Today, I am thrilled to say, that the last of the kitchen projects is done! Just a year ago, we didn’t even have a kitchen. I told you all about it in All I Wanted for Christmas was a Kitchen.
Over the past year, we debated what to do with the old dumbwaiter. It was just a hole down into the basement with a door, since all of the parts were gone. We thought about making it functional again by putting in a new dumbwaiter to transfer wine up from the cellar, but we decided to be practical because we really needed pantry space more than we needed a cool gadget.
Recently, David just decided to get this project done, so he dragged me to Home Depot to buy Sheetrock. (For me, going to a big box hardware store ranks next to going to the dentist on my un-fun things to do list!) Instead of fixing the plaster, he just put Sheetrock over it. Then he added shelves and completed them with old trim from our stash.
We wanted to keep the character of the old dumbwaiter in the new kitchen. Back when Darrin was completing the kitchen, we had him add the framed-in opening at the top. This was where we were going to show off the gear mechanism of a new dumbwaiter. By turning this into a pantry, we no longer needed a mechanism. However, we found a lighting fixture on Etsy that uses an old pulley as a steampunk hanger. The Edison bulb light is just the right style for this house. David also found an old industrial switch from the U.K. as the final touch.
Finally, I couldn’t leave you without one last set of before-and-after photos of the kitchen.
Our Cranbury House 