The Fabulife: Kitchen Reorg: Cooking in a New York City Apartment #2

Friday, August 12, 2011

Kitchen Reorg: Cooking in a New York City Apartment #2

I emerged from a small, dark kitchen triumphant!

In my continuing series of how to make the best of inhumanely sized kitchens, I'm posting the fix for incredibly terrible kitchen number #2.

When the year was up, I decided to leave my pretty little studio with the oven-challenged kitchen and look for something larger. This search actually led to a shift in career focus. I ended up in another city doing an entirely different job for 4 months. You would think that would mean my search for a reasonably sized kitchen would end....alas, I faced a new challenge.

My next apartment was in a national historic building, was 900 square feet, another faux fireplace with the most adorable-ly tacky brass treasure chest filled with "burning" glass "embers" that actually threw heat, a claw foot bath tub and tudor style windows with leaded glass......and a kitchen that had clearly been fit into a closet.

I'm really not lying about that last point. There were hinges on the door and everything. You couldn't open a cupboard door and the fridge or oven at the same time. I've never seen an oven like this - it had two elements, and was about 18 inches deep by 2 1/2 feet wide. It could actually fit a commercial pan, but this was at the expense of the sink..which was only about 6 inches in width and depth and length. I couldn't fit a dish into it.

This is a shot from down the hall. If you look to the right you can see the oven. The kitchen in this apartment was literally 3x4 feet before the appliances were installed.

So what to do, what to do....

I had to buy a portable dishwasher. I found one in the pennysaver for about $300. I bought a floating shelf from Ikea to hold my bowls and used an old card table the dishwasher to set up a kitchen set up area around the corner in the more than spacious living/dining area.

Unfortunately, I only took photos when I was packing to move..so these aren't the most amazing pics (particularly because I had just finished dinner).