but like I want the stools to be darker than this so we're gonna have to figure that out okay maybe it's fine I don't know okay we're just we're gonna see ah it looks darker on the legs maybe it just needs like multiple coats I don't know we're just going with it we're going with it these are good this is good good good there was no need to panic I mean I didn't panic but there was no need to panic because the color looks so good I'm so so happy with it it does in fact match the shelves well I did panic that's a lie I panicked I panicked a little bit at the beginning because stain and I don't have a good history I often pick a stain thinking this is going to be the perfect color but then when I apply it something goes wrong the color is not right it's reacting weird to the wood I looked at it in the wrong light just the list goes on I just don't have um historical success in the stain department I don't know I just got worried immediately because when I put it on it looked just kind of like muddy water and I was like oh this is not the look not after all that sanding and once I like let it soak in and then I applied a second coat it was exactly the color I wanted it to be and now we're all good everything's fine okay I'm so excited I'm obsessed I can't take it they're so good the truth is I might be blinded by the fact that I've just been staring at them for so long and I've put so much work into them that I refuse to believe they aren't perfect I mean I do think they're perfect but also like no one could convince me otherwise anyway so I think we can officially call our stools done finito complete and move on to the next part of the project which is going to be installing and sewing cafe curtains I purchased these brass rods from a company called Pepe and Carol's they're local to New England I've used this exact same curtain rod in both of our bathrooms and the laundry room and I love it so I got the exact same one I'm going to have to trim it down just a smidge you can use a pipe cutter you can get these at like Home Depot or Lowe's but I think they also sell them on their website if you're ordering right from there we don't need any curtains on this window for privacy it's purely for looks and just adding a little bit of visual texture and pattern to the space so I don't really want to block the window because we look out to the garden and I love looking out there all year round we have a roller shade on this window it's been there since we moved in and I don't hate it it's not the worst color or style but honestly we just don't use it so I'd rather just remove that visual clutter and kind of create like a focal point with the curtains here down on the bottom for our pipe cutter I only need to cut off the tiniest little smidge so this is what it looks like there's a tiny little disc blade in there and we're just going to spin this around multiple times as it scores the brass and eventually it will just pop right off so we just cut off this tiny little sliver now if we take that fresh cut end and we put it into the slip side then we can pull it back now that we have our curtain rods installed and they're level and screwed in place we can measure to see how much fabric we need to cut for the curtains I'm going to hang them from curtain clips here and then I'm just going to have them hang to the top of the sill I don't want them to like hang too low particularly over the sink where you know we're washing dishes we're cooking I don't want to have stuff too low where it could get splattered on it still might get splattered on it's fine they're fabric we can wash them I'm not that worried about it um I'm more worried about my kitchen being boring and getting curtains up will help that so that's what we're gonna do let's go sew some curtains cafe curtain success I love them they're adorable I don't know why I waited so long to put those up well actually I do know why it's because I kept moving that task to the bottom of my to-do list and I always do that I always move those like small little things that just bring me joy to the bottom because I always can come up with something that feels more important in the moment but these make me so happy and I enjoyed making them so let this be a reminder to give yourself a little space to do some of those fun things that bring you joy in between all the craziness of life because we're not getting that time back and now I get to look out my window while I do my dishes or just sip my coffee and enjoy the garden with these adorable little curtains now that the curtains are done we are going to work on adding some pegs beneath this lower floating shelf here I've always wanted to do something here it just feels very blank I'm not the biggest fan of keeping things on the countertop because a we don't have a ton of countertop space and b it just looks cluttery and if you haven't figured it out yet I don't like visual clutter it drives me bonkers so I'm always trying to think about ways we can kind of create storage without creating more visual clutter and visual clutter is like the ugly stuff not necessarily the cute little like details like I do love you know imperfect kind of displays but it's more like why is the mail on the counter that's visual clutter why is there just a stack of random things in a corner that is visual clutter if there is a set of pegs here that has some you know dried herbs and a cute little dish towel and maybe a potholder hanging from it that's cute visual clutter and that I can deal with so here's my plan okay I have cut this scrap piece of poplar to the exact same width as the bottom shelf here now when it's all done this is going to be installed right underneath flush up against the bottom edge of this shelf and then obviously we'll have pegs in there but I figure it's probably easier to assemble this whole thing before we actually screw it into the wall so I've got these wooden pegs here I found these on Amazon they have these little screws on the end so I'm just going to measure and mark on this board where I want to add pegs we'll screw them all in by hand and then before we go ahead and install it on the wall I'll prime and paint it I think it'll just be easier than working awkwardly underneath this shelf and we all know I'm not going to tape so I don't need to risk getting paint on this lovely shelf here our peg rail is now completely painted and dry and ready to hang now I came down here this morning ready to just screw it into the wall and be done but as I was sipping my coffee and scrolling through my Pinterest board I was like I feel like this is missing a little detail so I was thinking a little bit and I remembered that we added that little curved detail to the spice rack on the top and bottom of each side and I had already cut out a scrap piece when I tested that cut so I was like maybe I could repurpose that so I went out to the barn and I cut two little curved brackets it's the exact same size and shape as what we used on the spice rack what I'd like to do is just screw these to each end of the peg rail so it kind of acts as an end cap obviously we'll paint it all white but now I feel like these details kind of tie in together and it's just a subtle nod to like the corresponding curves in the space so I just trimmed off three quarters of an inch on both sides so that when we screw this in place now it doesn't overhang underneath the shelf it's still perfectly aligned with the length I'm going to screw these in paint them and then we will hang the peg rail peg rail is installed loving how it came out honestly probably one of the easier DIYs I've done so that was a nice little treat and now it's ready to be filled up with all kinds of decor and kitchen goodies you'll notice I've also replaced the switch and plug cover plates here before we had this like ugly beige color and it was just an eyesore and if we don't want our plugs or our switches to stand out like a piece of jewelry then I do like to make them just disappear into the wall so I've used these covers in our office laundry room bedroom now here I love them because they are paintable so you can just paint them the same color as the wall and they kind of disappear into the background before we get to the fun part which is decorating and zhuzhing my favorite part of any project I have one more thing I need to do and that is empty every single cabinet and drawer and reorganize yeah my main goal is to get rid of stuff we always collect things as we like live in our spaces and eventually there's things that are tucked in the back of a drawer that we actually just don't need anymore so I'm going to pull everything out and I'm going to critically look at everything and ask myself do we use it if yes then we're going to put it in an accessible place if not I'm going to utilize some of the higher storage for things that we only reach for a few times a year I am doing one of my favorite exercises for organizing spaces like this take a stack of sticky notes and on individual sticky notes you just write the category of things you want to organize so for me that's cookie sheets bowls pots and pans crock pot mason jars etc you want one thing per sticky note then you can take all those sticky notes and start sticking them on the cabinet or drawer that you want to store things in once you've got everything roughly placed then you can start thinking about the different scenarios like for example I'm standing at the stove I'm cooking some pasta I want a wooden spoon oh I put my wooden spoons over there so I'm going to take that sticky note move it closer and like shuffle things around again it does help you to optimize the space a little bit and I find this just helps me kind of organize before I go through the effort of putting everything back after much shuffling I have freed up this cabinet above the fridge now we used to store our snacks here and it's a little bit out of my reach it's also very deep so things would just get buried in the back now I remember visiting a friend's house and they had this really cool storage unit in an upper cabinet that was like slotted and they used to store things like cookie sheets or muffin tins or cutting boards up there and I feel like that's a really good use of space so what I would like to do is run out to the barn and see what kind of scrap wood we have that might allow us to build a custom slotted storage unit that we can use to store this kind of stuff all right you guys I was all ready to tie a nice little bow around this organization part of the project and move on to decorating so we can finish this project up but the Facebook Marketplace gods intervened and dropped a gem in my search the other day as I was going through and organizing the cabinets I started setting aside things that like we didn't use that often but I still wanted to keep and I was putting them in a tub and I had plans to just put it in the basement and then when we needed it I could go down and grab it and I was like wouldn't it be great if we had some kind of storage solution near the kitchen because we don't have a lot of space to put like a big you know shelving unit or something here but somewhere like right off the kitchen that we could store some of this stuff so it was more easily accessible when we did want to use it so I moved everything that I previously had in this corner out I did really like it but it was more decorative and you know me I'm all about function so I wanted to replace that stuff with this unit that we picked up that I think will just extend the storage a little bit is she not adorable like I just the everything about this feels like it was meant to be here the patina on the wood matches so well with the existing exposed wood in this room so I just feel like it's a natural fit I also love that it's not too deep it's not too tall it's not too wide there's some nice breathing room around it and we still have like a reasonable amount of space for a walkway here around the sofa in the upper shelves I'm thinking we could use it for like cookbooks and some of the more pretty like stoneware pieces that I have and then underneath here we can use that for things that just aren't as pretty to look at or are just a little bit larger because it's a little bit deeper on the bottom with the storage finally sorted this is the part I love most and honestly it's not about buying new things it's about finally finding homes for the pieces you've been collecting moving things around until they make sense and accepting that a room is never really done this is just a moment in time same kitchen no demolition no gutting just a lot of small changes that added up to something bigger a space that's finally starting to feel like our own and works a little bit better for us for now I say for now because I have big plans to continue evolving the space further but we can't do it all at once so we bite off little chunks if you are sitting with a space that feels fine but not quite right I hope this inspired you to take on a few small changes and see where that leads you as always thank you so much for watching if you liked the video make sure to give it a thumbs up hit that subscribe button click the bell notification if you want to be notified for future posts and share with a friend if you think it's something they would like and I will catch up with you in the next video