Project Status Update: Pots and Pans Cabinet

Status: Complete! (For now) :)

While it was quite satisfying to remove that old contact paper out of my cabinet, they certainly don't make glue like that anymore! Unless the label on the the bottle says "Gorilla Glue". Ugh - what a nightmare. It started to come off easily, but then it decided to not play nice and leave all sorts of little scraps behind, nary an edge to pick at. So, I was left with a sort of polka-dotted seventies look, which was worse than the start. :) After some picking and some sore nails the next day, I was left with a nice, bare cabinet floor, tempting me to leave it that way; it looked so simple and clean...and I was thinking of the future too - mine or someone else's - having to rip out the new paper again someday when it went out of fashion and became itself, craptastic.

But, I decided that design always wins out over another day of inevitable nail ripping soreness far into the future - so worth it, right?... Mostly because I actually found a pretty, green contact paper with a modern print...at my faaaaavorite store, Target. They only had one kind, and it most likely resides in many homes now because of its awesomeness, but hey - I fell in love with it and threw it into my cart without even looking at the price tag -whoa, I know - but how expensive could contact paper be, for heaven's sake? :)

I liked it so much, I used it for two other projects and if I had a way to get back to Target right now, I would be going back for more to recover anything I can find. :) So maybe it's a good thing I am stuck here.

I also kind of chuckled (with glee) when I saw it in one of my favorite design blogs, tart house, recovering the back of a white bookcase - I thought I recognized the pattern! And it made me happy because I really want parts of my house to look like parts of hers - and I so want her talent for pulling rooms together. :) Plus she has a TON of cool ideas and inspiration for makeovers or just using what you have on hand to spruce up a room. Like that big, clear vase for rolls of paper.... So, if she picks it, I feel validated. No, I'm not a stalker at all!

image via: tart house

Anyway, here's the before again: Ugliness:

And the after: Cool paper installed:

I added in some cheapo organizers: one for the lids (which has helped a TON), and one to raise up the back baking tins to fit something under. It's not perfect yet...but much better and cleaner than where we started. And it doesn't turn me into a raving lunatic when I go in to find the one pan I need and it's buried under a thousand ugly others... I say, success!

Someday, if we take a bigger step before building new cabinets, I would like to see a slider drawer on the bottom of each side like these, to reach the back more easily:

image via kitchensource.com

Then go even one step further to utilize that space with something like this (top left of image, the pot rack organizer) to organize the pans into their own separate space on that slider, since this is one part I am still not in love with - inevitably I need the very bottom (biggest) pan and I have to pull out all the smaller ones to get it - every. single. day.

image via Good Housekeeping

So, this would save my sanity a whole bunch. At one time, I considered a pot rack (if we had the space for it - which we don't), but I have never really liked the cluttered look of most designs out there anyway. I say, hide the clutter, bring out the organized. Like a pretty and clean-lined display of similar bowls or spices...for me, I want to keep the chaotic pans behind the doors. And maybe that's just me. :)