Useful kitchen "art"

Three months ago I moved into my own apartment in Chicago. Within a week I was mostly done with my entire move (I despise living out of boxes) and within 2 weeks I was pretty much completely done. *Pretty much.* Sadly, not too much has changed around here since then.

But as they say, it's 10% effort to finish the first 90%, and 90% effort to finish the last 10%. I'm happy to note though that I'm one step closer after this kitchen project of mine!

You see, I have a really big kitchen (space wise). But it's mostly just a big square- and there's only one section with actual counter/ cabinet/ drawer space. So I literally have 2 tiny drawers in my entire kitchen. Which means I had absolutely NO room to hold any of my utensils in drawers. (Luckily my walk-in pantry provides much needed extra storage for my cooking and cake decorating crap stuff.)

My original plan was to just buy two large ceramic containers, but with such little counter space I wasn't in love with the idea.

And then it hit me: the wall!

I had a similar gap under the cabinets just above my sink, but found this awesome old tin ceiling tile at an antique fair that I turned into the perfect "backsplash".

My sink is right below the tile, but it's a bit messy for photos right now...

I knew I wanted to do something artsy to the space above my oven, but couldn't figure out what to put there. Especially since it's above the oven and you have to be prepared for anything in that space to get all splattered with oil and grease.

Then a while ago I saw this cool kitchen makeover on this great blog and loved the unique idea she had of hanging her utensils from a rod on the wall. At some point my brain did a mashup of her idea with my bare wall and came up with this (dare I say) awesomely clever solution:

Cool, right?!?

I'm totally in love!!!!

It perfectly fills up that weirdly empty space in my kitchen and it's beyond functional! And because I was able to hang so many of my bigger tools, I managed to fit all the rest in a single container.

On a slight tangent, can I tell you how much I love my awesome little honey jar, Le Creuset ceramic utensil holder, and Moroccan painted trivet (that I'm using as a spoon rest)? Their bright colors make me so happy.

Cuteness over load!!

The best part about this project is that it literally took me less than 20 minutes from start to finish. (Actually took me much less time to do the project than it took to write about it!)

And all it takes are a few, very simple steps. Wanna see??

Well, I'm going to show you anyways...

Step 1: Get a big piece (or two) of butcher or any other kind of paper (tissue would work well too). Size it to match as the space that you want to fill.

Work directly on the ground for more space

Step 2: Organize your utensils (or whatever you want to hang) into a pattern you like. This took me a few minutes until I was happy with how the shapes balanced each other aesthetically.

After a few configurations this is the one I settled on

Step 3: Use a marker to make a large dot where you will be inserting your nail to hang your object. Then remove your items (you might want to take a picture first so you remember where everything belongs!) and tape up the piece of paper.

Can you see the big black spots?? Those are my guides.

Step 4: Hammer a nail (directly through the paper) into the wall. I inserted my nails slightly downward so that the utensil would be less inclined to slide off the nail.

We're almost there...

Step 5: Carefully rip off the paper without pulling out the nails.

Bare wall, but not for long!

Step 6: Simply hang your utensils on the wall (this is where your picture from step 2 comes in handy), step back, and enjoy your work.

Yours in merging two disparate passions, organization and creating something beautiful, for a one-of-a-kind useful creation,

Jacqueline