Kitchen Update: Building a Refrigerator Cabinet

 Happy Mother's Day! I hope your day has been wonderful!

The last few weeks we've had a lot of rain, which has meant slow progress on outdoor projects, but we have gotten a few things accomplished in the kitchen.  Recently Justus built a cabinet to enclose our refrigerator.  I was particularly excited about this, since it means we're one step closer to additional countertop space (yay!), but it also helped our kitchen look a little more cohesive over in this corner.  

BEFORE:

 Our kitchen isn't necessarily small, just awkward.  When we bought our house, we moved our refrigerator all over, but because of doorways and walkways, this was really the only place for it.  So it sat freestanding like this the past few years.

 After Justus completed the framing, he installed these pine tongue-and-groove planks, which (lucky for us) were scrap pieces from my parent's ceiling.  They had a lot of planks they couldn't use or were leftover scraps, but they've been perfect for little projects here and there. 

We've had our fridge for nine years now and it's still going strong, so I'll doubt we'll replace it anytime soon, but we were sure to build the cabinet with standard dimensions so that another fridge would easily fit in this space. 

AFTER:

 After the planks were installed, Justus then trimmed out the cabinet.  I sanded (and sanded) and filled with putty between the trim pieces before painting so that the trim looked a little more smooth and more like one unit.

 Eventually our farmhouse table will move out and Justus will build a lower cabinet for this space so we can extend the countertop to the new refrigerator wall.

 I have to admit too that it's really nice not looking over and seeing all that black that was the side of the refrigerator. 

 I really wanted an open shelf above the refrigerator for extra storage.  For a couple weeks I puzzled over what kind of storage baskets to put on the upper shelf.  I even looked at some larger baskets online and then this week I remembered that Justus had made a passing comment about using the vintage locker baskets we had.  At first I placed two on the shelf, which didn't look right, and then I remembered I actually had another one sitting empty upstairs... and it was a perfect fit.  It almost looks like we built the shelf to fit these three baskets!

 Justus built a little lip with the trim in front of the shelf so that the baskets easily come out, but won't fall off the edge.

I couldn't resist adding this picture in.  While I was taking these pictures this afternoon, Justus was playing outside with the girls.  I heard the screen door slam and Rosetta proceeded to come in, climb onto the chair I had been using, stand in front of the camera, and say, "Cheeeese"!  There is not a second that goes by that I am not thankful to be a mother to our two precious girls.

Have a great week!

(Update: To see our finished kitchen, click here.)