Kitchen Makeover

Although most of us dream of cooking our dinners on Viking stoves in kitchens with unlimited cabinet and drawer space, for a lot of us city dwellers we unfortunately have to work with a moderately different set up.

Below are a few ideas I have learned along the way that will turn any kitchen into your own version of a chef’s dream, even if you are firmly settled into your “chicken on the Forman” nightly routine.

1•Use your walls for more than art
Although you might not have endless amounts of counterpace, I bet you have a wall or two you aren’t using to its fullest capacity. Instead of shoving your utensils into drawers, get a rack and hang them on your backsplash. This makes them easy to reach and find while you are cooking. You can find racks just about everywhere, but IKEA has them for next to nothing and endless amounts of unique utensils to stock up on. Don’t stop at the utensils though, go ahead and hang up a couple of pots and pans, coffee mugs, oven mits, plates, the sky’s the limit! Put everything at hands reach and free up some space in your drawers for important things, like take out menus.

2•Got Wine?
Sometimes there is nothing like having a nice glass of wine to end a busy day in the city, but how are you supposed to stock up on your favorite Shiraz when you have nowhere to put the bottles? Fear not, Apartment Therapy Chicago wrote an amazing article with 12 different ideas on how to creatively store your wine bottles. So, whether you want to hang on to your Yellow Tail collection or celebrate with some Veuve, you can now have space for it all.Check out the current sales at Binny’s to stock up!

3•Islands… in the kitchen, not the Caribbean
Create your own counters with moveable islands like this one from Target. For under $100 you can add a whole extra counter to your kitchen for cooking or entertaining. With it’s convenient wheels you can easily move it to the side when you are done. If this one isn’t for you, there are a lot of antique stores throughout Chicago where you can buy a fixer-upper and add your own style to it. Check out Threads Etc. or Night and Day for some cool vintage ideas.

4•Get Organized
There is a great website out there called Get Organized, with endless amounts of organizational tools to utilize every square inch of your apartment. Granted some of the items are from your favorite…or least favorite infomercial; there are a lot of gadgets that can actually be very useful. For example, that random space in-between your fridge and stove, make it a functional part of your kitchen with this super-slim pantry. Or how about those spices that are casually tossed all around your pantry? Try buying some clip sets to hang them on the inside of your cabinets. Don’t get carried away though, remember we are trying to save space, not buy every enticing “as seen on TV” item out there. Take some time and browse through the pages and buy one or two of your favorite ideas!