New Kitchen, More Space, Smart Organization!

Welcome to our recently renovated kitchen!! With the changes we made, we had to take our kitchen organization to the next level! I’m so excited to share some of my favorite items and a few tips and tricks with you that helped us maximize the space.

I partnered with my friends from Extra Space Storage who are all about storage and organization! You can see my tour on Instagram…just go to the Extra Space Storage page and click on their stories. If you want to see more of the actual Kitchen Renovation, click here to see it all.

Now let’s talk kitchen organization!!! 🙂

So one of the biggest changes we made was taking down our upper cabinets. In the first phase of our Kitchen Reno back in 2016, we took down a couple of them. This time…we took them ALL down and I couldn’t be happier!!!

The counters seemed to have doubled in size!! We had so much more surface area and I took advantage of it. I created some beautiful open shelving with our everyday plates on the counter by adding a live edge piece of cedar. It adds so much texture to the white quartz countertops while adding the perfect platform for our plates
and a few accessories. I love finding unique trays, stands or centerpieces for displaying dishes and glassware.

People always ask if the dishes get dusty being out. I have to say I don’t ever notice dust and with them being right there we tend to actually use them more.

On the other side of the kitchen, I created the perfect coffee station. I don’t have the room for a huge fancy coffee station but I think ours is just right!! I have plenty of room for my kettle and coffee maker and of course the toaster.

By adding this sweet metal wire shelving piece I created some vertical storage. It holds everything I need. Coffee, sugar, tea and even some fancy mugs for company!

Be creative, don’t let the ordinary way of doing things define you!

If you really want to do something, you will figure out a way to do it right? That’s how I looked at this Kitchen Reno. I knew how I wanted it to look. So I needed to figure out a way to make it work.

Let me ask you a question…looking at all the cabinets in your kitchen…do you use each one every day? I bet if you put a post-it note on the front of each cabinet you use in a day, you would be surprised at how many you don’t use. So after doing a big clean out of each cabinet and donating a lot of items I never used…it was time to organize the items I DID use. Once I reduced the items I had, I realized I didn’t actually need all these cabinets and my dream was going to become a reality!

Steps to Organization

• Assess What You Have
• Determine What You NEED
• Group Like Items Together

Continuing with the idea of “vertical storage” I added a tall cabinet from Ikea. Initially, I was going to add it at the end of the counter. But after seeing how beautiful the tile wall was I didn’t want to cover any of it up. So I installed the cabinet feet on the bottom instead of the toe kick and used it as a furniture piece on the other side of the room. It provides plenty of storage for all the glasses, plates and bowls that were in the upper cabinets.

If you’ve followed me for any time on Instagram or here on the Blog, you know I’m a big fan of open shelving. I have a large piece in the corner that holds so many things and I can restyle them as often as I like!

Open shelving is a great way to hold lots of items in varying sizes. From glasses to large serving pieces, that normally wouldn’t even fit in a cabinet. And you can add your own personal style!

As a blogger, I need storage and I need it bad! 😉 So I try to buy pieces that are beautiful and functional. This sideboard serves as a “divider” between the kitchen and the family room. It also holds a number of my serving pieces, linens, candles and more. Instead of putting an open console table in your room…consider pieces with closed doors for storage!

Another thing in our favor was that when we designed our kitchen island, we created lots of storage opportunities. We had shelves installed for cookbooks, serving pieces and even cookware.

We have a large 2 door cabinet in the center, that holds a ton of canned goods.

One thing I love to do as well is use baskets for storage. But don’t limit yourself to a traditional basket. I got this round thick jute wired basket to hold my collection of sundae dishes. They take up less room this way and look good!

On the other side of the Island, we had drawers and cabinets put in and they hold everything from pots and pans to spices. If you want to see “inside the cabinets” check out my tour on Instagram with Extra Space Storage! 😉

These are just some of the ways I maximized storage in our newly renovated kitchen and I LOVE IT!!!

If you want to see more, be sure to visit Extra Space Storage on Instagram (in their Stories) where I’m personally taking you on a virtual tour of my kitchen! I hope I’ve given you a little inspiration and even better…some motivation to get Organized!!

And you can read about more Kitchen Renovation Ideas, from the organization pros… Extra Space Storage !

Thanks for following along!! Join me on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest where I’ll be sharing more photos and ideas. Also, sign up to follow me here on the Blog so you don’t miss my upcoming posts! If you have any questions or comments on anything I’ve shared here…send me a comment below! I’d love to hear from you!

See you soon!