New kitchen cupboards

I was at my parents’ place for much of the last week while my kitchen was renovated. I now have a completely new set of drawers and cupboards, and a new sink. Also, the water heater was moved from inside to outside.

I was lucky with the benchtop colour. The colour I chose was a discontinued one, and there was only one sheet of it left in the factories anywhere in the country! I got the colour I wanted (the very last sheet of it) but I had to sign a form saying that I understood that if the sheet cracked during construction or something I would have to choose another colour and that I accepted the associated financial risk. I was determined to have the colour, because I had my heart set on dark green benchtops and none of the other available colours were remotely like it.

I am very happy with the colours of the new cupboards, including the dark green benchtops but also with other aspects of the colour scheme (for example I’m happy with my decision to have white handles instead of the default stainless steel). I do have some reservations about the dimensions of things - I would have liked the drawers to be less shallow and the top shelf of overhead cupboards to be easier to reach - but that’s OK.

The renovation isn’t over yet. Still to come, the tiling. But I wanted to get the cupboards in first so that I could more visualise what sort of tiles would be appropriate (still thinking about that). Also, the floor will be replaced at some stage, but that’s a job involving the whole house, not just the kitchen. I’m planning on cork tiles in every room except the bathroom.

Now for some pictures. That green benchtop is hard to capture on camera; it’s definitely green to the eye but transferred to my computer screen via my digital camera it tends to come out bluish. I cannot get my camera to reproduce it successfully, but the photograph below is my best attempt.

Here are two photographs showing the layout of the new cupboards.

And here is a black and white illustration with storage spaces labelled from A to U. Below it, I have listed the purpose that I have assigned to each storage space.

• A. Oven bags, unused rolls of paper towels, etc.
• B. Paper towels, plastic wrap, alfoil, kitchen bin liners, etc.
• C. Marinades, olive oil, etc.
• D. On the left: bread spreads. On the right: tomato sauce, salt, lemon juice, etc.
• E. Three-shelf spice rack (contains anything that fits).
• F. Rice, savoury biscuits, miscellaneous things in cans, etc.
• G. Soups, noodles and pasta.
• H. Unassigned.
• I. On the left: coffee, tea, etc. On the right: breakfast cereal.
• J. Desserts, biscuits, sugar, etc.
• K. Trays, etc.
• L. Casserole dishes, large glass jug, etc.
• M. Saucepans, frying pans, etc.
• N. Plates and bowls.
• O. On the left: sieves, funnels, measuring jugs, etc. On the right: cups.
• P. Plastic containers, etc.
• Q. Spare dishwashing liquid and other cleaning things. Also a few other things such as flyspray.
• R. Cutlery.
• S. Utensils such as cheesegrater, can opener, wooden spoons, etc.
• T. Teatowels, dry cloths, stovetop cleaner, etc.
• U. Recipe books.