Cabinet Reveal

Doug finished the long-awaited kitchen cabinet on Thursday. Here it is in our basement after I painted it with our beach cottage trim color, Sherwin Williams sea salt:

Doug is a machinist, so measurements are a critical piece of his skillset, but we both kept looking at the cabinet and then at the pictures showing the space, worrying that it would be too wide.

So it was a relief to get it into the cottage kitchen on Saturday and discover that it was a perfect fit. Doug screwed it in place, I filled it up with plates, bowls, and casserole dishes and topped it off with a vintage bread box that I recently bought at a barn sale for $7.50:

We were both really glad that Doug hadn't built it any taller than he did--a top cabinet would have overwhelmed the space.  So we hung a small spice rack that I recently bought online (from Wayfair), which I think works just perfectly there.

Doug plans to add one more small shelf above the spice rack for bottled sauces.  We hung the spice rack low enough to leave space for that shelf, which I'm sure he'll whip up from some scraps he finds in the garage.

I can't believe our kitchen has gone from this:

to this in just three-and-a-half months:

I'm on the hunt for another picnic tin to replace the plastic box on the shelf, but we've learned that everything needs to be stored in mouse-proof containers--at least until Pax gets the rodent population under control.