One Of Those Great Mysteries - Where Do I Store It All?

As a tablescaper, I often get asked where do I store

all of my STUFF?

Well, today, you get to peek behind the scenes

(which we like to refer to as "the backside of

Disneyland" .  Where did we get that little saying

you might ask?  Have you ever been to Disneyland

and had the chance to peek behind a door as they

are letting a character walk away - the glamour

and the magic is all gone, and it is just cement

walls.)  So here are the hidden parts of the magic

of my tablescaping.

(No I am not going to show you one cabinet or

one closet and expect you to believe that is where I

store everything, so this tour will take a couple of minutes.)

Many of you have had the chance to see my kitchen remodel.

If you haven't you can see it at the top of my sidebar.  Just

click on it and you can see the messy before pictures and the

after pictures.

You can guess that we planned for a lot of storage for dinnerware

in the remodel.

This large baking cabinet stores pans and appliances

on the bottom, mixers and odds and ends on the

sides,

and goblets in the top.

The two cabinets that flank my stove hood

hold our every day items.

This side holds the plates and bowls,

and this side holds

the everyday glassware, mostly brought home from

Cabo (in rolling carry-ons.)

I bought the little shelves to extend my storage space at

Bed Bath and Beyond.

This secretary in the kitchen has the phone and mail

inside and then has 3 drawers underneath that house

odds and ends such as glue and tape, ribbons and

wrapping items and the final drawer holds placemats.

The top of the secretary holds more goblets.

There is secret storage on both sides of the front of the island

when you pull the barstools away. 

On this side we have plates and bowls.  I have everything from

one of a kind to a set of 60 for entertaining.

Only one set is formal china.  The rest are fun and

inexpensive plates.

The other side of the island houses a griddle, fondue pots, waffle

makers and that kind of appliances (they could always be moved

to make more room for plates!)

The wood burning pizza oven is surrounded by storage

also.  On the left bottom we store our proofing boxes

for the dough and pizza peels.  On the right side bottom

we store equipment to start the fires and cookbooks

that are not the prettiest.  In the middle we store

long-handled utensils for the fire, a fireplace vacuum

and my chocolate dipping machine.

We sneak in a little more glass storage behind the diamond

paned doors.

More goblets and pizza plates imported from Italy

(these plates come with no rim so you can use a pizza

cutter easily on them) are on this side.

The left side holds the cookbooks that are nicer to look at.

Between the two storage spots for cookbooks, I have over

200 of them.  I have been buying them for

over 30 years now.  Many of them are those tempting little

items that call out your name at the grocery store check out stand.

Now we move into the formal dining room.

Large bowls, platters and chargers are stored in here.

There are more chargers elsewhere.

This tall red cabinet

has lots of tall glassware, candle holders and odd shaped

items that don't stack well.

Oh, no, more?  We now move down to the basement where

we have a little kitchenette.

More plate storage is here. 

Four drawers hold sets of flatware that we don't

use everyday.

Here are my red ones, they get the top drawer!

Ok, here is the real workhorse of the storage places.

This is a closet that didn't start out as dinnerware storage.

It is stacked full of plates and large items.

(Hope those shelves hold!!)

I have to say that because we live along the Wasatch

Front fault line, I do try to protect much of my stash

from being lost in an earthquake

by tying cabinet door fronts together and using a

bungee cord on the doors of this closet.  I also

intend to install child safety locks on the upstairs ones.

These items were recommended after the California

earthquake as plates and items will go shooting out of

cabinets during an earthquake.  I would hate to lose

everything.

Hope you enjoyed your tour......

 now you know where it all is!

This makes tablescaping possible

and more organized

at Purple Chocolat Home.

I will be exposing the insides of these cabinets

at

Wow Us Wednesdays

Tablescapes Thursday

Feathered Nest

Favorite Things

ps  My niece who lived with us for a year just moved

out in January.  She told me that I could now fill her

room with plates if I wanted!  She loved to give me a

hard time about plates.