It’s your kitchen, you can cry (rip out the cupboards) if you want to!
The world loves boxes.
Neat, organized, squared away boxes. Whether to live in, or to place other people in. Inside the box is the comfort zone, and the sturdy corrugated carboard sides keeps the unknown and the unruly out.
Until one day, it doesn’t.
Story time: I moved into a new house as a very young person, with nearly no money at all and big dreams.
I remember once, getting a contractor out, and describing my dream kitchen to him with sketches and mood boards, and eventually, after bonding over a shared love for big white farmhouse sinks, I gave him my budget… at least he didn’t laugh.
To be fair he didn’t do anything. He didn’t even call me back and stopped answering my emails.
So yes, maybe my budget didn’t match my dreams, but that got me thinking – Who makes the rules anyway?
Break the mould, ditch the box, rip up the rulebook.
I am not so young anymore, but in honour of my former cash strapped self, I still have not taken the leap and bought my self a brand new, straight form the box professionally done and designed kitchen.(And it’s not just because these kitchens can easily cost as much as a family car…)
It’s because I like living and thinking outside of the box. Who says my kitchen needs wall to wall granite countertops, a sleek scullery where all my ridiculously expensive appliances stand gleaming, taunting me to try and live up to my kitchen’s standards?
It started with a broom cupboard.
About a year ago I got fed-up with the small, wonky broom cupboard in the corner of my kitchen. I had two options: Get a professional and pay hundreds of thousands for a new kitchen, or get rid of it and make my own plan. I picked the second option and spent a wonderful afternoon (violently) ripping out the offending cupboard. A few months later I did the same to the very narrow, totally impractical 70s era split level kitchen island.
I ripped out the broom cupboard and installed broad open wooden shelves. I destroyed the useless island and bought myself a lovely antique scrubbed wooden table from our local pawn shop.
I embraced custom storage solution and had wooded pull-out trays made for my shelves and installed quick access brackets for my cleaning tools. No more struggling to fit a long broom in a short cupboard, no more All Gold bottles slowly petrifying in the back of a dark pantry.
The problem with breaking the rules, is that it is addictive.
I love my new, DIY kitchen. But now I can’t walk past a bathroom cabinet, linen closet or ugly sink without imagining what I would do with it instead. I now live for the chaos! I want to rip out anything built in! To manage this addiction, I have cultivated some coping mechanisms.
Think before you smash.
As much as I hate my built-in bathroom cabinet, I have not smashed it, YET…I need to think of a replacement plan before I start the process
Don’t be a fool!
Don’t mess around with plumbing and electricity. As much as you don’t need professional countertops everywhere, you do need a professional level of safety consciousness. Switch of, turn off, plug out.
Live spartan while you plan.
Don’t rush into a quick fix solution. I had crates of food, cleaning supplies and kitchen bric-a-brac standing around for months while I planned, measured and fine tuned my shelves. By living the spartan life, you might also realise what it is your really need…which is often less than you think!
Buy less.
Try to be conscious of what you buy. Short lived, plastic and mass-produced storage solutions feel like progress, but in fact you’re just wasting money and adding to the piles of waste plastic us humans generate each day.
Know when to get a guy…
For certain things I do not mess around, and unless you are highly skilled I suggest you get a guy. Tiling, re-doing ceilings, plumbing and electrical work, in my mind at least, is “GET A GUY” – territory.
If your kitchen is bringing you down but you don’t want to do the mundane thing of ordering a new one from a catalogue, do your own thing.
