The Oasis (or Un-kitchen)

Since January 11, half of my bedroom has looked like this, or usually, even worse. See Ick! These are disgusting!.

This kitchen cabinet rehab from 2d hand cabinets to atypical kitchen needed to: 1) provide easy access for my monthly grocery shopper; 2) be moved out of sight and require very little footprint, except on monthly cooking days; 3) and keep me safe on post-allergic-reaction, brain fog days, when inadvertently turning on a burner could lead to a forgotten burner and a fire.

Cooking solution: A combination convection, regular oven, dehydrator, toaster oven on a formica-covered chest of drawers. This will  be used daily for preparing breakfast.

The top drawer will house a two-burner hot plate--mostly for cooking the eggs that Miss Winnie and I eat on Saturdays (I have heard eggs are good for dogs! they make their skin and fur healthy).

I then removed two drawers, turned the faces into doors, and installed a shelf where the bottom drawer had been. Here I will house the large and small crock pots in which  I cook monthly meals. Cookie sheets and pans also fit on the shelf. I use cast iron skillets, and plan to hang them on the cabin wall behind the cooking center.

New doors:
To create the doors, I glued drawer fronts and facing together, and
then, in the style of old doors,
glued & screwed a thin board diagonally across the back
for strength and support.   

Yes! Both the hot plates and oven fit as planned.
If I also need the crock pots (and rarely do),
I will have plenty of surfaces for them to safely sit on.

This cupboard got a new back and bottom shelf;
Randy's Do It Best Hardware cut the plywood
into sizes that fit my Nissan Versa. As with sewing,
drawing out out the pieces onto graph paper let me
figure out how wide and long pieces needed to be
to BOTH fit in my car AND maximize the sheet of plywood.
This cupboard will store dishes.

The Hoosier-type hutch was in the worst shape.
One and 1/2 shelves had to be replaced,
and part of the back. This will be the food prep center.
The top pulls out when more work space is needed, but pushes out of the way when not.
To rehab the upper section, I removed the metal flour canister,
 made two spice racks from scrap wood, and screwed ad glued them to the top left cupboard door,
and screwed cup hooks for measuring cups to the upper right door.
Knives will go in the drawer (not shown, but fits in the gap just below the workspace.). 

Because I cook just once a month, individual meals are frozen in a small chest freezer. I, therefore, only need a very small refrigerator, the top of which can serve as counter space, if needed. Red? Because it will cheer me up on blue days. And this retro-style fridge is in keeping with the Cabin-chic style I am going for.

Because I am allergic to mold, every surface, seen and not seen, got a coat of mold-proofing primer.

To bring the outside inside,

I took a snippet of juniper needles and berries to the hardware store, 

and chose green and blue paint that was just a bit lighter but in the same family

(log cabin walls can be very dark, hence the choice of a lighter hue). 

Finally, to create continuity between the bright red fridge and the cupboards,

and to cheer me on dreary days (symbolically and literally!), 

I painted bee balms on the cupboard bottoms.

I did this freehand, using a field guide as a reference. 

I used the green, blue, red, and yellows I had used elsewhere, 

and mixed them right on the cupboard doors. 

The green leaves got a splash of chokecherry "yellow" sunlight  

(matching a choke cherry I culled from the field).

 I added a bit of red to the green centers of the flowers to create the brownish centers and shadows.

For a hot beverage center, I used a corner cupboard.

Though the stained wood was beautiful, I mold-proofed it with primer anyway,

and then painted it to match everything else.

I was a bit sad painting over this beautiful wood, but mold-proofing was more important!

To see the final result (minus the fridge), see 

The Oasis--The Completed Unkitchen