Room #1- The Kitchen

One month after arriving we finally got access to our new home in Heilsbronn, Germany. We had no furniture and were sleeping on air mattresses, but I figured sooner or later we were going to have to eat. First priority, getting the kitchen together. The room is a pretty good size but there are ugly brown circa. 1967 wood(ish) cabinets. The previous tenants had left half full of there unused portions of noodles flour and about 20 bottles of vinegar (your guess is as good as mine, maybe they liked things zesty,) so phase one was definitely a good cleaning and a fresh coat of paint on the dingy white walls.

I couldn’t do anything about the cabinets being brow and ugly so I had to work around then, distract they eye.  I picked a yellow paint for the wall since the German winters will be cold a dreary and the landlord gave the ceiling a fresh coat of paint. I had some great tablecloths from World Market in my fabric stash that worked great with the yellow as curtains and had a retro pattern that would work with the cabinets.Next, I bought a few key pieces at Ikea (my new best friend) to help with storage since the kitchen only has two drawers and very little cabinet space. The Stenstorp island adds a ton of counter space as well as additional seating, a few baskets add much needed storage. I also bought a Hemnes shoe cabinet for a bit little creative storage, I am using it to store flat pans and cutting boards and best of all that ugly power strip and all those wires.

 

 

 

The kitchen also got a few DIY projects. I found a great oak double pedestal table at the thrift store (the movers dropped my table off the truck so it had to be replaced,) I decided to paint it white since I already had my quota of wood with the cabinets. I also decided I had room for more seating with a banquet. I saved time building this by using two night stands as the base  and with just a few basic straight cuts on all the additional wood and I get six more drawers and some basket storage. Oh the joy!

After all the hard work  of painting, DIY projects, and Ikea furniture building it is time for the fun part. Adding all the beautiful useful things I dragged all the way from the U.S. which surprisingly all survived the journey. Best of all now we can finally eat!