RE:think

Hey! I completed this project a few years ago, but it is actually clean enough to photograph it and post it right now thanks to the Spring cleaning bug. There's no reason that you can't make your space work for you. When we first moved into our house, we had this tall pantry cupboard, which was nice, but not a good use of space for us, as one whole side was reserved just for aprons. None of my kitchen experiments are that "gourmet" if you will to require me to use a whole lot of aprons and none of my clothing is that "runway" either. Usually, when I'm cooking or baking it's because my family is hungry and I'm sporting jeans and a tee. One thing that I am adamant about is having our computer in a public area. Our children are small right now and in the rare occasion that they are on the computer, they need our help. When they get old enough to be on the computer by themselves, they will need our supervision, so now where to put that computer...

So, here's how to do it: First, you need to use a jigsaw and cut the divider out. Be sure to do this at an angle to support the weight of the overhead cupboard. In my case, the dividers above the computer were already there for storing cookie sheets, but they are great for storing phone books, incoming mail, outgoing mail, and whatever else you might want to store there. Then, I used the remainder of the divider (the part that I cut out of the cupboard) to cut a desk to the dimensions I wanted. There's no real reason you couldn't make it the entire width of the cupboard, but I have folding bar stools that I store in the other side so I wanted a long space for those. I used a keyboard slide attached to a small piece of shelving as my sliding keyboard tray. Then, on the left side, I used regular shelf brackets to place a shelf under my computer for all my electronic devices. I also put a power strip inside my cupboard, drilled a small hole in the bottom of the cupboard so that the the cord could come out the side and be plugged into a nearby outlet. I am most likely going to wire an outlet right into the cupboard, but it hasn't happened yet. On the right side, I used regular shelf brackets to hang a shelf for filing boxes and a CD box to hold CD roms and other media. I hung a basket underneath for mail that needs to be sorted and I have a garbage can for the right side for office garbage. Because desk space is limited, which I love because there is less room for junk all over the place, I hung these containers up on the cupboard wall. A paper cup for pencils. An envelope box to store my envelopes and a Ziploc bag for notepads. Eventually, these will be covered in coordinating scrapbook paper to make it a little prettier.

Remember that all it takes is a little bit of Re-thinking to make your space work for you!