Kitchen Makeover: Useful But Ugly Edition

Hopefully you had a chance to check out my post about how MIL gave my kitchen a makeover, making it look a little too much like hers. Actually, let's study the photo of what she did to my kitchen, shall we?

I'd like you to focus more on the counter on the right side. Nestled amidst all the crap she's thrown on there, we have a rice cooker (closest to the refrigerator) with a fruit basket that is instead filled with snacky things like raisins and such for Raelynn; an electric kettle; a very large crock pot that I still have no idea how to use (MIL bought it for us as soon as she found out I was pregnant again so she could make me eat this Chinese bean soup every day...oh joy!); and not in the frame, a small oven. So on this right side counter, there wasn't much available real estate to play around with. I keep my counters clean and organized but with MIL intruding daily, it became a nightmare to keep free of extra crap. She's so random too. See that ugly purse by the refrigerator, under Raelynn's apple picture? We have a coat rack along the wall when you enter our home and she NEVER uses it. She just dumps everything everywhere. Even her coat! She never hangs it up. She puts it on Raelynn's toy box. And don't get me started about that dirty bag on the floor. Urgh!

Anyway, I'm showing you this mess again so you can see what my loving and wonderful husband did to make my kitchen better. Now, this kitchen will never be featured in Better Home and Gardens, but we've done the best with it that we could. What did Jeremy do to our kitchen to improve it? He added a shelf above the right side counter!

Let's check it out...

 Well, would you look at that! It's orderly! And clean! That's because the troll hasn't been here since January 1st. My kitchen finally smells nice again. AND! I finally have room to work on both counters. What a blessing! You might be wondering why we couldn't just stash the stuff from the counters into our cabinets. That's an excellent question. All the cabinets are already full of dishes and such. There's no more room in there to put anything else. Plus, we use the rice cooker, the electric kettle, the crock pot and the oven daily so it's kind of annoying to put them away. My husband's solution was very practical. And helpful. But it was also kind of ugly. Come see...

We put this shiny purple tablecloth on top of the shelf to hide its' ugliness. Just look at this thing. It looks like something MIL would pick out from a greasy Chinese restaurant that closed due to rat infestation. My husband paid only 15 yuan for this thing, which is between $2 and $3 US. What a bargain! Not that I was imagining him coming home with some fancy mahogany floating shelf. I just wasn't imagining something that looks like it was left in the dumpster. I realize it's very utilitarian and all but it is just so fug. I am so happy we have this tablecloth to unfug it up a bit. 

Pardon the extra power strip, but here is the shelf from a more front view. It really is an improvement, even if it's not going to win any awards for beauty. More counter space? I'll take it! And yes, that is a Snoopy Snowcone Machine on top of our refrigerator. Try not to be too jealous. Mental note to myself that I must find some flavoring so I can make Raelynn some snow cones during this winter break. 

Now here's our counter below the shelf, with plenty of room to work. I am showing you this because YOU KNOW...you just KNOW that my troll-in-law will cover it with garbage and leave food out on it for days once she comes over again. You'll see. She'll think, "Oh boy! More room to leave out luo bo!" She sucks. 

To the right of the shelf and the oven, here is Jeremy's stupid world map. I hate this fucking thing. Can you see how weathered it is? It used to be over our old stupid wooden couch (you can see it there in this post). He moved it into the kitchen a while back (I have photos but I'm too tired and pregnant to go leafing through my bazillions of bitchy posts to locate it). When the shelf went up, I was so happy because I thought the map was gone! Oh but no! I just didn't see it hiding behind the door. Well, since it's fairly hidden, hopefully no one else will notice it either. The only thing interesting about this world map is that because it came from over here, they show the map in reverse from what we are used to seeing in the US. We'd normally see the US on the left side of the map, but not here.

In any event, stay tuned for the next time my in-laws visit. I will document the desecrating of my kitchen and we can marvel at just how she can clutter up counter space, and floor space too.