Kitchen Corner Office

I spend more time in the kitchen than any other room in the house.  I don't really know why.  Even if I'm working from home, I end up in the kitchen for probably an hour or so.  I'll bring the laptop to the kitchen table while the tea water boils and then I'll end up making phone calls and doing emails from there.  It's like a magnet for our family.  When I was home all the time when the kids were babies, the kitchen was the command center for so much:  bottles, trash, dishes, baby food, tea for mommy, dishes, sippy cups, chee-chos snacks, wine for mommy, baking to keep us away from the tv, lots of dishes, Jewish apple cake that I was addicted to while breastfeeding, and then more dishes.  These days it's more like homework, dishes, lunch packing, dishes, cereal, dishes, I'm hungry, dishes, dishes, dishes, dishes.  So when I'm doing dishes I really want to have something nice to look at.  At our first house I had a nice double window above the sink that could hold pretty little frames and pretty little vases.  It made the sentencing at the sink pass much more quickly.  In this old kitchen it takes a little more creativity.  The sink is tucked into an awkward corner.  Note:  Never put in a corner sink.  Corner office, yes, corner sink, no.  Window office, yes, window sink, definitely.  Here's what it looks like:

The kids made those plates for us for Christmas, thanks to their INCREDIBLE art teacher - the best!  There is barely any room for the dish drain and there are ALWAYS dirty dishes piled up.  In fact, I just finished all the dessert dishes, and I bet if I walk in there right now, another dish will have mysteriously appeared in the sink!  Swear!  So this is how we tried to improve my office space. 

1. See that funny little cubby space on the right?  That apparently used to house some kind of convenient dispenser for foil, etc.  Here's what I did:

I love old Mason jars in the blues and greens and used to collect them until I decided that I should sell them at a yard sale.  Note:  Never sell something you love!  These jars are from Wegmans, the Ball mason jars that come in a big box and are pretty cheap.  They now house the sugar, (two kinds, like Starbucks, yes, I'm trying to set the stage here for my comfort zone...)  Then for matching color, cinnamon, brown sugar, two types of salt, and two types of pepper.  Just because.  (That jar of salt is Wegmans sea salt with the label peeled off.  It's, shhh, plastic!)

2.  On the other side, same thing, but this still had the dispenser contraption in it:

BEFORE

AFTER

It took some elbow grease.  They don't make aluminum foil like they used too - it's a little wider these days.  I guess everything is, which is probably why my baking pans don't fit in the cabinets either!

Here's the antique seal inside:

Very Retro!

3.  Cute display for the soap:

I always reuse the fancy-schmancy bottles and refill with cheap stuff,  not too cheap cause I just need bubbles!  Doing dishes has to have a little spa-quality...

4.  Then a little bling behind the sink:

My grandmother gave me this silver tray for my wedding.  It doesn't fit in our new china cabinet (which is not a china cabinet, more on that to come) so I am following good feng shui and putting it behind the sink.  In feng shui one should never have her back to the people in the room, so a reflective surface will reflect the energy back into the room, and will prevent anyone from sneaking up on the dishwasher!  There are also two little silver picture frames, the kind you get at wedding receptions, with family pictures.    My new Corner Office!

take care of you,

joannie