Ugly Kitchen Quick Fix: Open Shelving

Last month I shared some photos of our super ugly kitchen. Then on a whim I decided to freshen the room up with paint (you can read that post here) since we had left it completely untouched since we moved in. 

A fresh coat of paint gave me the bug to see what other easy, inexpensive improvements we could make to the room, knowing that in about a year, we might be ready to tackle a full-on kitchen renovation.  

One of the main problems in the kitchen was the layout of the appliances on one wall, as well as the lack of storage. As you can see from this picture, one wall on the left is full of cabinetry, and the wall on the right has none. 

On the empty wall sat an ancient rolling dishwasher from Eatons (with a microwave on top), a fridge in the middle of the wall, and empty space on the other side of the fridge which we tried to fill up with an Ikea kitchen cart. The layout completely sucked. The fridge looked like a monstrosity, the Ikea cart looked out of place in the far corner, and the dishwasher, well, was an ancient old dishwasher.

On our recent road trip to Hamilton, we stopped at the Ikea in Burlington to see if we could find an inexpensive solution to our ugly, inefficient wall in the kitchen.

I had seen these wall shelves a million times before but never considered them for our space.

Grundtal Wall Shelf - Ikea - $29.99

Grundtal Rail - Ikea - $8.99

So we went for it and picked up two wall shelves, one rail, and some hooks. We decided that these would be one of our Christmas gifts for eachother. Plus, Alex always likes putting stuff together on Boxing Day. :)

When we got home we moved the fridge to the far right of the wall where it had never been before. That left a large section of wall for us to install the shelves.

This was the layout before:

Here is my very own handyman installing the shelves.

Now that they are up and installed I am in total, utter LOVE. I cutified the shelves with items from all around the house (some practical, some decorative). This is now what you see on that bare wall in the kitchen: 

Ooooh, aaaaah, so fancy compared to before. Note: Alex has since gone and messed up my cute arrangement by jamming a cheese grater on the bottom rail when I wasn't looking.

I really am in love. Stay tuned for my next kitchen post where I'll share how we scored some extra counterspace. I'm also seeing new knobs in my future somewhere........

{Note: I forgot some details in this post and added them here.}

Sharing here:

Tuesday's Treasures @ My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia Nifty Thrifty Tuesday @ Coastal Charm, Metamorphosis Monday @ Between Naps on the Porch, DIY Project Parade @ The DIY Show-Off, Transformation Thursday @ The Shabby Creek Cottage, Feature Yourself Friday @ Fingerprints on the Fridge, Frugal Friday @ The Shabby Nest