New Built-In Dining Room Sideboard……

Back in the autumn I shared about how we store away

a lot of our stuff for seasonal entertaining, etc.

You can find that post here.

The people that built our cottage obviously did not

like to cook….our kitchen has very little storage,

a microscopic pantry, and hardly any counter space.

Hard to believe…because our home is an authentic

Acadian cottage…built to historic specifications.

Hard to believe the kitchens were not larger…

Acadians loved to cook!  They were French, after all.

So, even though we love our little French cottage

there was no where to store kitchen equipment, etc.

We came up with the idea to extend our dining room storage

solution and turn it into a built-in that spans the entire side

wall of our dining room…..which is right off the kitchen

and very convenient.

Handsome surprised me and built it for my birthday!

Get ready…there’s lots of pics.

I knew that we would have to completely empty the current

sideboard/storage….so I went ahead and pre-medicated:

4 Advil and a big glass of sweet tea. Whew!

All empty….we moved the current ‘table’ all the way down

to make room for the new addition.

We stained the top in Special Walnut.

And then began organizing all the stuff…and adding

the new items that needed a home.

Handsome hid a copper pipe for a curtain rod under the front

lip of the top and I made five linen panels to cover

everything up.  By having five panels there are several

slits that can slide open to access whatever we

need to get.

Here’s the finished product…

{the table….I haven’t finished with what will go on top.}

I’m loving it!  Both of us are organization freaks…..so not

being able to get to our food processor, Belgian waffle maker,

slow cooker, etc. was driving us crazy.

Now they are easily accessible.

OK…one big project down, 572 more to go. 🙂

The entire cost of this project was under $100.

It will also be fabulous for parties…..

16 feet of tabletop for food, drinks…whatever!

Thanks, Handsome….I love my birthday present!

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