Cleaning & Organizing

Mini Makeover: My Kitchen Shelves

posted on February 11, 2014 | by Amanda Holstein

Lately I’ve been on a bit of a makeover kick. With the help of my friend Ashley, we rearranged my living room (post coming soon!), redesigned my bookshelf, and all it’s done is given me the motivation to makeover more of my apartment. One quick fix were my kitchen shelves. After moving in, I never really took the time to make my kitchen look as pretty as the rest of my place – that’s probably a reflection of my lack of cooking skills ;). But once I could see the potential, I had to do something about it.

Although my kitchen is pretty tiny, there was a perfect spot for shelves so I got these great shelves from Urban Outfitters way back when I moved in. I didn’t give them much love and just sort of placed whatever I needed on them. But after looking at them with fresh eyes, I realized they could look so much better. So mini makeover it is! Here’s what they looked like before and after:

Here are the main things I focused on with this mini makeover:

Choose a color scheme

Before I hadn’t really chosen a color scheme. There were blues, yellows, reds – the look was all over the place. I decided I really liked the more blue hues and wanted to get rid of the warmer colors. I also love the pops of white. So I got rid of the colors I didn’t like and moved them into cabinets. I even spray painted my KitchenAid from yellow to white…crossing fingers that it still works okay!

Get organizational pieces

The tray I got from Z Gallerie was the key to keeping these shelves organized. With all of the random foods, spices, etc., I needed a place to house them all and a tray was the perfect solution. I also use clear containers to hold pasta, rise, and granola. I love how the different textures of the foods look amongst everything else.

Display the pretty things

Just because these are functional shelves, doesn’t mean you can’t have a few pieces on there just for show. I’ve had this wine bottle for months. It was just too pretty to throw away. And now it looks great on my shelves! I also got a couple more blue pieces that I could potentially fill with spices or oils. I even decided to display my prettier dishes (these are from Anthropologie), because why hide them behind a closed cabinet?