Until today, I have been living with a gigantic manhole above my fridge. It didn't used to be there... in fact, the gigantic hole used to be a very pleasant double door cabinet and some custom built wine racks.
But once upon a time (about 8 weeks ago), I decided I needed a bigger fridge. I really did, ours wasn't coping with the 7 litres of milk and million loaves of bread I now have on stock at all times to cope with my 15 month-old's rapidly expanding culinary demands.
One Saturday whilst hubby was at work, I did the rounds of the major appliance centres. After locating the fridge of my dreams (it offered me freshly crushed ice!) I went home to ensure we had a big enough space to accommodate it.
This is where my story gets a tiny teeny bit embarrassing...
Being unable to locate my tape measure, I resorted to measuring the fridge space with... um... a 30cm ruler.
I know.
Then, when hubby got home from work I dragged him to the appliance store to convince him we couldn't live without said fridge. He was surprisingly easy to convince and (after I ensured him I'd measured the space) we paid our deposit and left the store. When we got home, we eyed the available space and hubby thought he'd double check the size of the space for himself.
hmph.
He found the tape measure (what was it doing in the laundry?!) and yep, there was sufficient width. Depth? Check. Height? ummmmmmmm.
THE FRIDGE WAS 1.5 INCHES HIGHER THAN THE CAVITY.
It was not a pretty moment in our marriage. I believe certain profanities were used within Fern's earshot that neither of us are proud of now.
We called the store. After an hour of research they called back to say there were only 2 fridges that would fit into the space, and they were each 100L less than the one we had chosen and there was no bloody water/ ice maker dammit!
Eventually, hubby realised the only possible solution was to completely rip apart half the kitchen (installed brand new two years ago) and to sacrifice the overhead cabinets and custom wine racks for the new fridge.
Long story short. We did it. The fridge is in. It makes great ice! And we've lived with a gigantic hole ever since.
Until today. When I got a shelf installed to fix the mess. Here is the old space after we ripped it out:
... and the new:
Plus, I've added something a little creative to the space... can you see?
Here's a closeup (apologies about bad photography -- took pics whilst cooking dinner tonight!):
I'd planned on lining the new shelf with wallpaper, but wallpaper is tres expensive, especially when you only require a tiny amount... when I found this giftwrapping paper at
Kikki-K, I liked it immediately -- my husband is a cycling fanatic, the colour would tie in with the kitchen and the quality of the paper was really good. Plus, at $6.95 per sheet I figured if it looked awful it was a small price to pay! I lined both the new shelf along with the existing cube shelves to tie it all in together. I did it professionally - you know, with scissors and blutac. And I'm really happy with the result!
What do you think??
ps. We got something else installed today which I am even more excited about... something that has transformed our living space! Wanna see? But I'll post about that one tomorrow. x
