Condo Blues: Covered Kitchen Storage Boxes

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Covered Kitchen Storage Boxes

My kitchen is shrinking.

Not really but it feels that way.

We have one cupboard we use to store food. The rest of the cupboards hold dishes, cups, and stuff we want  to keep but don’t use often. In my dream kitchen all of these special dishes and things would live on the tippy top shelves of cupboards that go all the way to the ceiling so they are accessible but not in the every day way.

A kitchen remodel isn’t in the plan this year. Moving to a bigger house is too much work. I need to find some space in the kitchen I have.

I found it!

Kitchencabinetstoragebox




I know I’m supposed to like having a decorating space on top of my kitchen cabinets. I tried hanging plates on the wall because that is what you are supposed to do in a kitchen, right? I didn’t like it. I tried groupings of doodads on top of the cabinets - meh. I just can’t make it work.


Let’s put the top of those cabinets to work!

I cleared some cabinet shelf space after I moved my empty mason jars to the top of the refrigerator in a fake vintage crate (you can learn how I built here.) Why not clear a little more shelf space by storing the out of the way things in storage boxes on top of the kitchen cabinets?

How to Make Covered Storage Boxes



howtomakekitchenstorageboxes


I can’t believe I had such a hard time shopping for matching ready made storage boxes/baskets to fit the space above my kitchen cabinets.  Even The Container Store let me down. How does that happen? I had a bee in my bonnet and didn’t want to wait and poke around more stores to find kitchen storage bins. I wanted this project done yesterday.

Time to DIY!

I bought 6 Banker Box tubs at Staples because they were the only bin I found that was the correct size to fit the space and holds more than 2 coffee mugs.


coveredstoreageboxbefore
My cardboard storage bins are Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified. It make my eco heart happy they sourced the materials to make them in an environmentally-friendly, socially responsible and economically viable manner.


I taped the handle tabs down so they won’t unfold with use.


reinforacebox
Don’t worry the tape won’t show after I finish.


I covered the boxes by tacking the upholstery fabric from my stash  to each box with a glue stick and stapling the edges to the box with a heavy duty staple gun. I’m a little embarrassed about only covering the front of the boxes, but I didn’t have enough fabric to wrap the box like a present in the way I prefer.

howtocoverastoragebox
I used a glue stick to tack the fabric in place because it won’t leave glue marks.


I used the same technique to attach a piece of red fabric (leftover from my sofa upholstery project) to the boxes to keep them from looking so plain.

disorganizedkitchen
Welcome to our projects in process. Husband’s clean out his work office and preparing for telecommuniting project, my pantry and kitchen ant proofing project, and the oh, what the heck let’s reorganize the kitchen while I’m at it project.


I glued a chalkboard juice lid label to the front of each box and filled the boxes up with our seasonal kitchen stuff. I tossed a few springs of dried lavender into the boxes to keep the moths away as part my kitchen pest proofing project. Funny how one crazy project leads to another, isn’t it?


kitchenstoragebox
Renaissance festival mugs and dishes, and light items since I have to hoist these bad boys over my head and onto the cabinets.

You can’t tell I didn’t have enough fabric to cover the back of the boxes after I put them on top of the cupboards. Whew!

howtomakekitchenstorageboxes


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