It's gorgeous here today. After warmer (in the 20s) but dreary and damp weather yesterday, it's a bright and sunny 38 whopping warm degrees today and the snow is melting, hooray! Not a cloud in the sky, this is shorts weather around here, folks. It will be warm through the weekend, with rain expected on Christmas Day. There will still be plenty of snow, though, as temperatures will
Of course leave it up to me be racing ten steps ahead when I haven't even gotten half-way through the kitchen redo. But that back hall! It's driving me nuts.
All of the homes in this area with my house's footprint were built between 1955-1956 and all of them have the angled sink facing two corner windows, rounded "knick-knack" shelves on the ends of the cabinets framing those windows, a peninsula which, in original form, also holds three half round shelves, and a small back hall from the side driveway that tops the steps to the basement and a step up into the dining area of the kitchen/dinette. None of the photos of such homes I've seen, including my own home, has any indication that there was ever a door from the back hall into the dinette.
As a practical matter, a regular swing in or swing out door wouldn't work, there just simply isn't enough room. There isn't enough room for a pocket door either, or a barn door on a runner, unless light switches are relocated. So, that back hallway is open to view from the kitchen/dinette area. And mine isn't very pretty. It holds my trash container, my recycling container, a four-tiered wire shelf unit holding myriad gardening tools and supplies; there are five coat hooks that hold my purse, jackets during the summer and a host of winter regalia this time of year (gloves, hats, scarves, coats/jackets), a broom, a snow shovel this time of year, and a dust pan. And then there is the shelf above! That holds yet more stuff, but it's difficult for me to reach; I usually have to pull out the mini ladder to access some of the items.
So - a picture is worth a thousand words. More pictures are worth more words, right? You can get a glimpse of the stuff in that back hall in this photo:
Okay, two are enough. I think you see the problems. LOL! Not exactly the kind of thing one wants to look at when sitting in what I hope to be a sort of "lux" dining area experience.
So, I started thinking about what to do back there to try and streamline storage and make the space presentable, since I cannot cover it up. Well, I could hang a swagged curtain, but that is so 1970s and would also get in the way. I am constantly in and out of that back hall area and I can quite easily picture myself getting tangled up in any kind of draped curtain.
The shelf has to go. So do all of those coat hooks. I'll be shopping for some kind of cabinet that will hold nearly everything, which will go a long way to improving the "view" from the kitchen/dining area and making me much happier.
I'll let you know when I come up with something. Failure is NOT an option :)
No comments:
Post a Comment