Open Shelves in the Kitchen

No real progress in the kitchen over the past week-- although Doug did find a scrap piece of melamine to use as a makeshift countertop on the new cabinets he built.  If we have some time this weekend the plan is to get the upper cabinets for this wall built and installed.  Once that's done I'm going to transfer all the stuff from the uppers on the other side of the kitchen over to this side and the demo will begin!

I have always loved the look of open shelves in the kitchen... and I'm sure getting a taste of it in my own house these days!  As much as I love them-- open shelves on the bottom half of the kitchen can be a challenge with a toddler... you can only imagine the kind of destruction Eme can accomplish in just a few short seconds!  I just saw this picture on pinterest and had to laugh... while it's beautiful... I am QUITE certain that toddlers DO NOT live in this house...

via pinterest

I'm hoping to have some open shelves in my kitchen-- but NOT in a place that is in any way accessible to children.  That's gotta be the ultimate make-work project.

In the meantime-- anything that could be broken or potentially be dangerous to kids will not be stored on the lower shelves in my kitchen.  It's going to be an interesting few months living like this... I can guarantee that it's not gonna always look pretty...

Sidenote... I found more of my favorite wire baskets on sale at Superstore the other day!  knowing that I was going to be living in a kitchen with a whole lot of open shelves I bought six-- at $3.50 a piece-- that's a deal I couldn't pass up...

And one more new thing in the kitchen... I've been displaying my keepsake from our Italy trip on those open shelves...

On every major street corner in Italy there is someone selling tourist-y paintings-- some of them were nice-- but I kept thinking that most of them were a little cheesy.  When were were in Florence I found this fantastic hole-in-the-wall shop that sold the most beautiful antique prints-- some that were hundreds of years old.  I fell in love with so many prints-- but ended up buying this little engraving.  It's of the Florentine countryside-- done in 1827.  It came with the mat and fit perfectly into my laptop case-- and it looks good in my house :)  No cheesy paintings of the Coliseum for me!

Anyways... there's a little update on the status of the kitchen reno for you.  Have a good weekend everyone!