Small Kitchens

Mark Bittman had a great column in The New York Times last week about small kitchens. Apparently, when Bittman posted a photo of his kitchen (above) to his blog, dozens and dozens of people wrote in astonished that he has such a tiny kitchen. Of course, New Yorkers weren’t at all surprised.

What I liked best about the piece though was Bittman’s assertion that a good cook can cook anywhere. Having spent a few years as a catering chef, I agree: a decent cook can prepare a nice meal just about anywhere. I’ve cooked in the fanciest Greenwich kitchens that have all the latest appliances, but not a single spatula or a paring knife. I’ve also cooked on propane ring burners just about everywhere: in a back yard, on the deck of a boat, in a parking lot, you name it, I may have cooked there. Here's a quote from the article that sums up Bittman's point:

To pretend otherwise — to spend tens of thousands of dollars or more on a kitchen before learning how to cook, as is sadly common — is to fall into the same kind of silly consumerism that leads people to believe that an expensive gym membership will get them into shape or the right bed will improve their sex life. As runners run and writers write, cooks cook, under pretty much any circumstance.

My own small kitchen is below. It makes Mark Bittman's look like a palace, but it's always been enough for me. (That said, I've never cooked a sit down dinner for more than 10.)

Closet Project: Details

Once the demolition is completed and all the surfaces have been patched, Stefan, the contractor, is going to install the storage pieces. The wall is approximately 13 feet long, and I need to leave approximately 3 feet at the far right side of the wall so that the door can open. That leaves about 10 feet for the storage unit, but as Stefan, the contractor, wisely pointed out, all the materials that I am thinking of using come in 8-foot lengths. I’d originally imagined filling the whole space with shelving, but it would be a lot more expensive to do. So, the current plan is to do eight feet of cabinet below with eight feet of shelves above, using wall-mounted brackets like the Elfa system above for the upper shelves.

Stefan suggested that I could buy two extra butcher blocks and cut them lengthwise to make the shelves, which will look a lot nicer (and will be only be a little more expensive) than white melamine shelves from a place like the Container Store.
For the cabinets, I plan to use Ikea’s standard Akurum units (above) with the Applad doors. The Applad finish is the glossy, white one that almost looks lacquered. I plan to do them without handles for a clean look.

One option for the additional space would be to add a high cabinet at the end. This unit from Ikea below is about the right size, and it would give me a lot of additional space. I think what I might do is have Stefan build the eight-foot unit and then figure out the end piece once the shelving has been installed. Stefan suggested building some cubbies at either end, but I worry that, that would end up being really expensive. We’ll see what he has to say about pricing and go from there.

Closet Project: Existing Space

To give you a better idea of what this closet project actually is, I am posting a floorplan of the apartment and a quick picture of the closet itself. As you can see, the closet is odd: It juts out into the room and has angled sides. It's an awkward use of the space and it makes the room much smaller than it actually is. I'm also not really using the closet as a closet--it's mostly filled with boxes of books, which I look forward to unpacking once the project is done. The plan is to demolish the existing closet, patch the floor, walls and ceiling, and then install the cabinets and shelving.

Closet Project: Inspiration

I'll write a few posts to explain the scope of the closet project, now that it looks like it is finally happening. To start, here are two images from the now defunct, Blueprint magazine, that inspired the project. Above and below, you can see how designer Lotta Jansdotter created storage in her living room using IKEA kitchen cabinets and a standard wall-mounted bracket system. I'm going to do something very similar to this in my space. Stay tuned for additional details about the project.

WOW: Marty's Props

WOW, wow, wow. Check out these shots of Martha Stewart Omnimedia's prop room on ApartmentTherapy.com. I am actually salivating.

Window Film Revisited

I am tempted to put window film on my living room windows for a little additional privacy (I am on the ground floor). I am sort of in love with this flowerpot film from Rare Device. My first question is: Is it too silly? I already did the windows in my bedroom, and I definitely like the results. However, it actually cost a lot of money. I am thinking I could buy plain frosted window film at a hardware store and re-create something like the photo above. First, I'd apply a single layer of the film, then I would cut out a silhouette from a second sheet and layer it over the first. Think that would work?

Recipe: Red Lentil Soup

Last winter The New York Times ran a recipe for red lentil soup in the 'A Good Appetite' column. When I was trying to come up with an easy dinner menu for friends on a weekday night, I took a look in my kitchen cabinets to see what I had on hand. I saw the red lentils I'd bought after reading about the red lentil soup and decided it was high time I tried the recipe.

The soup turned out so well I wish I'd made it sooner! I made the recipe exactly as written, but increased the quantities by a half. I also skipped that last step of pureeing half the soup, which seemed a little fussy for lentil soup. I served it with white rice and a green salad with cherry tomatoes and feta cheese. I also made a yogurt sauce with Fage yogurt, sour cream and chopped cilantro, which we dolloped into the soup. Above are the few remaining lentils, but I plan to buy more when I head to Fairway later today.

Frosta Stools from Ikea

Ikea's FROSTA stool is a long-time favorite of apartment dwellers. They're cheap, stackable and bare an, ahem, striking resemblance to a much pricier stool by a little known designer, Alvar Aalto. Earlier this year I decided I wanted to swap out my old bedside table for something smaller and wood. I spent a couple weeks scouring The Flea, but didn't find anything. Then one day I was at Ikea and I thought, "Hunh, those stools could be used as bedside tables." So I bought a pair for less than $30 for the two.

When I got them home I decided that they were unfinished and I could refinish them. Well, it turns out they are sealed in some way, as they didn't take the stain very well. After two failed coats of Minwax stain (see below) I then rubbed them down with Trewax in a shade called 'Indian Sand.' The finished effect is actually okay, even though it is not what I intended. They look like they are weather-beaten, vintage pieces, not newbies from the cheapskate Swedish store. Since I still haven't completed the bookcase project, there are now stacks of books everywhere in my apartment like the one you see beneath the stool.