Country Life Experiment

Simple Country Living

My "Country Kitchen"

I’ve had a few questions asking me about my kitchen and how much storage I have. I guess most people think that because I cook a lot and I’m living in a country house, that I have the big country kitchen to go with it. I try to keep it real, so here is my kitchen. 
As you can see it was designed in the 1940’s, and has had bits and pieces added together since then. It’s also very green (as is the entire house). The kitchen is in the middle of the house and has 3 doors meaning that it is a thoroughfare. It is also quite dark because the windows look into the enclosed veranda.
The original bench is very narrow and low, and the cupboards are small. The freezer is packed, and there is another smaller one in the laundry.

We installed the central bench ourselves as a temporary measure so that we had an actual work space. You can see the 2 buckets on the bench – one each for the chickens and pigs. The lack of storage means that my Tupperware containers sit on the mantel piece of the old fire place.

The original fire place has been blocked up and there is a cupboard where I keep all my saucepans, and baking trays (it is jam packed). Also occasionally I hear rodents scrabbling around in the blocked up chimney which freaks me out.
This is my under bench storage “system” (if you can call it that!). I got these old filing cabinets at Vinnies and they hold all our baking ingredients (except the stuff in Tupperware). The drawers have all our utensils.

The cupboards are narrow and you need an engineering degree to put all the plates in so they stack well.

The ever breeding Tupperware I keep in the wire baskets (which used to be in our wardrobe) and then the cling wrap and foil etc in the top. The big cupboard has most of the food in it, but I also have a couple of shelves cleared out of a cupboard in the spare room for all the jams, tomato sauce etc that we made earlier this year.

Should we decide to stay,  I have big plans for the huge country kitchen and walk in pantry, but until then I will continue to manage with my mish mash of a kitchen.

Hope that answers some of the questions about the kitchen. If you have any other questions about the country life, let me know!

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Comments

  1. Nat - Muddy Farmwife says

    Looks really comfy and homely Jo with it's old style features. Glad I'm not the only one with a miss mash kitchen though. I dream of one day getting a real pantry, for now I make do!

    Reply

  3. Anne @ Domesblissity says

    That looks like a lovely, homely kitchen Jo. I was going to say how lovely it would've been to open up the old fireplace until you mentioned that word 'rodents'. Yikes! My biggest fear in life. Best keep it blocked up. LOL

    Anne xx

    Reply

  4. Bushgovo says

    Love it. Looks like many of the station kitchens I have worked and lived in. Certainly not the country style type that many people assosiate with country life. Yours is REAL

    Reply

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