Misguided Kitchen

The Kitchen

Taking “Freestanding” to a whole new level.

Here's an interesting concept. What if you are living in a space that was originally not meant to be lived in? A barn, a garden shed, an industrial space, and you have NO kitchen. That's right. No built in cabinets, no fridge, no stove, and no nothing. Or worse yet, you have to rip out the old cabinets because of rot or mold, and you need a kitchen to replace them with little or no budget.

People who either choose to or are forced to exist in this type of space under these circumstances may feel quite limited in their options. Conventionally speaking, they kind of are. Even the cheapest built in cabinets on the market that you install yourself will run at least a grand for an apartment sized kitchen. However, where conventional thinking fails, Unconventional thinking can save your day, your sanity, and your budget.

First things first. Make sure your living space has working plumbing, and outlets in the area where you want your kitchen. You need a drain and two water lines, if you want hot and cold water. You will also need a water heater. This will probably require a plumber, so take care of that first.

OK. Now you need to ask yourself, what style you are. Why? Even if you eventually plan to replace this unconventional kitchen with a built-in one, wouldn't it be nice to have a space that is attractive to you in the mean time? Your answer to this style question could change the materials with which you plan to make your unconventional kitchen with.

Once you answer the style question, it's really time to think outside the box, or in this case, the cabinet. In the most rudimentary terms, you need a place to prepare, cook, wash, and store food and kitchen items. Here are three styles and examples of unconventional kitchens.
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THE INDUSTRIAL KITCHEN:
Here is a really fun style, and one of my favorites. This particular example uses steel office furniture. An industrial designed kitchen really lends itself to the artist's loft or any rather raw space in an industrial building or even a garage or workshop. In this case we used bold primary colors to add light and whimsy, and reduce the severity of the furniture.

File cabinets are a wonderful storage element. They are sturdy, strong, take a lot of abuse, and have deep drawers that fully pull out for easy access. The added bonus is they are easily accessible in salvage and thrift situations. As offices begin to store their data in digital format, they often don't need the file cabinets and get rid of them. Our examples were found on line in a local Metro area for the combined price of $45 (and the largest one was FREE). Thanks to the computer age, old steel desks are also being replaced with lighter, more ergonomic office furniture. This example was $15.

The pegboard is a very versatile medium (4x8 foot sheet for $15). First, it's readily accessible in any hardware store, lumberyard, or home improvement store, along with the hooks to hang just about anything. Secondly, as a design element, it continues the clean lines, and industrial finishes required in the industrial style. In this case we stained it a darker brown to match the Formica counter on the steel desk. We used a larger piece to hang towels, a cutting board, and a large mixing bowl. We used the remaining pegboard as a frame for artwork, held in place with Plexiglas and mirror clips, also of the industrial style of exposing assembly hardware and slick clean lines.

The single or bar sink, available at any hardware store, plumbing supply store, or home improvement store, is retrofitted into the top of the desk just like a conventional sink cabinet. The desk itself is put on risers to increase its height to an ergonomic 36”. The two drawer file cabinets are also elevated with 4x6 pieces of lumber painted with the same color as the cabinets.

The entire color scheme was pulled from a vinyl shower curtain selected from a local discount department store for $16. We cut up the shower curtain and made a small curtain to hide the sink plumbing and trash can. This is held in place with a simple tension rod costing $3. We took pieces of the shower curtain and wrapped several of the file cabinets, taping it in place from the inside with duct tape to unify the look and coordinate the colors. Total cost (excluding appliances, and plumbing services): $206.
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THE ECLECTIC KITCHEN:
The word “eclectic” means, “mixed or combined”. In this case we have combined industrial elements with organic elements to create this warm casual kitchen.

The acrylic laundry sink is flanked on either side by industrial boltless shelving units (36"x18"x72" $40) with 3/8-inch particle board inserts. These shelves are very versatile, as they have no screws to lose, and can be configured as two smaller selves or one big shelf, as you will see later on this page. The tops are pre-made laminate counter tops available stock at any home store and are screwed onto the top piece of particle board with shallow screws. The great thing about the counters is they are completely finished with no assembly and can be reused either in a built in kitchen later or in other areas of the house where an extra counter would be handy.

The fronts of the shelves have simple bamboo blinds attached to them (36"x60" $10). Once the bottom of the standard 60” blind is cut to fit the 36” area, the excess of the blind can be used elsewhere in the design. In this case, we used excess blind as a backing for our reproduction Victorian Botany Illustration purchased from a home accessories store for $10. The colors in the illustration were the inspiration for the color palette used in the open shelving made from ¾ inch thick particle board with standard shelf brackets purchased at the local hardware store or home improvement center.

The floral concept was repeated in the vinyl shower curtain purchased from the discount department store for $16 held in place with a tension rod, as well as in the ivy on the top open shelf. Total cost for this kitchen (excluding appliances and plumbing services): $270. Note: If the Painted MDF shelving does not suit your taste, consider MDF shelving with a Formica surface to match your countertops. Contact paper in a complimenting pattern might also be a suitable alternative.
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THE COUNTRY KITCHEN:
We carry the term “country” back to its more utilitarian roots. Old farmhouse kitchens rarely had built in cabinets prior to World War One. Instead, freestanding cupboards, hutches, and, yes, dressers were used to store various items of need. This type of design lends itself quite nicely to the barn-converted-to-home type building, or garden shed turned into the guesthouse or mother-in-law apartment.

In this example, we really went rustic with the sink, using a galvanized steel bushel basket as a sink with frost-free or laundry faucets with brass hose bibs. There are two to do both hot and cold water. We've placed this on a used drop leaf table found in the local classifieds for $40 and painted a country blue. The back leaf of the table facing the wall would need to be removed for the drain (if you have the accessibility, a galvanized steel laundry tub on a stand would also work well in this design for about $120).

To the right of the table is a lovely dresser. Dressers are very utilitarian, and usually easy to find used. In this case ours was $15, and painted a nice green. To the left of the table is that industrial boltless shelving unit used in the Eclectic Kitchen. Here, we stacked all the shelves into one unit, and draped the entire cabinet in a bright floral flat sheet purchased at a discount department store for $12. We purchased 2 vinyl tablecloths in a contrasting color and similar floral pattern ($5 each), and used it to cover the table, dresser top, make tiebacks for the sheet, and made a small valance for the window.

We also acquired two-cup hangers, a French country clock, and a country calendar. Total cost of this kitchen (excluding appliances and plumbing services): $257
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