Sibling Cutlery

I’ve been busy over my long, unexpected hiatus. I finished two honors theses – one in creative writing and one in psychology, graduated from the University of Michigan, and packed up all my things and moved to Los Angeles. I’ve been in this apartment for less than two weeks, but Jamie and I have settled in pretty well. Our new kitchen is cute and cheerful, and I couldn’t wait to share it with you all. 

We looked at about ten apartments, and this kitchen captured my heart immediately. I couldn’t help imagining my bright orange stand mixer sitting there on that pretty blue tile countertop.

There was, of course, no guarantee that we’d get the place, so I tried not to fall in love too much, but it wasn’t easy. This kitchen has everything I was hoping for but wasn’t expecting to get: a gas range, plenty of space, a window over the sink, plus an innate, irresistible charm. Over the past week, I’ve been working at making it my dream kitchen – as much as Craigslist and Amazon gift certificates from friends and family would allow.

You’ll notice that, although there is a place to hang my apron, there isn’t a huge amount of counter space. It’s workable, sure, but not quite enough for big projects. We’ve got a dining room table I could work at, which you’ll see in a minute, but I also started looking for some sort of cart or island to give me a little more workspace.

I found this cute mahogany bar cart on Craigslist. The top space extends, and that bottom shelf is actually a removable cutting board and basket.

I lined my shelves with vinyl contact paper to help keep them clean and pretty. It was quite a project to apply – I ended up crawling entirely into this cabinet as it goes a fair way back – but it was worth it to cover up that old, worn wood.

Our dining table is an Ikea original. They only had three of the chairs we wanted, so we’ll be going back at some point, which I’m not complaining about a bit. We were surprised to find that this table actually came with four chairs, though, so now we have a closet full of extras that we don’t really like. But they’ll certainly be useful for when we have company.

Possibly my favorite part of the tour, I now have a cabinet full of Fiestaware! I have one more place setting in shamrock coming from Amazon any day now, and I could use a mixing bowl or two, but the cabinet is otherwise complete.

I decided to go with eight colors for eight place settings. Since most of our furniture is black or gray, I wanted to accent it with touches of bright color. This dinnerware goes a long way toward that. It’s gorgeous, and opening every box of it was like Christmas.

Our drinking glasses mainly consist of my collection of pint glasses. I like the uniformity of the form with the variety of designs. Between the glasses and the colorful dinnerware, we set a playful table. I’m hoping that all the colors will make for some great food photos.

I’m really looking forward to getting back to posting on Sibling Cutlery. Since I’m currently unemployed, I should certainly have the time, if not the money, to post more regularly than before. Look forward to some budget meals from me soon, as well as some great desserts and a look at my new neighborhood, which is full of restaurants and shops that I’m eager to share.