Making your home work for you: Kitchen

Welcome to today's post: Making your kitchen work for you!

We have an old kitchen. Like, original to the 1940's with no dishwasher, type of old. It also has the challenge of very limited bench space, and no real pantry (but many small cupboards).
You can see our kitchen in it's entirety here, but for now here are just a few tips for making your kitchen, regardless of the size, as functional as possible.

1. Herb pots

These herb pots were a cheap find at Ikea in Australia (we don't have Ikea in New Zealand so it's still a novelty) and they are a super easy way to keep herbs. You can buy the herbs in little pottles at the supermarket or garden centre, and then just place a whole pottle into one of these larger pots - no messy soil transfer required. We keep ours on the windowsill over the cooking space so they are always right there to snip from. It doesn't hurt that they function as decor, too.

2. Ladder as shelves

Making your Kitchen work for YOU || Amy MacLeod
 Or in our case, 'tiny step ladder as shelf'.
This works if you have a small area of floor-space that's free. If you don't need anywhere for books, you could get creative and place herb pots (or other plants) here.

3. A hot beverage station
I've found that keeping all our hot drinks supplies including cups behind the same cupboard door, is awesome.

Making your Kitchen work for YOU || Amy MacLeod

We have mugs on the top shelf, coffee on one shelf, teas on the other.
When you live in a kitchen with a zillion small cupboards (really, look at our kitchen, they are everywhere) it makes sense to group these things - and guests can find everything in one go.

4. Just one more thing...
We put up a chalkboard thinking it would be practical for writing lists on etc. If you are considering doing the same, I'd just have to put in my honest 2 cents and say it's probably not worth your bother. I personally find it 4 times more time-consuming, and in reality it never gets used because chalk is messy on your hands, and the board is a pain to wipe down. 
Making your Kitchen work for YOU || Amy MacLeod

But if you just want it for decorative purposes and for kids to doodle on... go ahead!


Hope you had a great weekend! I spent mine being wickedly domestic, which I secretly love. How bout you?








3 comments:

  1. I love the little hot drinks station you set up. It's so cute!

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  2. really love your hot beverage cupboard. such a good idea to have it all together!

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  3. I love the white planter/pots .. I want one (maybe 5!!!). Chalkboard, I agree ... it is an upkeep. I painted one entire kitchen wall chalkboard (black) and I do LOVE the look, but am cautious about wiping it clean (h2o'd paper towel) after a to-do-list. Hmm, I think I need a hot beverage station ... mine is currently a hot mess.

    Ada | www.adasinteriordesign.com/blog

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Thanks for your comment. You are awesome!