I want our house to be finished so badly. I worked on it for so long and had a lot of fun. And like I said before, even though our plans have changed drastically from what we originally planned, I think things are working out perfectly. Our bedroom ended up being in a completely different location than originally planned. The extension we are planning is significantly smaller than the extension we originally planned. But when it’s all said and done, I think it will be perfect for us.
But I’m ready to get it done. I want the inside of our house complete. Of course I will always repeat things. I can’t help myself. But there’s a pretty drastic difference between buying new pillows or trying a new color on some cabinets and tearing a room down to its foundations to remodel it.
So I’ve been trying to think about how I can achieve this goal sooner rather than later. I started with big plans and the mindset of a person with an endless budget. But we don’t have an endless budget. And since I craft as much as I can, things tend to take longer to finish. Also, I’ve been running out of breath lately. I just want to be done. I want to enjoy our house and not have our house constantly be a project. (Note that I’m only talking about the interior. I think I’ll be working on the exterior, landscaping and all those outdoor projects until my last breath and I’m actually looking forward to that.)
With this whole goal in mind, I tried to scale back my plans. You all already know that. Instead of moving the location of our kitchen to what is now the breakfast room and pantry, I decided to leave it where it is now.
I would like to get new kitchen cabinets and countertops, which I have already written about in previous posts. But if that never happens, I’ll be happy with what I have.
And with this change of plans, that means I’ll be keeping the studio bathroom too. When the plan was to move the kitchen, the studio bathroom was to be converted into a walk-in pantry. But if the kitchen stays where it is, so will the studio bathroom. I’ll give it a quick redesign and this will be it. I had already started redesigning the kitchen, but stopped when the plan to move the kitchen arose. So I closed the door and left it in this unfinished state.
But here too, I have already shared all of this in previous posts. I wasn’t quite sure if I was going to keep the pantry or not. When we do the addition, I want to have a door from the new family room to the dining room, and that door needs to go to where the freezer currently sits in the pantry.
But after thinking about it for a long time and listening to your opinion, I decided to keep the pantry too. It needs a little tweaking as I still want a door right there. So that means the freezer needs to be moved to the other side of the pantry to clear that wall. And that’s okay. I use the freezer much more than the cabinets on the opposite side of the pantry. And I honestly can’t even remember the last time I used the microwave. It’s probably been two years. I just don’t use microwaves, so losing it wouldn’t be a big problem for me.
One thing I could do would be to widen the door between the dining room and the pantry, since the pantry will not only be a pantry, but also a pass-through door to get from the family room to the dining room and kitchen. But I won’t completely remove the walls, leaving space on both sides of the pantry door.
This room was never really used. For years I have had these benches on either side and artwork above them. But these benches were never actually used. And as I mentioned, I’ve been poaching things from this area to use in other areas of the house for a while now. It started with the French doors, which I removed and then used to build this closet for our bathroom.
And then I moved the artwork into my new closet.
And one of these benches will be used in the foyer of our bedroom suite.
I’ll probably give the other bench away. I can’t imagine where I could use it and I don’t need the mess.
That leaves me with the two areas on either side of the pantry door that are now empty. And I’m not quite sure what to do with it. I would just leave the floor space open and hang some art on the walls on either side and call it good. Or I could actually add something useful on either side, like two nice cabinets.
When I walk in this direction, I imagine something like this arched display case on either side of the door leading to the pantry. This is from Wayfair (affiliate link).
But I also love the look of this china cabinet, also from Wayfair (affiliate link). However, I don’t love this color. And I would never pay that much for a china cabinet, especially since I would like to buy two of them. But I love the look of the doors and I like the overall style.
So I’m not really sure. I’m just starting to think about how I want to use these areas. Maybe I don’t even need more storage space, especially since I’m keeping the pantry. And maybe keeping these areas open and just putting artwork on the walls would be a better option because it makes the room feel larger and more open and also leaves more room for a dining table. I plan on purchasing a round table that expands into a large oval if we need more seating.
The funny thing is that sometimes as I write these posts, I’m actually working out solutions in my head as I write. It’s as if the process of writing down my thoughts helps provide clarity. And as of writing this post, I’m now leaning towards keeping these areas open and just adding some pretty artwork on either side of the door. I really don’t think I need more storage space and I like the idea of the room feeling more open. Right?
I think for some reason I’ve fallen into the trap of always thinking I need more storage. But I have the pantry. I still have empty shelves in my walk-in closet. And we’ll soon have an entire storage room in our bedroom suite. I don’t know that I need to add more storage here, especially if it makes the room feel a lot smaller.
I also have to keep in mind that I have this huge closet right on the other side of my studio door.
Not only do I have extra storage space in this closet, but it is also the same wall as the wall with the pantry door. This means that if I had the studio door open (which I always do), I would have three cabinets lined up on the same wall. That seems a bit much to me.
So there it is. While writing this blog post, I was pretty sure I was going to buy two cabinets to flank the pantry door and talked myself out of it. Blogging is sometimes my therapy. Now I just need to find some beautiful and colorful art pieces to match the picture ledges in the room, because these are here to stay.
