The Kitchen Nook (Part 1)

My husband and I have decided to redo our dining room to make it more usable for us. At the moment, we may use that room 5 to 8 times a year and it ends up being our "catch-all" room. If we don't know where to put something, then we stick it in there. For those of you that haven't been in our home, our dining room is one of the first rooms that you see when you walk in either door (the garage door or the front door). So, a pile of mess is not really that inviting if you ask me.

Over Christmas break, we decided to get rid of our dining room table, chairs, and hutch, and make that room an office for my husband. Yes, he is still in shock and he said he would believe it when he sees it. I guess he thinks I am going to change my mind at the last minute, but not this time. Don't get me wrong, the room is going to be used by me too, but I am going to decorate it more masculine (and when I say masculine, you know I mean "coach" oriented, of course). We have a Cricut, printer, computer, and shredder that currently reside in my daughter's playroom and that is not very safe at all. So, it is time for a change and for them items to find a home!

Here are the before pictures of our dining room...

And, now, we have gone through everything in this room and made piles of things we want to keep, give to Goodwill, and sell.

Before this room can be converted into an office, we had to determine where all of the dishes were going. So, I thought and thought and thought, and FINALLY came up with a solution: the kitchen nook.

See the junk that gets stored in this area?!?!

I have tried to determine what to do with this space for a long time now. I am all about making the most of the space we have, and placing a picture and a bench in a corner is just not what I consider optimizing space. So, we plan to convert this nook into shelving & cabinets with a small counter top.

My first idea was to purchase a piece of furniture that I could slide into this nook with all of the elements I wanted. After spending a week looking for my dream piece of furniture, I found pieces that were either WAY OVER my budget or pieces that weren't exactly what I had envisioned. After speaking with family members about my dilemma, we decided that we could build the unit a lot cheaper. So, I grabbed my tape measure, pencil & paper and went to measuring the area. Then, I created the design I wanted in Excel.

Our next step will be to decide if we can get this project accomplished ourselves or if we need some assistance from professionals. Stay tuned to find out! ; )

Happy Monday,